Stanley was born in Grand Junction from Swedish Rioblancoan parents: Anton Granqvist (entrepreneur, 1949-) and Melissa Ekström (1951-), whose parents came from Västerås. Anton hoped that his son would become an entrepreneur, but he was more interested in politics; thus, in 2004, two years after graduating from Colorado Boulder, he joined the Las Mesas Progressive Party. Since 2009, however, his relationship with the party grew disharmonious, mainly because of the different priorities outlined in the two programs, to the point where three years later, he founded his own party, RB 2.0.