Fast 15: Nick Smith

While working toward his marketing degree at Belmont University in Tennessee, Bentonville native Nick Smith discovered a passion for investing. However, neither of those things was his primary ambition.

“I fully believed I’d make it to the NBA,” said Smith, who stands 6-foot-8 and was a four-year letterman at Belmont. “Until my junior year, when I knew that probably wasn’t my reality.”

Smith, who holds the Belmont school record with 10 three-pointers in one game, graduated in 2017 and followed his pro basketball aspirations to Europe for a couple of years, stopping in Germany and the Czech Republic.

“It was an incredible experience, but I got dunked on more than I ever had in my career,” he joked. “So, I humbly retired.”

In the five years since returning to Northwest Arkansas, Smith has earned an MBA from the University of Arkansas and built a strong resume as a venture capital investor. Since 2023, he’s worked in a leadership role to stand up Fulcrum Collective, the consumer-focused investment arm of Rogers family office Island Ventures. He’s played an instrumental role in deploying a little over $5 million in five early-stage companies.

Smith’s strategic investment experience began in 2020 when he started work as an analyst for Walton Enterprises’ (WEI) direct and impact investment group. There, he worked with family members to invest across a range of industries and asset classes.

“I got a lot of general experience there, but the biology and healthcare stuff interested me the most,” he said. As those investments grew, Smith and three others left WEI to form SymBiosis, a Walton-backed VC firm focused on supporting the next generation of medicine.

From 2021 to 2023, Smith directed over $300 million in capital through nearly 40 investments. His leadership was instrumental in the formulation and initial execution of a comprehensive 10-year strategy to foster growth in the region’s life science sector. That included the recruitment, training and supervision of a team of six Ph.D. candidates in the SymBiosis Venture Fellow program, nurturing the next generation of medicine.

Smith is excited to lead Fulcrum Collective’s evolution but still has a passion for life-science investing. This fall, he has been invited to teach a graduate-level course at Cornell University on entrepreneurship in the life sciences and healthcare sector.