What we owe to the people and work that came before us.
Businesses are rarely the product of one person alone. They’re shaped by families, employees, and communities over time. Stewardship is the responsibility to receive that work honestly and carry it forward with care.
My grandfather, Hung "John” Doan, and father, Tien Doan, first arrived in Texas as refugees from Vietnam fleeing communism. We would not be where we are today without the Pendleton family. Under Operation New Arrivals, they welcomed my family into their home and showed us what it meant to be a neighbor.
John Doan built on this foundation by starting Doan’s Nursery, selling perennials and citrus trees. Shaped by his Christian faith, he expanded to supplying poinsettias and Easter lilies to local churches. In 1986, the Reagan Administration named him Minority Entrepreneur of the Year.
My earliest memories in Orange, TX were of moving plants and soil at the nursery. I learned early that plants didn’t care how we felt, only whether they were watered in the Gulf Coast sun and sheltered when the weather turned.
The lesson on objective reality and operational discipline carried over to my engineering career at consumer goods and medical device manufacturing. I then pursued an MBA to learn the language of business, but my goal remains the same as it always was: to be useful, to be disciplined, and to be rooted. All of it reinforced the same lesson: you don’t arrive on your own, and you don’t get to forget the people who made it possible.
Aurant takes its name from Orange, Texas, where my family was welcomed and given the chance to start over. Citrus trees were among the first things my grandfather grew, work that required patience, daily care, and attention to time rather than speed. In this part of the world, responsibility shows up in quiet ways, greeting a stranger, grocery stores opening up to provide food after a hurricane, and the integrity of a handshake.
The name is a reminder that what we build is shaped by place, by people, and by the care we receive from others long before we can repay it.
I'm ready to buy a business from an owner who cares what happens next. If that sounds like you, I’d love to talk.
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