Business consultant · Innovation strategist · Bowie, Maryland · Serving nationwide
Make your next business or innovation decision clear.
Draw on 25 years of experience helping founders find real customers and helping agencies, universities, and companies turn innovation plans into systems people can use.
Based in Bowie, Maryland · Serving the DC region in person & clients nationwide
$1.5B
National Security Innovation Network teaming agreement negotiated
25+ yrs
Advising across government, academia, and the private sector
283
Institutions across 29 countries convened through Lean Innovation Education Summits
1,500+
Federal personnel trained in Lean Startup innovation methods at the NGA
About
The pitch deck isn't the business. The customer is.
Tyrome Smith is an innovation strategist and entrepreneurship advisor based in Bowie, Maryland, and the founder of Go In Now, LLC. For more than 25 years he has worked the full span of the innovation economy — inside intelligence agencies, in HBO's executive suite, on university campuses, and beside first-time founders testing whether anyone actually wants what they're building.
His method is grounded, not theoretical: Lean Startup, business model design, and customer discovery, sharpened through the I-Corps program and applied to problems from a founder's first hundred customer interviews to a $1.5 billion national security teaming agreement. He has coached startups that advanced to Techstars and SXSW, and built partnership models that moved real money into HBCU innovation ecosystems.
Today he serves as Manager of Strategic Partnerships at Bowie State University, strategic advisor to GI Ventures at the Griffiss Institute, and a member of the Stimson Center's Alfred Lee Loomis Innovation Council — while advising a working roster of startups and mission-driven organizations.
The advisory practice
Choose the decision you need to make. Tyrome works through it with you and keeps the engagement focused on your situation.
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Entrepreneurship Consulting & Startup Advisory Zero to traction
Customer discovery that kills bad assumptions early, business models built around the job your customer is hiring you to do, and honest go-to-market sequencing. Includes navigation of non-dilutive capital — SBIR, STTR, and the federal funding paths most founders never learn exist. Explore entrepreneurship consulting.
For: early-stage founders, accelerator cohorts, student ventures -
Business & Innovation Strategy Consulting For institutions
Connecting innovation portfolios to mission strategy so pilots stop dying in PowerPoint. Mission Model Canvas facilitation, innovation accelerator design, and the organizational change work that makes new methods stick — proven inside the NGA across eight years and 1,500+ trained personnel. Explore innovation strategy consulting.
For: federal agencies, corporations, mission-driven organizations -
Strategic Partnerships Consulting Deals that compound
Teaming agreements, university–industry–government partnership models, and technology commercialization strategy. Deep experience integrating HBCUs into national innovation ecosystems — with the negotiated agreements and funded programs to show for it. Explore strategic partnership advisory.
For: universities, economic development organizations, consortiums -
Executive Coaching & Facilitation Leaders under load
One-on-one coaching for senior leaders and founders, plus designed offsites and strategic planning sessions that produce decisions, not just alignment theater. Certified Group Relations Consultant through the AK Rice Institute.
For: executives, leadership teams, boards
Need broader help with strategy, operations, or execution? Explore business consulting.
Discuss your advisory workExperience
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1996 — Present
Founder & Principal Consultant Go In Now, LLC · Bowie, MD
Independent advisory practice spanning innovation strategy, startup coaching, ecosystem development, and executive facilitation for public, private, and academic clients.
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2026 — Present
Manager, Strategic Partnerships Bowie State University
Advancing the university's research commercialization and applied partnership portfolio across federal agencies and industry.
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2026 — Present
Strategic Advisor GI Ventures · Griffiss Institute
Shaping venture programming, vetting startups and investors, and building resource strategy for a growing innovation ecosystem.
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2025 — Present
Council Member Alfred Lee Loomis Innovation Council · Stimson Center
Contributing to U.S. tech policy at the intersection of AI, national security, and innovation ecosystems.
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2021 — 2024
Director of Strategic Partnerships Common Mission Project
Negotiated a $1.5B NSIN IDIQ teaming agreement; secured $1.1M in corporate funding including $300K dedicated to HBCUs; produced Lean Innovation Education Summits serving 1,000+ participants from 283 institutions in 29 countries.
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2022 — 2024
Entrepreneur in Residence & Adjunct Faculty Bowie State University
Coached student ventures through business planning, strategy briefs, and venture capital pitch preparation.
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2013 — 2021
Corporate Innovation Strategist Parsons Corporation · NGA
Embedded Lean Startup practice inside the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency: 1,500+ personnel trained, a Lean Innovation Accelerator coaching 10 product teams, and lead consultation on a CIO/CTO merger affecting 1,700+ people.
