Life & Work with Ty Smith of Scottsdale

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ty Smith.

Hi Ty, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born and raised in East St. Louis, IL and joined the US Navy in 1996, immediately following high school. Since I was 12 years old, my dream had been to become a Navy SEAL. I spent the first 4.5 years of my naval career as a military police officer, and Italian translator in Sardinia, Italy. On Sept. 11th, 2001 I was in an airplane flying into NYC. What an experience. Following that madness I was immediately accepted into SEAL training and successfully navigated the training pipeline. I ended up spending the next 15 years as an operator in the SEAL Teams. I deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, and the UAE six (6) times throughout my career and received various awards for Valor during combat, from multiple SEAL teams at the Tier 2 and Tier 1 level. Near the end of a fantastic career in the Navy, I completed my undergraduate studies at The University of Arizona Global Campus. I then completed an MBA at USC, Marshall Business School. I retired from the Navy in 2016 following 20-years of service to God and country. I immediately launched my first business, Vigilance Risk Solutions, Inc (VRS), a tech-enabled security consultancy. I ran VRS for nearly five (5) years until the COVID-19 pandemic began and I knew it would kill that business model. We went on to rebrand the business as CommSafe AI and we pivoted (evolved) into a venture capital backed generative AI company. I raised $5.5M in venture capital from likes of David Krane, CEO of Google Ventures, Shawn Byers, Kliener Perkins, City Light VC, and several other well known VC firms. I ran the business for six (6) years and unfortunately had to sunset CommSafe in 2025 after we couldn’t penetrate the market any further. Currently I’m running Hiro Consulting, a Leadership Development and Executive Coaching company based out of Scottsdale, AZ. I work with middle market businesses and large enterprises to help their executives grow and run their departments in a lean and efficient manner; like a Navy SEAL Team. I’ve also served on the Board of Trustees at Ashford University, and The University of Arizona Global Campus. And I’ve earned two Ph.D’s in Humane Letters from The University of Arizona Global Campus and National Louis University (Chicago, IL).

I also recently took a majority stake in a weapons manufacturing company in Mesa, AZ which is why I’ll continue to spend a week out of each month in AZ, although FL is now my HQ. Focusing on Leadership Development and Weapons is realigning me at my core with who I really am and the fire that wakes me up in the morning. I’m immensely excited for 2026.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Absolutely not. When I jumped into entrepreneurship, everything was brand new to me. Everyday was rapid growth. I was coming from a career as a Special Operations Commando, a gunfighter, and jumping into business and tech as though I’d been doing it my entire life. The learning curve was steep to say the least. I made ALL of the mistakes, but I learned from them and they made me the successful entrepreneur that I am today. I’ve built successful businesses that made money, and I’ve had the unfortunate experience of building a business that lost money. A lot of money…

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Currently I’m focusing on Leader Development for middle market businesses, and large enterprises. In this season of my life I really want to focus on growing other people, and serving them at the highest level possible in order to unlock my own growth and potential. I’m in a giving season of my life. I’m also in the weapons manufacturing space. At this business (although we already have weapons in market, we are still in stealth mode for a short period of time as we rebrand the business and prep for a new go-to-market), we focus on manufacturing AR-15’s, AR-10’s, 9mm handguns, personal defense weapons (PDW’s) in 9mm, and aerospace components. I’m very excited to have recently joined this leadership team and very soon I’ll be going very public with the news and our new branding. When it comes to the question of what I do, the answer is simple: I grow businesses from the ground up, and I grow people. I am a fire-starter. I am known for being a uniquely talented leader of very elite people. I’m most proud of the fact that I’ve never lost my humanity, while serving during plenty of instances where I could have. Whether it was pertaining to taking or preserving human life, or making money, I’ve never lost my humanity. Even in combat, God was always at the center of me. What sets me a part from most other people in business is that I operate knowing I’m one with my creator and he’s one with me. Therefore, I know I’m capable of ALL things. I have no limits, I will not stop (ever), don’t get in my way.

What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
We are all connected. To hurt someone else in any way is to hurt yourself. Focus on building relationships with people; focus on serving them and not yourself. And when it comes to life, stop resisting; surrender and flow and have faith. Everything else will fall into place. No stress, no fear, no bad days, just presence. It took me into my mid 40’s and an immense amount of heartache to learn that lesson. But once I learned it, it changed everything. It’s like I could fly!!!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.wearehiro.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coachtysmith/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tysmith31/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@CoachTySmith