About

Michael Smith, Founder

TLDR; Why I’m Launching Pointmatic

AI Gets Real

I've spent decades building technology for business — from Amazon ads to data analytics for growing companies. In 2025, I took a sabbatical to go all-in on AI and launch Pointmatic: a company focused on practical, intelligent software for small-to-midsize businesses (SMBs).

All The Reasons

I've spent my life getting here, so there are a lot of reasons coming together:

Using AI to help people
Developing software
Going deep into small-to-midsize businesses (SMBs)
Cracking the puzzle of what really drives value
Ultimately, to help innovate and improve productivity
Also, working in a startup environment and managing a small business

Organization

I'm a solo consultant, but I'll bring in expert consultants from my network as we grow. If you decide to hire Pointmatic, you and I will work together directly, so I'll carefully control the number of projects to make sure I can deliver what we agree on.

Let’s Talk

If you're an SMB owner or leader, let's discuss how to get intelligent software working for you!

LinkedIn: send me a message or invite on LinkedIn —mention "SMB".
Pointmatic: jump onto my Contact page for other ways to reach me.

Book a 20-Minute Call!

More Stuff About My Background

You don't need another résumé, but some personal context matters.

Why I'm launching Pointmatic
Things I've learned that have forever changed how I work
How my experience can complement yours in working together

“…the question that made the difference…”

Young Business Nerd

Six Startups in Three Years

I have studied and practiced entrepreneurship and startups since I was a teenager. Instead of running track or playing tennis in high school, I started six companies in Junior Achievement. In this after-school youth program, I could learn about business and then actually start and run the business over a three-month term.

Each season, I actively participated in various roles with my student peers from all over my city. We divided into groups of 6 to 12 youth, and as the board of directors, elected officers, developed, produced, and sold the product. Finally, we filed all the corporate financial reports as we liquidated the business at the end of the term.

How to Improve GDP

Junior Achievement was both fun and challenging. I liked the competition, and in my final year, I was awarded Utah State Outstanding Young Businessman of the year. Obviously, an award given to a high school kid more than 40 years ago is not important today, but I'm sharing the story because of what I learned.

I was told that the final interview with the judges tipped them in my favor, and I still remember the question that made the difference: "What can you do to improve the economy?" My answer was to "Improve my personal productivity, which has a direct impact on gross domestic product" (GDP).

I realized then that I wanted to be involved in the leadership side of improving productivity. I have tried to do that in my work since then, and now decades later, I want to help every SMB become more productive with intelligent software.

“…obsessed with an AI logic system…”

My First “Real Job”

From Gadgets to Global Dispatch Systems

I've been fascinated by electronic gadgets and computer programming since I was a young child. The puzzling and problem-solving I enjoy came together differently at my first career job at Priority Dispatch (formerly Medical Priority). This was a six-person startup that grew to hundreds in the ten years I was involved with them, and they became a global company, leading the market in many countries.

Building a Medical Logic System

Although I acted in many roles, I was a product manager for their protocol system that emergency dispatch operators used when someone dials 9-1-1 in North America (9-9-9 in the UK, or 1-1-2 in many parts of Europe). I worked directly with the Chief Medical Officer to test and improve the logic of the protocols, led the language translation effort, and coordinated with the software team to build a bespoke translation tracking system. I provided language translation for some conferences in Italy. I even went on a USAID mission in Vladivostok, Russia, to support training on how they could improve their emergency medical dispatch system. I became obsessed with an AI logic system for emergency medicine, but the technology wasn't ready.

Advertising and Branding

As a graphic designer, I helped them publish textbooks for training emergency dispatchers and produced marketing literature, magazine ads, and trade conference collateral.

When I left Priority Dispatch, I consulted for four years for an Ambulance manufacturing company in Montreal, Canada, led their marketing in the United States, translated their literature and technical documents from French to English, developed their branding and advertisements, and ultimately authored all the sales contracts, technical product documentation for sales proposals to governments. I also represented their company at trade conferences.

Graphic Design and Computer Science

During this period, I had two university education tours: first in graphic design and then a return several years later to study computer science, where I shifted my career to a more hands-on technical track.

“…deliver ‘amazing’ with collaboration…”

Software for Advertising

Getting Technical

I was fortunate to transition from roles in marketing communications, art direction, and branding to software engineering just as the world was recovering from the dot-com bubble-burst, as the internet was becoming the marketplace for business, since web development involves both visual design and programming. After some roles in website development at other organizations, I had the unique opportunity to join Amazon in 2008, starting on a new team creating a website advertising platform.

Rich Media Ads, Billions of Views

I led the creation of a rich media platform that would pop-over or push down the website to show ads. This led to a new revenue stream in homepage site takeovers reaching hundreds of millions of views per day for McDonald's restaurants, followed by Warner Bros. campaigns for Harry Potter and Batman movies.

Financial Services Ads

The Amazon website had a highly complex technology stack, and our team had to understand and integrate with many systems to inject ads onto various webpages and user flows owned by different teams. I was a primary contributor to creating a new ad placement in the shopping checkout flow and the Kindle unlock screen, opening opportunities to partner with Visa, Discover, American Express, Wells Fargo, and others, targeting users who had those cards in their Amazon payments without getting access to personal data. I also worked on other near-real-time targeting systems that could show ads to users based on their shopping experience in that session.

Learning to Deliver Amazing

In my nearly nine years at Amazon, I saw incredible growth in the advertising products from $100M to $3B. I witnessed firsthand the explosion of the advertising team from 7 people in Seattle to thousands of people worldwide. I also learned how to turn "impossible" into "unlikely", and then deliver "amazing" with the collaboration of expert, motivated, and capable people.

“…data was core to our teams…”

My Move to Management

Leading Technical Teams

It's challenging enough to work on technical problems, but it's vastly more difficult to lead others in doing that. I embarked on people management at AdColony, a mobile advertising network (acquired later by Digital Turbine), and continued managing at Billups (an outdoor advertising agency) and Sensor Tower (a marketing analytics company).

As a manager, I was fascinated by the challenge of helping people find what motivates them, collaborating to find new value streams, and delivering complex software and data analytics systems. Although sometimes that also involved helping people on their path out of the company.

AI and Data Science Everywhere

In all three companies, creating insights from data was core to our teams, and I worked closely with data scientists, analysts, data engineers, and reverse engineers to acquire, process, manage, and present information for great customer experiences.

“…I want to help your SMB…”

Launching a Software Consulting Startup

Why I believe AI Should Work for Everyone

During my sabbatical in 2025, I have pursued a master's degree in computer science, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, and I expect to complete that by the time I launch Pointmatic in 2026.

I now understand and have practiced building AI systems, and I want to help your SMB benefit from better software to improve your productivity and profits by…

Gathering your data
Improving security and privacy
Producing better insights
Using AI to provide automation and smart recommendations

Enough about me…

I would love to hear about the hard problems you're facing in your day-to-day.

What is your most frustrating challenge?
What is the most tedious thing you or your team does?
Which data exists inside you're company that you need but is hard to access or share?

Tell Me About Your Challenge

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