Damen Smith

Air Force discipline, hospitality management, manufacturing & logistics operations in two states, then founding and building a company. Four different industries, same discipline: locate the friction, develop systems that remove it, and execute. Now co-founder and operator of Nordic Design Collective, with five products in development. The most effective strategy is to keep showing up every day.

Company Building and Leadership

I co-founded Nordic Design Collective in January 2024 and run the agency alongside five products in development. NDC shipped four client projects in its first year.

Operations and Systems

I managed a 12-person team at a Miami printing and manufacturing company before going full-time on NDC. Before that I ran operations for the largest door, window, and trim supplier for residential and commercial construction in Southern Oregon. I have kept a written decision log for every non-trivial business decision since December 2025.

AI Agent Systems

I built NORD from scratch starting December 2025. It is a custom AI agent system that handles routing, briefings, documentation, and ticket workflows for NDC’s day-to-day operations. I built it solo to give the team the operational consistency of a larger one.

Product Development

I develop five products simultaneously alongside the agency. The current portfolio spans embeddable pattern design, music analytics for independent artists, enterprise agent orchestration, and AI-assisted travel planning. I write about the build at dsmith.ink.

Operations Management, Leadership, Business Strategy, AI agent systems, process design, product strategy.

Languages: English (native), Spanish (limited working).