#ChipChats — Unfiltered. Operator-earned. Honest.
Founder. Operator. Open book.
Still figuring it out.
CEO of Centered Partners. Co-founder of Greenleaf Capital Partners. Former attorney. Father. Husband. Equestrian. Writing a book called My Skeletons Are Better Than Yours — because everyone has them and most of us spend too much energy keeping the closet door shut.
"The most useful thing any of us can do is stop pretending we have it figured out."
— Chip SmithAbout Chip
Born and raised in St. Louis, middle of five kids. B.A. in economics from Denison University — mediocre grades, great friends, a lot of memories that are a little fuzzy. Started at NASA in the Office of the Administrator. Enrolled at SLU for a JD/MBA with no intention of practicing law. Graduated the same year as my wife, which tells you everything about how seriously I took class.
I co-founded ATIS with my dad and brother in a basement in 2012. We grew it to 350+ team members and the global leader in elevator inspections before backing by Thompson Street Capital. That's the LinkedIn version.
The real version involves failed attempts, restarted clocks, functional substance abuse I was the only one who could see, a neurological condition that changed how I work, and the kind of mentor relationships that only happen when you're honest about what you don't know.
A friend who immigrated alone from Greece in the 1970s — bussed tables, built a logistics company, went bankrupt, rebuilt it — once told me: "Life is short and unpredictable." That's been my north star ever since.
Born in May 2017, my daughter is the greatest gift, joy, and daily reminder of what truly matters — and how good life can be. I'm sober curious. I'm trying harder. And I think the most useful thing any of us can do is stop pretending we have it figured out.
Published Work
Contributing Author — Successful Entrepreneurs with G.R.I.T.
Chapter: "Keep Things in Perspective" — an international bestseller compiled by Jennifer Bardot, alongside 25 fellow entrepreneurs who built something real and lived to tell the truth about it.
Get the Kindle Edition → Get the Paperback →Chip Chats
She wasn't falling apart. She was feeling the weight of what she was doing — standing between vulnerable people and the thing that hurt them — and her humanity showed through. Guilty on 17 counts. Proud husband.
Read full post →A man I know just ended his life. We weren't close. Never met in person. But we wrote chapters in the same book. His was called "Strength Through Surrender." I can't stop thinking about that title. We cannot keep losing people to silence.
Read full post →This is my NASA badge from the Dan Goldin era. I was 22 years old and had absolutely no business being in that building. Yesterday, four astronauts flew farther from Earth than any human in history. Victor Glover said it simply: seeing Earth from that distance is a reminder of humanity's shared identity.
Read full post →Make of that what you will. The crucifix belonged to a great friend who gave it to me because he thought I needed to find Jesus. Neither makes me Christian — they make me someone who understands that symbols mean what we need them to mean.
Read full post →I think about it often. It started in eighth grade when I lost my first grandparent. Bad memory in general — but I can vividly recall the circumstances around that evening and every single loss since.
Read full post →For decades, professional services solved complexity through specialization. AI is changing that equation — and we built Centered Partners around what comes next.
Read full post →The real problem in professional services was never a shortage of expertise. It was a shortage of connection between it. Here's what AI actually does — and what it doesn't.
Read full post →I'm writing a book. My Skeletons Are Better Than Yours. The real point isn't competition — it's that we're all dragging something around and burning enormous energy keeping the closet door shut.
Read full post →Wars. Elections. AI. Emotional entropy. And yet — my calendar remains full. I am personally struggling with the scale of what's happening out there and the smallness of what we're asked to care about in here.
Read full post →Writing was once one of my greatest strengths. AI cleared away the friction between having an idea and executing it — and gave me back the most valuable thing any of us have: time.
Read full post →My wife has been an assistant prosecuting attorney for 18+ years. She handles the cases most attorneys wouldn't want to touch. She carries weight that doesn't clock out.
Read full post →My dad, brother, and I started ATIS from scratch in late 2012. I will never forget sitting in my basement and filing the articles of organization. A vision. Weekly Sunday morning visits on my parents' porch.
Read full post →Smart people. Real businesses. Real risk. Being served by advisors too narrow, too transactional, too focused on their own product shelf. That's the gap Centered Partners was built to fill.
Read full post →Someone in the comments said it perfectly. "That's what Nero said." The answer to the noise isn't paralysis. It's building things worth building — and making sure the people around you are better off for having worked with you.
Read full post →Austin Grimm is a St. Louis-based musician — former frontman of Roots of a Rebellion. He's also my brother. And somewhere in his journey he wrote a song that stopped me cold.
Read full post →"While we're here, while we're alive — let's focus on what really matters and make sure everyone knows where we stand."— Chip Smith, Chip Chats
The Book
A founder's honest account of the mess behind the milestones.
Everyone has a closet. Most of us spend enormous energy keeping the door shut — performing okayness for an audience that's doing the exact same thing.
This book is about what happens when you stop guarding and start sharing. About functional substance abuse that only you could see. About the restarted clocks and the failed attempts and the winding road that still gets you somewhere worth being.
It's about the people who believed in you before the proof existed. The mentors who showed up when you were honest about what you didn't know. The team members who built with you, not for you.
And it's about the loudest judges usually having the fullest closets — and why that's worth naming out loud.
Want to be notified when it's available — or think you have a skeleton that belongs in it?
Perspectives
These aren't frameworks. They're not productivity hacks. They're just the things I keep coming back to — after building companies from basements, navigating neurological conditions, sitting with grief, and spending too long keeping my own closet door shut.
I write about them here because the most useful thing any of us can do is stop performing and start being honest. These are the convictions that shape how I show up — as a founder, a husband, a father, and a person still figuring it out.
The energy spent keeping the closet door shut — performing okayness, managing perception, hiding the mess — is the most expensive thing most of us will never put on a balance sheet.
AI doesn't think for you. It doesn't read the room or build trust. What it does — what it's done for me — is clear the friction between having an idea and executing it. That's not a threat. That's time.
Failed attempts, restarted clocks, functional dysfunction — none of it disqualifies you. The path doesn't have to be straight to be real. Progress that doesn't look perfect is still progress.
The professional wins and losses that feel enormous usually aren't. Death has a way of clarifying what actually matters — the people around you, the moments you showed up, the smile they'll remember.
Podcast
Being considered. Being explored. No promises — just genuine curiosity.
The idea: real conversations about leadership, entrepreneurship, and building something that matters — hosted by Centered Partners and rooted in the same honest operator voice that drives everything here.
No hustle content. No guest pitches. Just founders, operators, and people who've been in the mess talking honestly about what they actually learned.
If this sounds like something you'd listen to — or something you'd want to be part of — fill out the form.
Want in?
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No spam. Just a real conversation if the fit is right.