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Chapter 1: The B[rent] Com[stock] Story
It all began with a 12-year-old boy who had a knack for technology and a passion for helping others.
Brent Comstock was in middle school when he began solving computer problems for the people of Auburn, Nebraska. Brent might describe Auburn as a rural southeastern Nebraska community with approximately three and a half thousand citizens, exactly two stoplights, and one big heart. This heart was embodied by many of Brent’s first clients: elderly ladies with computer malfunctions.
Brent was 15 when he pitched his first website to a local business owner – and it wasn’t long before he had established himself as a local entrepreneur. With his rapidly growing business and passion for rural innovation, he quickly developed a platform not only as one of Auburn’s youngest community leaders, but also as a nationally recognized advocate for innovation and business.
Around the time Brent was a junior in high school, he began attracting attention outside of his rural hometown. Personally meeting with President Barack Obama and handing him a business card was perhaps the highlight of his national recognition in high school.
At age 18, traveling 1,200 miles across America to dual enroll in Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill did nothing to sever Brent’s strong connection with his community. When an opportunity arose for him to officially establish his one-man shop in a real office on Central Avenue, he remembers being hesitant only for a short time.
“No, that’s foolish,” he recalls saying at first. “My mom won’t let me.”
But inevitably his dream took hold and Brent knew this was not a chance he could pass up.
And so throughout the winter of his freshman year of college, he went about hiring his first employees and preparing to run a brick-and-mortar business. Yes. He did this from his dorm room in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. In May 2014, Brent Comstock’s hard work paid off and BCom Solutions, LLC officially opened its doors at 919 Central Avenue in Auburn, Nebraska.
Related Media Links
- UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School (Spring 2015)
- Silicon Prairie News (May 2015)
- The Daily Tarheel (September 2014)
- Lincoln Journal Star (September 2012)
- Lance’s Journal (January 2012)
Chapter 2: Central Avenue
BCom Solutions, LLC employed only three individuals on the day of its May 2014 ribbon-cutting celebration. Today, with a team that is now 9 members strong, BCom Solutions, LLC provides services to over 500 marketing and technology clients across the nation.
Although headquarters remains in Auburn, Nebraska, much of BCom’s growing staff works remotely from towns like Lincoln (Nebraska), Saint Joseph (Missouri), and even Chapel Hill, North Carolina where Comstock is now dual-enrolled at the University of North Carolina and Duke University.
Currently the BCom staff is comprised of students and young professionals nearly all under the age of 30. Comstock believes his team’s high-energy approach to building action-oriented solutions for clients is one of the key elements to his young company’s success.
Above all, BCom Solutions values its community and clients. Never missing an opportunity to forge lasting relationships, the BCom team revels in developing the right formula to accommodate each client seeking a solution.
Related Media Links
Chapter 3: The Rural Innovation Catalyst Powered by BCom Solutions
The idea behind Brent Comstock’s plan for a Rural Innovation Catalyst Program is to build a network of resources for young people interested in developing business in rural areas.
In 2014 Brent was featured by TEDx Lincoln with his talk entitled “One town. Two stoplights. Unlimited possibilities”. Using his experience as a small town business owner, Comstock outlined the ways he believes rural communities across the nation can thrive.
At the beginning of Summer 2015 Comstock completed a two-week 2,000-mile rural innovation tour stopping in Nebraska and Iowa communities to discuss the growth of start-up businesses in small towns across the Midwest. Stage one of Comstock’s plans for catalyzing rural start-ups is embodied by the “innovation space” in his Auburn storefront where he invites business owners and entrepreneurs to set up shop.
Success for rural towns, Brent believes, lies not in one big company sustaining a large number of jobs, but on networks of small businesses and start-ups taking risks and succeeding together.
Related Media Links
Chapter 4: Silicon Prairie Strong
BCom is proud to be part of the Silicon Prairie community of business, technology, and most importantly, innovation.
On October 1, 2015 the BCom Team had the privilege of taking part in the fourth annual Silicon Prairie Awards Ceremony, where Chief Innovator Brent Comstock was recognized as the Silicon Prairie Student Entrepreneur of the Year.
Brent’s trophy, shaped like a golden prairie dog and affectionately referred to by 919 Central Avenue staff as “P.J.”, has been adopted as a new component of BCom’s company culture.
Related Media Links
- Silicon Prairie News (August 2015)
- Silicon Prairie News (October 2015)