Smarkle

About

Strong families don't happen by accident

Some of life's most important work happens quietly. Teaching a child to work. Learning to listen to a spouse. Making room for grandparents. Helping someone through a hard season. Creating traditions children will one day want to pass on.

We believe that work deserves the same intentional thought people give their businesses, careers and finances. But a family can't become one more organization to manage. It has to stay a place where people are known, loved and given room to grow.

That's what Smarkle is for.

Grandparents hugging three grandchildren close at the open window of a red brick porch, with green leaves behind them.
A grandmother reaching into a green garden bed while two small children crouch beside her, seen from above and behind.
An older man stirring vegetables in a pan while two younger adults chop beside him, all smiling, in a home kitchen.

Our story

Where it began

Five people sharing supper at a round table in front of an open balcony window in warm evening light, one reading from a picture book.

  1. Where we started

    Our work began years ago with a structured approach to family life. We borrowed from organizational leadership: a long-term vision, regular planning, family meetings, real responsibilities, issue lists, assessments, retreats and celebrations. Much of it helped.

  2. A harder question

    Then a harder question surfaced. Could the tools meant to strengthen family relationships become one more set of chores competing with them? That question changed our direction.

  3. What we learned

    We looked at communities where shared work, worship, identity and ties across generations are simply part of life, including the Amish and observant Jewish communities. We read research on attachment, family ritual, marriage, meaningful responsibility and how values pass between generations. The lesson was simple. Relationships come first, and structure exists to serve them. The system is scaffolding. The family culture is the building.

The system is scaffolding. The family culture is the building.

Laurence Bunker, founder of Smarkle
A single-storey office and shop building with a timber-framed covered entry, seen across a parking lot under a stormy sky.

Western Timber Frame, Payson, Utah

The founder

Meet Laurence Bunker

President of Western Timber Frame · Builder · Father

He knows both halves of the work: seeing a vision, and doing the practical things that make it real.

Laurence leads Western Timber Frame, a Utah manufacturing company, with responsibilities that span sales, marketing, finance, design, engineering, manufacturing and operations. His own background runs from the executive office to the shop floor: construction, cabinetmaking, custom fabrication, building homes, and building the digital systems that hold a company together. He knows both halves of the work: seeing a vision, and doing the practical things that make it real.

Through the work of its whole team, Western Timber Frame has built 7,000+ structures in all 50 states since 2009, appeared on the Inc. 5000 in multiple years, and earned 33 Utah Best of State awards across 9 categories (2014–2025). The company was named Utah's 2026 SBA Manufacturing Small Business of the Year. That award, like the others, belongs to the company and its people.

None of this proves that Smarkle helps families. Only families can show that. What it does show is a working life spent building systems and teams, and learning when a system should get out of the way.

Western Timber Frame's record, the work of its whole team

  • 7,000+ structures built

  • All 50 states

  • 33 Utah Best of State awards

  • Inc. 5000, multiple years

  • Utah's 2026 SBA Manufacturing Small Business of the Year

From the shop floor to the kitchen table

Bringing it home

Applying that discipline to family life taught a lesson no company ever did. A family needs structure, but the structure has to serve the relationships, and the goal is people who can lead themselves.

A family of five walking hand in hand in a line through tall grass at dusk, with string lights glowing at the edge of the field.

The questions

  1. How do you make sure every child is known and loved?

  2. How do you grow real responsibility without turning childhood into a checklist?

  3. How do you share a direction while respecting each person's individuality?

  4. And how do you keep the system from becoming one more burden?

Those questions are where Smarkle comes from.

A laughing man receiving a carved roast on a wooden board, passed hand to hand along a candlelit dinner table.

Founding families

Built with families, not just for them

We're building slowly, with a small group of founding families, so we can learn from their experience before we grow. We want to know what feels natural, what creates needless upkeep, what families quietly abandon, and what genuinely helps them grow closer.

What we want to learn from them

  • What feels natural

  • What creates needless upkeep

  • What families quietly abandon

  • What genuinely helps them grow closer

There are no ads and no trackers. A family's life belongs to the family.

A smiling grandmother in a patterned headscarf with her arms around two young children in a leafy garden.

Our maxim

We rise by raising

Our hope is homes where people are known, loved, trusted and given real opportunities to grow. Where children become capable adults. Where spouses strengthen one another. Where grandparents stay part of the story. Where people learn to work, serve, forgive and govern themselves. And where the best of one generation becomes a foundation the next can build on.

The pattern for all of it is an old one: the greatest among us is the one who serves. We believe it is worth building on purpose.

Laurence

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