For most of us, getting stuck at a stoplight is a mild annoyance. For Mark Pittman, a JD-MBA graduate from the U, it was the start of a business opportunity.
While sitting at a stoplight in 2014, Pittman thought of ways to improve traffic patterns. While an associate in the Pierre and Claudette Lassonde New Venture Development Center, part of the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute, he began to develop “a big data network that could optimize traffic networks.” He called his company Blyncsy, and after nine months of development sold this technology to his first customer: the University of Utah. Pittman “helped them understand the movement of people from traffic stations and built a sensor technology that helps the U understand how people move on campus.”
Pittman participated in Get Seeded competitions and won money from the Utah Entrepreneur Challenge. Both are provided by the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute, which was a “critical” part of developing Blyncsy. “Without Lassonde I wouldn’t have actually known how to do this,” he said. “I actually got to put my hands on things, learn how to give pitches and presentations. I had access to a mentor network, to a resource network and capital. All the essential pieces you need to start a company are provided by Lassonde.”
Pittman has ambitious goals for the future of Blyncsy: “In five years we expect to be an international presence. We expect to be managing and controlling traffic lights throughout the U.S.” Now, Blyncsy uses tracking technology to measure “how people move generally.” Pittman wants to optimize all modes of travel and “help traffic engineers do their job better.” He hopes Blyncsy can cut wait times on roads by 20 percent while also saving lives. As more car companies integrated connected vehicle technologies, Blyncsy could warn drivers of possible dangers and use traffic data to make the roads safer for everyone. Through innovative technology and creative problem solving, the sky is the limit for this startup.
Learn more about Blyncsy at blyncsy.com.
A good initiative by the owner. This thing is the future we can rely upon.