W. Bryan Smith · Founder & Principal
From How Brains Encode Information to How Enterprises Do.
A 20-year arc from neuroscience to enterprise data and AI infrastructure. Now applied to a consulting practice that helps companies extract Real Intelligence from the AI they have already invested in.
The through-line
I trained as a neuroscientist. My Caltech PhD was on how synapses change strength locally, in dendrites, through protein synthesis. The question underneath was: how does a network of cells encode, store, and propagate information in a way that adapts to what the network actually does?
Twenty years later, I am still asking the same question. It just looks different now. The networks are companies and the cells are systems and the protein synthesis is a Python script. The fundamental problem is the same: information has to be encoded honestly, propagated reliably, and the system has to update when reality changes. Most organizations do not solve this problem. They cover it with dashboards.
The arc
Four stops, each one teaching something specific that the consulting practice now turns into client work.
Sapient
Director, Data Science & Infrastructure
2013 to 2015
Built a global data science practice for retail and consumer brands. First time I saw at scale how a company can spend tens of millions on analytics tooling and still not know what is selling, to whom, or why.
PokitDok
Chief Scientist
2012 to 2018
Healthcare transaction platform. I designed the cryptographic identity protocol (DokChain) that let providers, payers, and patients prove eligibility, claims, and consent without leaking PHI. The company was acquired by Change Healthcare in 2018. The identity question never left.
Myia Labs
Cofounder & CTO
2017 to 2022
Predictive modeling for remote patient monitoring. We reduced unplanned hospitalizations by more than 50% in the populations we touched. The technical work was interesting. The harder lesson was about which data quality issues actually move clinical outcomes, and which are just noise.
Walmart Global Tech
Group Director, Infrastructure & AI
2022 to 2025
Led identity, interoperability, information management, and AI for the Global Tech organization. Entity resolution at retail scale (the same person showing up in dozens of systems under fourteen names) is where I built deep operational expertise in privacy-enhancing technology, because the alternative was a compliance disaster.
Now
I currently split time between two ventures. userdata is this consulting practice: a small senior team helping enterprises extract Real Intelligence from the AI they have already invested in. Earthineering is where I am CTO and cofounder, applying ML to a much larger physical-systems problem (small modular reactors producing process heat for hydrocarbon synthesis from agricultural waste).
The two are more connected than they look. Both are about getting the most useful work out of the energy and information you already have.
How I work
Clients tend to like what I deliver. They also tend not to want me on staff, because I am not built for org charts and I am not great at corporate-process rules that exist to be rules. So I take engagements that have a beginning and an end. I do the work alongside your team, transfer what we built, and step out. It is a feature, not a bug.
The other thing worth knowing: I lead by being part of the day-to-day work. The decks come at the end, if at all. The deliverables come from the same hands that designed them.
Outside the work
I take photographs (landscapes, macro, abstract) and I run trails when I am trying to think. California-based.