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2009 — 2013
Strategic Business Consultant CACI International · NGA
Facilitated executive strategy that secured over $250M in program funding for the agency's shift to a digital, on-demand environment.
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2007 — 2008
Vice President, Organizational Development HBO
Advised senior leadership on talent strategy and leadership development through a period of industry disruption; built the executive successor map.
M.A., Human Communication — Howard University · B.A. — Shippensburg University · VC certificates, UC Berkeley · Black Executive Leadership Program, McKinsey Academy
Boards & advisory seats
- NIST Manufacturing Extension PartnershipNational Advisory Board
- Stimson Center — Loomis Innovation CouncilCouncil Member
- Griffiss Institute — GI VenturesStrategic Advisor
- Applied Research NetworkStrategic Advisor
- Public Spend ForumSenior Consultant
- Skyline Nav AI · Coordle · CARENUUMStartup Advisor
- Build in Tulsa — Techstars AcceleratorStartup Mentor
- AK Rice InstituteFellow
- Catalyst Leadership TrustMember
- SXSWPast Advisory Board
- Rhinebeck VenturesImpact Advisor
Speaking & media
Keynotes, panels, and national-stage facilitation on innovation, entrepreneurship, and the future of the workforce — delivered for NASA, the Department of Defense, UNCF, and federal innovation communities across the country.
- KeynoteNASA IDEA Awards — "The Audacity of Imagination"
- KeynoteNextGen Gov Summit — Confronting Unconscious Bias
- EmceeFederal Laboratory Consortium National Awards
- EmceeNASA MSI Wildfire Climate Tech Challenge
- PanelistDoD Inaugural D&I Summit
- FacilitatorUNCF / Applied Research Institute — "Meeting of the Minds"
- SpeakerUNCF STEM Innovation Summit — "HBCU 3.0: Designing Experiences"
- PanelistBEYA STEM 2026 — Coaching for Impact
- DirectorDenied, Excluded, Invisible — Group Relations Conference 2025
What Problem Are You Solving?
Hear direct conversations about founders, customer discovery, and how useful products get built. Live Mondays at 9:30 p.m. ET. Watch on YouTube
Featured in & heard on
- Podcast Breaking Norms in the Defense Innovation Ecosystem The Unredacted Podcast · February 2, 2026 · 1 hr 38 min — federal procurement, competition, and delivering defense capabilities
- LinkedIn Event The MIC: Designing Programs That Move Watch the event replay on LinkedIn
- Federal Profile NIST MEP — Former Advisory Board Member Official profile highlighting strategic partnerships and innovation leadership
- Quoted Expert UC Berkeley Blum Center — Customer Discovery in Practice Mission-driven innovation and understanding beneficiaries
- Profile AAAS HBCU Making & Innovation Initiative Leadership development and innovation ecosystem profile
- Expert Profile Stimson Center — Loomis Innovation Council Expert bio, U.S. tech policy & innovation ecosystems
- University Profile Bowie State University — Entrepreneur in Residence Supporting student founders and university innovation
- Podcast Creating Big-League Results on Minor-League Resources Federal Laboratory Consortium — The Transfer Files
- Feature How Tyrome Smith Found His Innovation Purpose Wellspring — from cop to coach: a story on innovation ikigai
- Podcast Where Do Black Voices Fit in Shaping Tomorrow's Economy? From Chains to Links — Black Innovation Alliance
- Podcast Human Architecture: Creating Citizens vs. Building Institutions Control the Room / Facilitation Lab, Voltage Control
- Interview Mission-Driven Leadership and Innovation The Brand Called You — S6 E240
- Workshop Designing Your Business with the Business Model Canvas Recorded session on value creation and business design
- Speaker HBCU Empower Summit — Empowering the Ecosystem Howard University School of Business
- Speaker Guilford Dialogues Guilford College national speaker series
- Featured Speaker UNCF STEM Summit: Building the Next Generation of AI Innovators HBCU 3.0, higher-education AI strategy, and Innovation Challenge judging
- News Feature Epicenter Launches Innovate Xcelerate Tyrome facilitates a design-thinking workshop for Memphis entrepreneurs
- Conference Director Denied, Excluded, Invisible Systems perspectives on leadership, power, group dynamics, and DEI
- Talk Tyrome Smith Talk Long-form video presentation released in 2026
Engagements & inquiries
Tell Tyrome what needs to move.
Share the problem, the pressure, and the result you need. Tyrome responds directly.
- Email tysmith@goinnow.co
- Phone +1 240 372 1553
- AddressBowie, Maryland, United States
- LinkedIn /in/tyromesmith
- Instagram @tysmith1906
- Podcast @whatpays
- Proposals Request via LinkedIn Services