// operations executive · 16 years multi-unit · san mateo, ca

I rebuild operations
into systems
that outlast me.

I take on one operating engagement per year. Full-time VP or Head of Operations at a multi-unit operator in the $50M to $200M revenue band, or fractional Head of Operations for a 6-to-12 month turnaround. Sixteen years of practice. $36M direct P&L + $30M fractional operating oversight across restaurant, hospitality, and franchise retail. Currently entertaining conversations for 2026.

Start the conversation Read the research notes
Portrait of Kiyong (Eric) Lee
VP+ · Bay Area · Remote-friendly
years_operating: 16+
units_run: 21 franchise
states_managed: 6
location: San Mateo, CA
new // 160 operator field notes on multi-unit ops, margins, turnarounds & hospitality
// 01 — writing

Field notes
from the operator's seat.

One hundred and sixty pieces across eight topics. Turnaround work, P&L margins, leading field teams, running operations inside big-box retailers, and building the systems that make gains hold. New pieces published on a weekly rhythm.

Browse the full blog →
The Rescue Job

The First 90 Days of a Multi-Unit Turnaround

Three underperforming locations. Eleven months. Roughly $4.9M in operating profit recovered. The sequence that actually works.
The Rescue Job

Behind the $4.9M: How Three Underperforming Units Came Back

The flagship turnaround story, month by month. What worked, what nearly went wrong, and what would happen differently next time.
Opening Day

The Twelve-Opening Playbook

Twelve new-unit openings across four years. The T-minus timeline, the mistakes at each stage, and what actually stuck.
Browse all 160 pieces →

// the positioning

Operations is the product.

For sixteen years I've taken operations that depend on heroics and rebuilt them into systems that compound. Inside restaurants. Franchise portfolios. Distribution networks. Mission-driven nonprofits. The work transfers because the operating principles are the same.

Diagnose variance. Install controls. Build managers who can run the system without me. Measure what the business actually requires. Move on to the next layer.

I'm now operating at Director level in a nonprofit setting. The next seat is VP+ at an operating company that needs the same discipline at a larger scale.

// 02 — the scoreboard

The operating record.

Four numbers that carry the operating range. Multi-state. Multi-unit. Multi-year. Real P&L authority.

$ metrics --career
$36M
P&L Ownership
Hana Group franchise portfolio. Multi-state regional operations.
21
Franchise Units
Inside Whole Foods, Walmart, Sam's Club, and Target host environments.
6
States
CA · NV · HI · MT · WY · TX. Zero penalties on six critical incidents per quarter.
16+
Years Operating
Hospitality, franchise retail, distribution, and mission-driven work.
// 03 — flagship transformations

Three case studies.

The three engagements that carry the operating method most clearly. Hospitality reset. Multi-state franchise portfolio. Independent practice scaling operators with AI as infrastructure. Each links to the full case study.

$ work --flagship
Hospitality · Operational Reset TRANSFORMATION · 01

Zareen's: Michelin-recognized $30M Bay Area restaurant and catering group. $4.9M profit turnaround.

Served as Fractional Head of Operations & Turnaround Lead. Led expansion from three to five locations. Redesigned operations during rapid growth: SOPs, training, and accountability metrics for a workforce of 215. Financial controls that improved audit readiness. Workflow and labor redesign that lifted productivity 30% without impacting service. Root-cause turnaround of three underperforming locations drove $4.9M in operating profit improvement in 11 months. Launched and scaled the enterprise catering channel serving Stanford, Google, Apple, Meta, LinkedIn, Salesforce, Cisco, Adobe, and Nvidia.

★ Michelin
Guide Recognition
$30M
Group Revenue
3 → 5
Locations
$4.9M
Profit in 11mo

Read the full case study →

Franchise Portfolio · Multi-State TRANSFORMATION · 02

Hana Group: 21 units, six states, zero penalties. Regional Operations Director.

Owned $36M P&L across 21 franchise units inside Whole Foods, Walmart, Sam's Club, and Target host environments as Regional Operations Director, working directly with regional operations and facilities teams at each retailer. Opened 12+ new stores in one year. Standardized frameworks reduced KPI variance 15%. Performance initiatives lifted unit-level profitability 7%. Sustained 98% regulatory compliance. Resolved 6 critical incidents per quarter with zero penalties on record.

21
Franchise Units
$36M
P&L Ownership
6
States
98%
Compliance

Read the full case study →

Independent Practice · Operator Scaling TRANSFORMATION · 03

SEOD Ventures: scaling founder-led operators with AI as infrastructure. Ten years as Principal Operator, Independent Advisory & Operating Platform.

Run SEOD Ventures as an independent advisory and operating platform supporting founder-led and multi-unit operators across operations, growth strategy, unit economics, AI-enabled workflow transformation, and executive coaching. Ten years, six active brands, 17 client engagements spanning restaurants (Zareen's, Gen Korean BBQ, BCD Tofu House, Sake2Me), F&B distribution (Obaba Fresh), e-commerce (SF Floral, In Sheer Elegance, Dolly Eye Boutique), media (San Francisco Times), home services (Mike Diamond's Plumbing), nonprofit (NorCal Shiba, Bay Area youth nonprofit), and education (IVY'D College Prep). Documented outcomes: 25x website traffic at San Francisco Times, 2.5x inquiry calls plus 2x donations sustained 12 months at NorCal Shiba, 2x conversion rate plus 30% ad-spend reduction at SF Floral, $125K to $1.5M+ revenue growth in 12 months for a founder-led client. This site (kiyonglee.com) and its 240-post operator blog are the working artifact of the practice.

