Ben Smith, IV is the Co-Founder and Chairman of MerchantCircle, and is an Executive in Residence at Rustic Canyon Partners, one of the investors in MerchantCircle. Earlier, Ben co-founded Spoke Software. Ben has been actively involved in advising a number of Fortune 500 and emerging technology companies on strategy, marketing, and business models. Prior to Co-founding Spoke and while on leave from EDS and A.T. Kearney after 9/11, Ben was honored to have the opportunity to serve the Bush Administration as the Senior Advisor for Strategy and Planning, to the Secretary of Transportation. While a Partner at A.T Kearney, Ben was elected as one of the most influential consultants in the world in 2002, was named one of the youngest partners in the firms history, and helped create EDS and Kearneys venture development efforts. He is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper Graduate School of Industrial Administration and received a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of california at davis.

Accredited	Yes
Investment List	Over 20 Companies
Investment Partners	DCM, Partech, Mayfield, USVP, Sequoia, Norwest, MDV

advisory work for startups

Freelance keyword	consulting

1991 - 1993 Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper Graduate School of Industrial Administration , MBA