Justin Smith

I rebuild messy service businesses.

The product first, then the demand, then the pricing, then the software that holds it together. I do all four myself. Right now I run operations, marketing, and sales for a multi-site outdoor recreation company in Idaho, and I wrote the platform it runs on.

Roughly thirty river guides in drysuits and helmets gathered on a rocky beach beside rafts on the Salmon River in Idaho.
The crew. Multiple bases, one season, 45 people at peak.

What I actually do

Most operators are either a systems person or a growth person. The work I do needs both, because a demand engine pointed at an inconsistent product just manufactures bad reviews, and a beautifully run operation nobody can find doesn't survive either.

So the sequence matters. Standardize the product so it's the same every time. Build demand where there wasn't any. Price for the demand once it exists. Then build the operating system so growth doesn't turn into chaos, and so the business stops depending on whoever happens to remember everything.

Selected work

A raft full of teenagers and guides dropping through a whitewater rapid, paddles raised, water breaking over the bow.

Where I'm useful

Experiential and outdoor hospitality, multi-unit service businesses, and vertical software serving them. The problems repeat: seasonal labor in places nobody wants to commute to, capacity that's gated by permits or physical constraints, inventory that perishes nightly, and an operation that lives in one person's head. All four are solvable.

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