When brothers Jared and Justin Smith, together with their longtime friend Todd Burriello, founded Ironsmith Fire in July 2021, they had a simple but ambitious goal: to build a fire-protection company that would grow fast, stay independent, and never lose sight of its people.
“We were working for another company,” recalls Jared Smith, the company’s Chief Revenue Officer and Co-Founder, “and we felt that we could provide a better opportunity for the employees who were working there with us. So we stepped out on our own and, in four years, have gone from zero to 110 employees.”
That independence is more than a talking point. Ironsmith Fire operates without private-equity or venture-capital backing, a rarity in today’s construction and life-safety sectors. Its founders built it from the ground up and continue to run it on their own terms, driven by the belief that ownership and accountability should remain in the hands of the people who built the business.
“Our goal,” Jared says, “is to become a nine-figure platform company—but to do it without the private-equity aspect.”
“Our goal is to become a nine-figure platform company—but to do it without the private-equity aspect.”
The results so far speak for themselves. From day one, Ironsmith Fire exceeded every target it set. The founders’ original business plan projected $2 million in first-year sales and an increase of $1 million annually thereafter. But the company doubled that target in just five months, recording $4 million in sales between July 26 and December 31 of 2021.
“The next year we doubled that again,” Jared says. “We hit $12 million in 2023, and that’s when we realized we needed to be more analytical with our growth strategies instead of just picking an arbitrary number.”
With the help of business coaching and tighter strategic planning, Ironsmith Fire is now on a trajectory to become a nine-figure company by 2031, its tenth anniversary.
Ironsmith Fire offers comprehensive fire-protection and life-safety services, handling every aspect of a project, from design and installation to inspection and maintenance. The company provides a full suite of sprinkler and suppression systems tailored to industrial, commercial, and institutional facilities. “We’re expanding into other arenas and other areas very soon,” Jared notes. That expansion includes both new geographic regions and an ever-wider range of project types. The company has recently opened a branch in Orlando, Florida, and expects to expand into Texas and other southeastern states over the coming year. “Our goal,” he says, “is to have a geographical reach of about every 100 miles across the Southeast. Once we get to that point, we’ll start expanding west.”
In only four years, Ironsmith Fire has been entrusted with some of the largest and most complex fire-protection projects in Tennessee and beyond. A standout example of this is the Saint Jude Children’s Research Hospital expansion in Memphis, a 16-story high-rise that Jared calls “a breakout, large project” for the company. The two-year build is coming in under budget, a testament to efficient management and precision execution. “Saint Jude’s is a cancer hospital that does excellent work for everybody,” Jared explains. “They don’t charge their patients; all care is done through donations. It’s an amazing Memphis staple organization, and we’re proud to contribute to it.”
Another milestone project is for Hankook Tires in Nashville, a facility requiring the installation of 15,000 sprinklers inside a 120-foot-tall building. “It’s an ASRS rack system,” Jared says. “We had 40 to 50 guys climbing up those racks safely, installing the fire-protection systems.”
The company is also part of the $250 million renovation of Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium in Memphis, home of the University of Memphis Tigers. “We’ve had a good run of high-profile projects lately,” Jared says. “Some very big-name projects that have major implications across the state of Tennessee, the Memphis area, and the Nashville area.”
As Ironsmith Fire continues to grow, its leadership team is earning recognition across the industry. Justin Smith was recently named President of the Tennessee Chapter of the American Fire Sprinkler Association, while Jared has been selected as 2026 Chairman of the Board for the West Tennessee Chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors. These appointments reflect not only personal achievement but also the company’s increasing influence in the national conversation about fire-protection standards and workforce development.
Ironsmith Fire’s mission, Jared says, can be summed up in four words: “Redefining the industry standard.” The fire-protection sector, he explains, is often slow to change. “Our industry is aging,” he says. “We’re coming in with a new look at what can be done and how things can be done, not just doing it the way it’s always been done.”
Fire-protection work is inherently code-driven, leaving little room for creative deviation. But Ironsmith Fire differentiates itself through problem-solving and value engineering—not by breaking codes, but by optimizing performance within them. “There’s not a ton of options for how you can redesign a sprinkler system,” Jared explains. “But what you can do is be the solution provider for your client.”
That mindset has defined the company’s approach from the start. “We’re not here to just install the sprinkler system that’s shown on the plans,” he says. “We’re here to build relationships with the right clients, those who want to collaborate and find the best, fastest, and most cost-effective way to build. Finding the right partners and being that solution provider has definitely been the key to success.”
Ironsmith Fire’s independence has also insulated it from the volatility affecting many contractors that rely heavily on interest-rate-sensitive or government-funded work. “We’ve placed ourselves in a great spot,” Jared says. “We’re able to do projects that aren’t necessarily tied to the typical commercial interest-rate-driven market, and we don’t have to depend on government projects that slow down the economy. “We’ve been able to take on these mega-projects, and they’re not slowing down at all. We’re right there with them in 2025 and heading into 2026.”
The company’s founders take pride in cultivating a hands-on, ownership-driven culture that sets Ironsmith Fire apart from competitors. Every major decision is guided by the same values that motivated Jared, Justin, and Todd to strike out on their own in 2021: respect for employees, accountability to clients, and pride in workmanship. Those values are reinforced by Ironsmith Fire’s autonomy. “Because we’re independent,” Jared says, “our culture isn’t dictated by financial backers. It’s driven by the founders’ ideas and the people who come to work with us every day.” That spirit of independence also gives the company agility. Free from investor pressure, Ironsmith Fire can prioritize long-term stability over short-term gains—reinvesting in training, safety, and technology to sustain growth.
With its new Orlando branch now operational and additional states on the horizon, Ironsmith Fire’s ambitions are national in scope. “Orlando’s coming online in a big way,” Jared says. “Then we’ll expand into Texas very soon. Our goal is to build a nine-figure platform that covers the entire Southeast, and then to move west from there.”
This expansion will require people: skilled technicians, project managers, and estimators who share the company’s vision of excellence and innovation. “We’re growing fast, and we need the best people to come work for us,” Jared emphasizes. “It’s our goal to be that true solutions provider for our clients, and we can only do that with the right team.”
Four years after opening its doors, Ironsmith Fire stands as proof that independent ownership and aggressive growth can coexist. From its first $4 million in sales to its projected nine-figure future, the company has combined entrepreneurial agility with technical mastery, and in the process, has redefined what a modern fire-protection firm can be. “Our focus is simple,” Jared says. “Find the right partners, deliver the right solutions, and build relationships that last. When you do that, everything else follows.”
With its founders still leading from the front, Ironsmith Fire is poised for another year of expansion, innovation, and leadership in life-safety construction; an independent company proving that the strongest foundations are the ones you build yourself.
