About Justin Smith
I’m Justin Smith, General Manager of Adventure Idaho, a multi-site outdoor recreation company in Idaho. My background spans running a locksmith business, guiding wilderness trips, financial and operational reporting, e-commerce and sales.
My bet
Businesses will spend less time moving information between tools, and more time acting on it.
The problem
Too much work still depends on someone remembering, retyping and chasing changes.
What makes it possible
A connected database that models how the business actually works: people, jobs, equipment and the rules between them. That gives AI the context to coordinate work and make approved changes.
Where I fit
I understand the operation, build the systems and work with the team until they’re useful.
See what I built Read the whiteboard story Work with me
How I got here
- Locksmith business, Rexburg, at 22. Bought it, expanded the services, fixed the pricing, built a crew that covered calls around the clock, grew revenue roughly 6x, and sold it. Small, but it taught me pricing and staffing.
- Guiding the Middle Fork of the Salmon. A couple of seasons of multi-day wilderness trips for another outfitter.
- Hamilton Zanze · San Francisco. Financial & Operations Analyst Intern. Built financial and operational reports to identify portfolio trends, areas of loss and opportunities to improve returns across a multibillion-dollar real estate portfolio.
- International distribution and e-commerce. Worked across departments to identify bottlenecks and understand the systems behind the business.
- Door-to-door sales. The fastest education in rejection and conversion there is.
- Podium · Account Executive. Prospected, ran product demos and closed software sales for local businesses.
- General Manager, Adventure Idaho. Four years of rebuilding it from the product outward.
Today. I lead Adventure Idaho, working with its team to run and improve the operation.
Building people, not just systems
The hardest build was the team: a multi-week bootcamp on International Rafting Federation standards, live rescue drills, and 50+ real whitewater case studies that train judgment under pressure. What holds it together is a fighter-pilot debrief culture, honest, humble and analytical, and it's why the reputation held while we grew. How the training program was built.
Software scales what a business knows. Training and culture scale what its people can do.
What I believe
Build the system, don't repeat the work
The second time I do something by hand, it becomes a checklist, a template or software.
Get the operator out of the critical path
A business that only works when one person remembers everything is a job with employees.
Judgment over tools
Software and AI are cheap now. Knowing what to automate, and what to leave to a person, isn't.
The product is the marketing
A consistent operation earns reviews and referrals no campaign can outrun.
They add up to an order I fix businesses in: product, people, demand, pricing, then the system underneath. Why that order.
What I build for myself
I built a structured database and connected tools to help manage everyday life.
- Capture and organize: voice notes, tasks, a shopping list and a searchable library.
- Plan with real context: calendar commitments, workout plans and completed activity summaries.
- Give agents useful context: structured records and controlled access to help review priorities and propose changes.
I decide what changes.
Google Calendar holds scheduled commitments. Strava holds raw workout data. Personal OS connects the planning and summaries.
What I've written
One argument runs through it: most companies bought AI and connected it to nothing. Start with that essay, read everything, or see what I'm working on now.
Other things
- FAA-certificated private pilot. Aviation runs on checklists, and writing them was my first move at Adventure Idaho.
- Eagle Scout, licensed Idaho guide, and two years of full-time volunteer service in Southern California.
- Involved with the surf wave project in Twin Falls, and manufacturing a new whitewater product.
- Photo and video, including FPV drone work.
- At 30, new personal bests at the mile and the half marathon, including a 5:42 mile at about 6,000 feet, plus a few Strava course records in Nordic skiing, running and paddling.