Founder
Scott Smith
Principal, Ebla Advisory LLC
Scott Smith is not a consultant who learned about business from a whiteboard. He is an operator who built and ran multiple businesses simultaneously — under real financial pressure, with real stakes — and built the systems required to see clearly when everything was unclear.
Ebla Advisory is the practice that emerged from that experience.
The name comes from Ebla — a Bronze Age city-state discovered in Syria in the 1970s. Its significance was not military or architectural. Over 17,000 cuneiform tablets were found documenting trade, taxation, inventory, and commerce. It was the most sophisticated business intelligence system of the ancient world: a civilization that made itself legible at a time when everyone else was flying blind. That is the work.
What Scott brings to an engagement
Financial Forensics
Scott has reconstructed the true financial picture of businesses operating with zero formal accounting infrastructure — triangulating revenue, cost structure, and liability from disconnected primary sources. He has surfaced undiscovered financial risks that changed the entire strategic posture of the businesses he served.
Systems Architecture
Scott designed and operates a multi-entity business operating system managing five businesses simultaneously, with triage protocols, cash position alerts, and entity-segregated financial logic. The systems he builds for clients are built to the same standard he holds himself to.
Full-Stack Development
Scott has built production software — web applications with real subscribers, integrated with Stripe, Firebase, Mapbox, OpenAI, Vercel, and many more — as sole developer and operator. When off-the-shelf tools won't solve a client's problem, he builds the solution.
AI Fluency
Scott is a recognized top-tier practitioner of AI-assisted development and analysis. AI is how Ebla Advisory works — it is the capability that allows thorough analysis in days rather than weeks. It is not what we sell. Clients buy clarity and systems, not technology.
Operating Background
Beyond Ebla Advisory, Scott operates several businesses that collectively demonstrate the methods he brings to client engagements:
- — JSSVD — a 25-year architectural visualization firm
- — SAMAHA — a licensed commercial artisan bakery launched in 2024 and operating profitably in its first year
- — OT in Context — a production web application in the biblical geography and history space, with a tiered subscription model and an active acquisition conversation with a major ministry publisher
These businesses are not marketing credentials. They are the proof of concept for every system and method offered through Ebla Advisory.
"I don't trust anyone else enough to give them this information, and I legitimately have no idea where I would find someone who knows what you know."
— Client, food and hospitality sector