SQRL Holdings’ Founder and CEO, Joseph Blake Smith, is an American serial entrepreneur and realtor. He has vast expertise managing companies in the real estate and energy sectors, including SQRL Black, Rock Solid Opportunities, TriNet Realty, Standard Media, Z Banq, Standard Processing, and others, since the establishment of SQRL Holdings. SQRL Holdings has altered the convenience store marketing niche with new, original, and affective growth techniques under the direction of the former Army Lieutenant.
Smith was born on the 27th of August, 1983. Susan, his mother, was a well-known concert pianist and businesswoman. Joseph’s father, Joseph, was a linebacker for the University of Arkansas football team. Smith studied Psychology, Business, and Physics at the same university and graduated with a triple major.
Smith joined the Army ROTC and received training in jump, dive, and mountain combat before being commissioned as a Lieutenant in the 3rd Ranger Battalion. He is also thought to have been chosen for the CIA’s Special Activities Center (SAC).
In 2005, he returned to the public sector and enrolled at the University of Arkansas Law School, where he received his Juris Doctorate and an MBA from Stanford University in 2007. He voluntarily surrendered his law license the next year due to a lack of interest in continuing a legal career.
While in law school, Smith became interested in commercial real estate and property development, and it was there that he began developing land for Casey’s General Stores around Arkansas. It’s fair to say that his true business career began when he began leasing and buying mineral rights in Arkansas.
He was the CEO of a privately held captive capital organization called Rock Capital Group, which specialized in oil and gas investments and commercial real estate development. This venture successfully deployed and managed over $100 million, but one of the partners sued his company in 2015, and a $7 million settlement was reached.
Smith did not let this setback discourage him, and in 2017, he relaunched his career as an entrepreneur specializing in commercial real estate development. He is now the CEO of SQRL Holdings, a company that oversees real estate and energy businesses.
