Marshall Smith

OPERATIONS & SCALING BUSINESSES

Marshall Smith

Marshall Smith brings 15 years in financial services and wealth management to operational scale. As COO of a Los Angeles-based, SEC-registered RIA, he grew AUM 223% to $1.3B in five years, running operations, compliance, technology, HR, trading, and sales in lockstep: budgets forecast within 5%, 95% employee retention, a 12% revenue jump in a single year. Big brands return to him again and again because he turns growth into infrastructure, not chaos. 

He later founded Practical Activation, an operations consultancy building the systems, processes, and infrastructure behind startups and established businesses alike, and continues to advise as a fractional COO focused on operations and sales strategy. As co-founder of Steamwork Ventures, Marshall pairs that big-brand operational discipline with Tim’s startup to exit experience, the execution engine behind high-impact startups poised for growth.

Marshall at a Glance:

• Fractional COO for multiple companies
• Former angel investor and due diligence committee member with Tech Coast Angels-Los Angeles
• Increased AUM by 223% to $1.3B for one RIA firm and 66% for another, in a five-year period
• Also found spending time with his daughter, son, wife, and dog at the beach, attending local concerts, hitting the slopes on his snowboard or playing in a weekly basketball league.