Meet Brent Thomson of Blip Billboards

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brent Thomson.

Hi Brent, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I grew up in rural Southern Utah, pre-internet (at least before it reached all the way out there). I played some video games as a kid but didn’t really get deep into computers until college (Arizona State and then BYU).

During high school and college, I had a wide range of jobs: Dishwasher, Firefighter, Landscaper, Data entry, Short-order cook, Shooting instructor, Author, DJ, System administrator, and Programmer.

I studied a little of everything in college (instructional psychology, archeology, electrical engineering, math) and finally graduated in computer science. I started my first business while still in college and haven’t had a “real job” since graduating.

I’ve founded companies whose products range from payments to telecom to river rafting ERP software to (now) billboards.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I have a knack for starting companies right before the global economy falls off a cliff (1999, 2006). The fact that Blip had 4 years between inception and the pandemic was something of a miracle.

We’ve been impressed with Blip Billboards, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
We operate a marketplace for buying and selling offline advertising space.

The change that we brought to the industry was the ability to decrease the unit of sale from multi-week or multi-month placements to only a few seconds at a time. This eliminated the minimum budget requirement which has always been a problem for small businesses that wanted to advertise in the most prominent places.

What were you like growing up?
I grew up in a tiny town (12 people in my graduating class in high school). I always liked video games and tinkering with stuff, but there was no real outlet in my town for anyone with technical proclivities. Instead, I spent most of my time playing sports and doing outdoorsy stuff. I don’t regret that at all.

As a kid, I was always the ring leader, in spite of some pretty strong introversion. I was interested in everything and simply dragged my siblings and friends into whatever I wanted to explore next.

I built my share of stuff at an early age, but my obsession was taking stuff apart. My parents eventually started bringing home broken fan motors and one-dollar telephones from the second-hand store to keep me from dissecting stuff from around the house that we used and needed.

In college, I finally got some deep technical exposure. Looking back, I can see that I had those engineering tendencies my whole life, but couldn’t have discovered and developed them without heading off to the university.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.blipbillboards.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blipbillboards/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blipbillboards/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/blipbillboards