Later they lived for a time with his grandparents in Colorado and then moved to Salt Lake City where his father, J.
Fish Smith, was the co-owner of a company producing a fruit drink mix called Frutola.
Shortly afterward he used equipment at the Tums factory where his neighbor worked to reprocess his candy as SweeTarts.
There he saw many people living in poverty and suffering from having to borrow money at rates at times as high as 300%.
Oaks got him in touch with BYU's business school, and later Smith and Warner Woodworth decided to work together to address this issue.
Smith served as a member of the board of directors of the Mercatus Center of George Mason University.
[citation needed] Smith is also a donor to BYU and recognized as one of the founders of the Center for Entrepreneurship of its Marriott School of Business.