Sixwatch, LLC

About us

Sixwatch, LLC is a Louisiana limited liability company building SIX, a wrist-worn post traumatic stress monitoring system for military and civilian use.

Chad M. Smith

Founder, Sixwatch, LLC

Chad M. Smith is an entrepreneur from Louisiana whose career spans military service, hospitality management, business ownership, and hands-on technical work. His path into mental health technology began in the U.S. Army as an EFMB medic paratrooper, where he gained direct experience with trauma and the psychological conditions that follow it. That experience shaped his commitment to building tools that address post traumatic stress with the same seriousness as visible injury.

After military service, Chad managed restaurant operations, including as General Manager at River City Bar & Grill, where he led staff development, operational improvement, and customer-facing teams. He later owned and operated his own business, building the acumen required to launch and scale a medical device company. He expanded into welding and fabrication, applying the same problem-solving discipline to physical systems design.

Chad brings medical and psychological insight from trauma exposure, leadership experience in both operational and civilian environments, and the adaptability to move between industries without losing focus on the mission. His vision for SIX comes from personal and professional experience with post traumatic stress. He leads Sixwatch with strategic intent and direct understanding of what invisible injury costs the people who carry it.

Chad has pursued undergraduate study and professional certifications and continues to develop the technical and business foundation required for medical device development.

Venus Smith

Co-Owner, Sixwatch, LLC

Venus Smith is Chad's wife and the support person whose lived experience sits at the center of SIX's Buddy Band design. For years she has stood on the other end of post traumatic stress, responding to withdrawal, anger, silence, and behavioral fallout without access to the physiological storm underneath, wanting to help but often left to guess. That is the gap the Buddy Band is built to close: proportional awareness for the person beside the survivor, without requiring explanation in the moment. Venus brings that perspective not as theory but as daily life.

Professionally, she brings more than twenty years of healthcare operations experience and seven years of small-business ownership to Sixwatch. She is a Certified Surgical Technologist with an Associate of Science in Surgical Technology and a career built in high-acuity operating room environments, including lead roles at Glenwood Hospital and Ochsner LSU Health in Monroe, Louisiana, and travel assignments at major medical centers nationwide.

In the OR, Venus specialized in sterile technique, surgical instrumentation, inventory control, vendor coordination, and staff training across general, gynecological, orthopedic, neurological, ENT, urology, cardiovascular, and other specialty procedures. She streamlined instrument sets, mentored new surgical technologists, and worked under pressure where precision, infection control, and team communication directly affected patient outcomes. That background translates directly to a medical device company where process discipline, quality standards, and operational reliability are not abstract values.

For approximately seven years, Venus owned and operated ICR Designs, an art and crafts company, managing product, customers, inventory, and day-to-day business operations from the ground up. That experience built the entrepreneurial foundation for scaling a product-based company alongside technical development.

She currently serves as Operational Supervisor for Beall's, where she leads retail operations, staff, and workflow in a high-volume consumer environment. Combined with her surgical and small-business background, she strengthens Sixwatch on execution: turning concept into repeatable operations, supporting team coordination, and keeping the company grounded in the people and processes required to deliver a physical product to market.

As co-owner, Venus connects Sixwatch's mission to the support-person role the company was designed to serve, bringing operational leadership, healthcare-domain credibility, and the firsthand understanding of what invisible injury costs the family standing beside the survivor.

William Poland

Executive Leadership, Sixwatch, LLC

William Poland is a results-driven leader with more than twenty years of military, medical, and organizational experience. He holds a Master of Public Health from Texas A&M University and brings a focused commitment to helping people in need.

William drives organizational strategy with precision in planning, communication, and execution. Peers and leaders describe him as goal-oriented, of strong character and integrity, and effective at translating business objectives into processes and team outcomes. He has led organizations from three to one hundred fifty personnel, managed annual operating budgets exceeding four hundred thousand dollars, and maintained equipment inventories valued at over twenty-five million dollars with readiness rates at ninety-five percent.

In medical logistics, William managed stock inventories valued at over twelve million dollars with distribution accuracy and customer satisfaction rates at ninety-seven percent. He has developed policy and directives for demanding global environments, supervised organizational training and readiness, and maintained internal control systems that support accurate tactical and strategic decisions.

William's core strengths include confident communication, motivation, empathy, and relatability, qualities aligned with Sixwatch's mission in mental health technology and with the human side of serving trauma-exposed military and civilian populations.

Company and development status