Michael Bruno is a entrepreneur with a specialty in developing digital technology for the design industry. He is the founder of

1stdibs 1stdibs (stylized as 1stDibs) is an e-commerce company. It has an online marketplace, which sells luxury items such as high-end furniture for interior design, fine art and jewelry. The company has been recognized for "pushing the antiques business ...

, an online marketplace for luxury antiques, furniture, jewelry, and fine art from thousands of dealers worldwide.Hay, R. Cour
“1stdibs Founder Michael Bruno Focuses on Stewardship”
Hamptons Magazine He is also the founder of the home design app Housepad,King, Barbar
“First Buy What You Love”
Robb Report Tuxedo Hudson Company and Tuxedo Hudson Realty,Mitchell, Heid
“This fat cat is creating his own Hudson Valley kingdom”
NY Post and Art-Design-Carta. As a collector of historic homes and a dedicated land preservationist, Bruno is currently redeveloping the commercial passageway of the historic 17 Corridor between Sloatsburg and

Tuxedo Black tie is a semi-formal Western dress code for evening events, originating in British and American conventions for attire in the 19th century. In British English, the dress code is often referred to synecdochically by its principal element ...

all in New York, with his vision of creating access to the

Hudson Valley The Hudson Valley (also known as the Hudson River Valley) comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in the U.S. state of New York. The region stretches from the Capital District including Albany and Troy south to ...

Early life

Michael Bruno was the fourth of six children. He was born and raised in

Larchmont, New York Larchmont is a village located within the Town of Mamaroneck in Westchester County, New York, approximately northeast of Midtown Manhattan. The population of the village was 5,864 at the 2010 census. In February 2019, Bloomberg ranked Lar ...

. He is a former competitive swimmer and Junior Olympics winner. Bruno studied business at

San Diego State University San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California. Founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system ...

and later moved to

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, where he worked as a real estate broker.Christian, Rebecca and Loos, Te
“Traditional Home 25th Anniversary Award Recipients”
Traditional Homes

Business ventures

During the dot-com boom of the 1990sTang, D. (n.d)
“10 essentials: Michael Bruno’
GQ Bruno worked as a real estate agent for

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

real-estate division in San Francisco.Murphy, K. (2007, Month 1) Bruno says he was inspired to get his real estate license at age 19 after reading

Napoleon Hill Oliver Napoleon Hill (October 26, 1883 – November 8, 1970) was an American self-help author. He is best known for his book ''Think and Grow Rich'' (1937), which is among the best-selling self-help books of all time. Hill's works insisted th ...

's 1937 self-improvement book "Think and Grow Rich".Barbour, Celi
“HOUSE TOUR: AN INTERNET MOGUL'S GEORGIAN-STYLE MANSE IS A DREAM COME TRUE”
Elle Décor In 2001, after moving to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, France, Bruno created 1stdibs.com,Rosman K. (2014, February 13) an online luxury marketplace for antiques, jewelry, and fine art that grew to include thousands of dealers around the world. He said the idea for the company came to him while visiting the famous Clignancourt flea market in Paris.Cooperman, Jacki
“The Art of the Deal”
Wall Street Journal Since the company's founding, it has expanded into 17 markets around the world, including the United States, several European countries, and Australia.Ankey, Jaso
“How This Site Became the Go-To Marketplace for Rare and Antique Goods”
Entrepreneur In 2011, Bruno accepted a $60 million investment from venture capital firm, Benchmark, and stepped down from his role as CEO of 1stdibs but stayed on as chief creative officer.Arnst, Catherin
“1stdibs Raises $42 Million in Series B Round”
Xconomy In late 2012, 1stdibs received an additional $42 million in Series B funding from Index Ventures and Spark Capital.He, Am

China daily In January 2014, Chinese ecommerce company Alibaba Group invested $15 million in 1stdibs to help the company expand its business in Asia.Swisher, Kar
alibaba-group/ “Fine China for 1stdibs, Which Gets $15 Million Investment from Alibaba Group”
Recode In 2015 Bruno launched an interior design app called HousePad. Housepad is a digital household management and communication tool that helps homeowners communicate with family members, guests, and home-related service providers such as interior designers, architects, and gardeners. In 2016, Art-Design-Carta was launched. Art-Design-Carta is a private marketplace that is available to professionals in the art and design business. The site allows dealers to offer their latest finds to professional buyers before they post them on any open market sites.

Real estate and historic building preservation

Bruno is a collector of historic properties and has been purchasing and restoring historic homes and properties since the 1990s.Tilton, Sara
“A Collector's Approach to Property”
Wall Street Journal He says his passion for historic preservation began with the purchase of a 1920s-era villa designed by

William Templeton Johnson William Templeton Johnson (1877 – 1957) was a notable San Diego architect. He was a fellow to the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 1939. Johnson is known for his Spanish Revival buildings, all in San Diego unless otherwise noted: * L ...

