Brent Comstock, though just a first year, is the founder and owner of bCom Solutions, a business that develops marketing strategies and technology integration plans. Most recently, Brent travelled to New York City to give a Ted Talk on innovation.
HerCampus: What are you studying at UNC?
Brent Comstock: I am studying business and religious studies.
HC: What are you involved with on campus?
BC: I am an executive assistant to the student body president. I am a member of PBL, which is like Future Business Leaders of America, [I am in Wesley] campus ministries, and I am also on the March of Dimes National Youth Council. It’s a national nonprofit. It was the leading nonprofit in curing polio. Now their pure mission is to promote prematurity awareness and healthy babies.
HC: Why did you start your business?
BC: I started my business because I am from rural Nebraska, and there was no tech company in my town, so there was really a need for it. I also got bored very easily in high school, and so from there, I just kind of started doing technology related things. Now we have clients all over the world. We do digital marketing and manage technology service plans.
HC: How exactly did you start expanding your business all over the globe?
BC: All word of mouth. We never have done a marketing campaign or anything. We didn’t sit down and say we want to target this many people per month. We’re always overloaded. I started in my community, and then I was connected through FBLA, so people were like “we’re going to have him make a website for us.” At the bottom of every website we do we put “Copyright” and “Created by” with our company name, and from there it just kind of expanded. I got invited to speak at some conferences, and now I do quite a bit of speaking to pretty much any age range. The average age range that I speak to is high schoolers, on [themes of] entrepreneurship and chasing your goals and ambitions.
HC: How do you plan to continue your business while here at Carolina?
BC: I have a couple of people that are helping me out. All of our team members work throughout the country. I’m looking to expand and hire some students, as well, for graphic design and web development because it’s so much easier to work with people that you see on a regular basis. But, it takes a lot of careful scheduling. My first iPhone I had, I had to reset it because the reminders app froze, it had about 23,000 reminders completed and it wouldn’t open. It’s definitely a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. Coming here people ask “How are you going to manage it in college?” and I’m like, “Oh the same way I did it in high school,” but it’s a lot different. It takes a lot more dedication, a lot less sleep.
HC: So what’s next for bCom Solutions?
BC: We’re still expanding and I’m trying to wrap up all of the projects that we started while I was still in Nebraska. For our soon to be target market, we’re going to look into digital marketing and technology for nonprofits and religious institutions, especially rural institutions where people feel like because they are not close to a city, they can’t have the access to the technologies and the marketing components. We’re piloting it with my home church.
HC: What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs?
BC: I would say the biggest thing for me was finding mentors. Sometimes you have to find them cold-calling style. It’s just a matter of sending an e-mail to someone or tweeting to someone and saying, “Hey, you inspired me.” Then you have a connection to them. When I started my business, I didn’t have a set mentor, I had businesses and online websites that I would follow that served as my mentors. But now I have a couple of mentors who are always my go-to people. Even though sometimes my business will have what I think is a catastrophe, when I go and talk to these mentors about the situation, they have some sort of related experience.
HC: As 2013 comes to a close, what are some goals that you have for the upcoming year and spring semester?
BC: I want to explore more of this area of the United States. I do a lot of travelling but not really in this part [the Southeast]. I want to meet more people. I love networking. If I could have any job in the world that I wouldn’t have to worry about money, it would be networking, a professional networker. One last one is to find out what I’m really passionate about. I’m still working on that. I’ve got lots of ideas.
HC: What other plans do you have for your time here at Carolina?
BC: I’m looking to join an a capella group. I also play piano at University United Methodist Church, so I’m looking to become more involved in that. Music’s kind of my hobby. Everything that I’m involved in always leads to work, music is something that I’ve always been able to set aside.
HC: What lasting legacy would you like to leave at UNC?
BC: I would say that my legacy will probably come over time. The best legacy I will be able to leave is the one I don’t know about. If you’re only shooting for one end goal, for a title or for a name, or if I was even thinking about my legacy at this point, that would just mean that I’m worried about the image that I’m going to leave, and I would rather look at the impact that I can make. I would say that as long as I can make a positive impact on some aspect or some person here, I would consider that an accomplishment.
HC: What makes you proud to be a Tar Heel?
BC: The amount of ideas that collectively take place in one day is really impressive. Basketball is obviously a proud component. I’ve been to a number of college campuses, whether I’m speaking somewhere or visiting or doing something business related, but I’ve never really found a campus where there’s so much going on, but yet it’s such a small community at the same time.
HC: What’s a random fact about yourself?
BC: The town that I come from has two stoplights.
HC: If you were stranded on a desert island, what three things would you bring with you?
BC: My mom because I’m a momma’s boy, always; a bathroom–got to have running water; and a Target, like a Target Superstore. I’m not going to starve, I’m going to be able to go to the bathroom, and I’ll have food. I’m not going to have my demise on this desert island. And Target will probably have a raft or something I can blow up and get off the island. I’ll have an iPhone; I could call people on the island.
(So technically he gave four things, but we’ll forgive him.)
Want to know more? Check out Brent’s website, or follow him on twitter @brentcomstock!