17
Client Engagements (10 yrs)
25x
Traffic Growth · SF Times
12x
Revenue · $125K → $1.5M+
200+
Campaigns Above ROI

Read the full case study →

// 04 — references

References available on request.

Named references from the last three engagements are available on request. Written testimonials will be added here as they clear permission.

$ trust --request

Email eric@seod.com for direct references at Zareen's, Hana Group, or Anchor Point Ministries. Response within 24 hours.

Pre-Interview Build

A working development office, built in seven days.

Bay Area Youth Foundation, a 42-year-old faith-based youth nonprofit, wanted to double annual fundraising from $1.5M to $3M and was hiring a Director of Development. Most candidates would walk in with a slide deck. I walked in with a working version of what the development office could look like on day one: a live donor CRM, a board-grade dashboard, an operations playbook, and a 12-slide live-pitch deck.

// Note · Bay Area Youth Foundation is the anonymized name for the real client until naming permission is granted.

RoleSolo · design, data, strategy
Timeline7 days · pre-interview
StackAirtable · HTML/CSS/JS · Chart.js · Python
StatusLive working software
View the case study
$3M Fundraising Target Doubled from a $1.5M baseline across a four-year arc.
7 days Build Window CRM, dashboard, deck, and playbook all shipped end to end.
12 slides Live Pitch Deck $50K–$250K major-donor pitch plus year-one plan.
Solo Build Team Design, data architecture, strategy, and presentation.
// 05 — research notes

Per-target research notes.

Public artifacts written for specific roles at specific companies. Each one carries a TL;DR, four observations, a 30/60/90 plan, three KPIs, a competitive read, six interview questions, and a risk register. Not pitches. Working analysis.

$ ls ~/research-notes
Restaurant365
Director, Customer Success
Operator-side CS for multi unit restaurants 5 to 50 units. NRR by unit band, Eric Cox's COO arrival, Kim Peretti's CCO mandate.
restaurant tech · cs
 Toast
RVP, Retail Field Sales
New Retail vertical, sub-vertical field play, Square / Lightspeed / Clover competitive read, loss reason breakdown.
restaurant tech · sales
 Via
Director, Strategy & Operations
Public-sector transit, city cohort margin J-curve, Spare / HopSkipDrive / Routematch competitive read, three-year unit economics.
transit · strategy
 AirGarage
General Manager, West Region
Operator-as-owner parking model, revenue per stall by lot tenure, LAZ-ABM / SpotHero / ParkMobile competitive read.
real estate · ops
 Square
Strategic Account Director
Upmarket restaurant strategy, multi-product attach, Toast / Lightspeed / NetSuite competitive read, account health distribution.
payments · accounts

Want to dig deeper? The full research notes index lives at /research/ →

// 06 — operating breadth

Two ventures, briefly.

Operating systems I run on my own time. The full list of eleven ventures lives at /ventures/.

$ ventures --featured
live
SEOD
seod.com
Independent ops and AI consulting practice. Operating prompts, dashboards, and workflow architecture deployed with multi-unit operator clients.
practice · ops + ai
 live
The Korean In Me
thekoreaninme.com
Korean wedding and ceremony production business, family-operated. I run the operational side: booking cadence, vendor relationships, staff coordination, event-day logistics, and post-event review.
business · weddings + ceremonies
// 07 — credentials

A lifelong learner
who invests where it compounds.

Post-secondary in business & marketing. Nearly five years in theological study. Executive certificates from Wharton and Harvard. Lean Six Sigma through Black Belt. ServSafe at Manager, Proctor, and Instructor levels.

$ cat ~/credentials
View Wharton transcript
'20Wharton
Wharton Online · University of Pennsylvania

Digital Marketing Certificate Program

Four-course program covering fundamentals of digital marketing, marketing analytics, customer relationships, and selling ideas. Completed December 2020.

AnalyticsCRMStorytellingInfluence
View Harvard Specialization
'21Harvard
Harvard Business School Online

Certificate of Specialization, Leadership & Management

A three-course executive specialization completed September 2021: Management Essentials, Leadership Principles, and Negotiation Mastery.

ManagementLeadershipNegotiation
Mgmt Essentials Leadership Principles Negotiation Mastery
View Lean Six Sigma Black Belt
'25Lean 6σ
Council for Six Sigma Certification

Lean Six Sigma · Black Belt

Mastery of waste elimination, statistical process control, project leadership, and enterprise-scale transformation. The discipline I bring to every portfolio I touch.

DMAICSPCKaizenScale design
Cert № zFAW8Pbvay · Issued Sep 6, 2025
View ServSafe Instructor & Proctor cert
'25ServSafe
ServSafe · National Restaurant Association

Manager · Instructor · Proctor

Triple certification. Running safe kitchens, testing peers, and training the next generation of hospitality leaders. Standards I don't just meet, I set them.

Food SafetyComplianceTrain-the-Trainer
Food Protection Manager Cert
Cert № 7955112 · Valid through Jun 2028

// join the operator's list

One email a week. Operator field notes only.

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// 08 — let's build something

Tell me the operating problem.

Whether you're hiring an operator to run a multi-state portfolio, building a customer success function that needs an operator-fluent senior leader, or scouting a fractional COO mandate: the conversation starts the same way. Twenty minutes. I'll tell you whether I'm the right fit. If I'm not, I'll tell you who is.

Email eric@seod.com LinkedIn /in/kiyongericlee Phone 707-718-3579
Start the conversation