. In 2012, Bruno bought a 12,000-square-foot mansion in

Tuxedo Park, New York Tuxedo Park is a village in Orange County, New York, United States. Its population was 623 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown metropolitan area as well as the larger New York metropolitan area. Its name is ...

. The mansion was designed in the early 1900s by

John Russell Pope John Russell Pope (April 24, 1874 – August 27, 1937) was an American architect whose firm is widely known for designing major public buildings, including the National Archives and Records Administration building (completed in 1935), the Jeff ...

. Bruno also owns a historic park adjacent to the Tuxedo Park property. The 55-acre park was designed by

Frederick Law Olmsted Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the USA. Olmsted was famous for co ...

, the landscape architect who designed

Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated ...

in New York City.“First Digs: Michael Bruno's Tuxedo Park Mansion”
Wall Street Journal The Tuxedo Park home was featured in a July 2015 photo tour in design magazine

Elle Décor ''Elle'' (stylized ''ELLE'') is a worldwide women's magazine of French origin that offers a mix of fashion and beauty content, together with culture, society and lifestyle. The title means "she" or "her" in French. ''Elle'' is considered the w ...

. Bruno owns several additional historic properties in and around Tuxedo Park, including Loomis Laboratory, a stone castle built in 1901. The Loomis Laboratory building serves as headquarters for Bruno's Housepad app. Bruno and his partner Alexander Jakowec purchased a 14,000 square-foot mansion on Coopers Neck Lane in Southampton, New YorkWatson, Daw
“A Trip Down Memory Lanes”
Cottages and Gardens in 2015. The mansion was built in the early 20th century by American architect and urban planner

Grosvenor Atterbury Grosvenor Atterbury (July 7, 1869 in Detroit, MI – October 18, 1956 in Southampton, NY) was an American architect, urban planner and writer. He studied at Yale University, where he was an editor of campus humor magazine ''The Yale Record'' After ...

Revitalization of the towns of Tuxedo and Sloatsburg, New York

As of early 2016, Bruno owns $15 million worth of property in

Tuxedo, New York Tuxedo is a town located in Orange County, New York, United States, along the Ramapo River. As of the 2010 census, the town had a total population of 3,624. The town is in the southeastern part of the county in the Ramapo Mountains. New York Stat ...

. Bruno plans to revitalize the town with an emphasis on New Urbanist principles, and in January 2016 he stated that his future projects and business endeavors in the area would include a farmers' market, a restaurant, an inn, and an antiques store. In August 2016, Bruno offered a first glimpse into his vision for the area with the opening of Blue Barn, a new organic farmstand in Sloatsburg. It follows his "Hudson Valley first" focus, which is all about harvesting locally sourced produce from the Hudson Valley. In 2016, Bruno started Tuxedo Hudson Realty, a commercial and residential real estate company focused on the town of Tuxedo.

Awards and publicity

Bruno appeared on The Martha Stewart Show in February 2010 to discuss 1stdibs.Stewart, Marth
“1st Dibs Site Explanation”
Martha Stewart In May 2012, New York-based charity organization

Lighthouse International Lighthouse Guild is an American charitable organization, based in New York City, devoted to vision rehabilitation and advocacy for the blind. Its mission statement is "To overcome vision impairment for people of all ages through worldwide leadersh ...

honored Bruno and fashion designer

Carolina Herrera Carolina Herrera (born María Carolina Josefina Pacanins y Niño; 8 January 1939) is a Venezuelan-American fashion designer known for her personal style, and for dressing various First Ladies, including Jacqueline Onassis, Laura Bush, Michell ...

for being "fashion visionaries."WWD Staf
“Out of Sight”
WWD Bruno was a recipient of the 2012 "Innovators" award from the Sir John Sloane Museum Foundation.Woo, Ke
“Michael Bruno, founder of 1stdibs.com”
Another Mag In October 2014, Bruno was the recipient of design and decorating magazine

Traditional Home ''Traditional Home'' was a design and decorating magazine that targeted affluent readers. The magazine was published by the Meredith Corporation Meredith Corporation was an American media conglomerate based in Des Moines, Iowa, that owned ma ...

's first-ever Trailblazer Award. In 2015, The Decorators Club celebrated their 100th anniversary. Bruno was honored as the evening's benefactor. “New York Social Diary”
New York Social Diary In 2017, Bruno was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Orange County Land Trust.

Personal life

Bruno lives with his partner Alexander Jakowec, a former antiques dealer. They have two English cream golden retrievers, Natasha and Boris.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bruno, Michael Living people Businesspeople from New York (state) American interior designers LGBT people from New York (state) American technology company founders American computer businesspeople People from Tuxedo, New York American Internet company founders American real estate businesspeople Year of birth missing (living people)