ATL Grad, LLC Announces CB Smithwick as Partner

ATLANTA, Aug. 11, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- ATL Grad, LLC, an Atlanta-based provider of graduation and recognition products and services, today announced that CB Smithwick has officially joined the company as a new partner. This strategic move is expected to strengthen the company's market position, expand its service offerings, and fuel growth.

"We couldn't be more excited and optimistic about the future with CB," said Brad Shea, Managing Member of ATL Grad, LLC. "CB brings an incredibly unique and relevant wealth of experience, relationships, and resources to the company. Combined with our strong foothold in the industry and unwavering loyalty from our longstanding clients, the company is positioned to do more in the next two years than any other player in the industry."

After his service in the United States Army, CB began his professional career at BellSouth, now AT&T, as a B2B Account Executive and quickly advanced to management. He left BellSouth to begin what would ultimately become Raise Company, LLC, a digital consulting agency in Atlanta, GA. Throughout the years, clients have included Adobe Systems, the United States Army, Taco Bell (YUM! Brands), Hewlett-Packard, the Association for Contract Textiles, Benson Integrated Marketing Solutions, Mohawk, Coro Realty, Grant Design Collaborative, Decca Ltd., Georgia-Pacific, University of Georgia, the National Wild Turkey Federation, onXmaps, Inc., Haas Outdoors, Inc., and more.

Additionally, CB founded a startup, Koopedia, that disrupted the marketing space. It focused on helping small business owners start, grow, and expand their companies through hyper-local marketing. Similar to most players in the industry, Koopedia did this through promotions on behalf of the businesses. The main difference was the amount the business owners paid for the service – zero. Instead, the consumers paid a small transaction fee when they purchased the deals. Other local marketing companies charged the business owner up to 95% of the revenue from the promotion.

Koopedia experienced amazing growth and success to the point that they were featured in TechCrunch.

See the article here – https://techcrunch.com/2012/11/29/koopedia-daily-deals/

CB eventually bought out his partner, Thomas, and became the sole owner of the company in 2013.

After making a significant impact, Koopedia was approached by a leader in the space with an offer to acquire its intellectual property. The deal was executed after careful consideration and some back-and-forth negotiations. The time was right for CB to move forward and get back to his roots of helping small businesses. The best way he found to truly help these small businesses was to leverage the immense knowledge and experience he had acquired from working with some of the world's largest companies and make it affordable.

"As a partner, I will immediately apply the same intellect, strategy, resources, and grit to the goals of ATL Grad as I have in every other venture or project I've been a part of," said CB Smithwick. "If you're on the receiving end of that, plan accordingly."

This partnership marks a significant milestone for ATL Grad as it advances its plans to make an even greater impact on the graduation and achievement industry. The company is confident that the addition of CB Smithwick will contribute significantly to its continued success and growth.

About ATL Grad, LLC
ATL Grad, LLC, an Atlanta-based provider of graduation and recognition products and services, is managed by Brad Shea, an 18-year veteran of the industry.

Contact
CB Smithwick
Partner
[email protected]
404-615-7702

SOURCE ATL Grad, LLC