Mark Pittman

CURIOSITY IGNITED. Mark Pittman’s life and career have been defined by a resilient and entrepreneurial spirit, rooted in the stories and experiences of his family. Raised by a German mother and a US Army soldier father, Mark’s worldview was shaped by the contrasting yet complementary influences of his grandparents, who were war refugees.

“I grew up with this very aggressive can-do spirit,” Mark recalls. This tenacity and self-reliance eventually led Mark to launch Blyncsy, a company that leverages technology to revolutionize transportation infrastructure. The inspiration for Blyncsy came during a frustrating experience at a traffic light. “I pulled up to a stoplight on a dark, wet, rainy, cold Salt Lake City evening. I waited and waited. For the first time, I asked myself, why is this happening? What is going on with the infrastructure? Who manages this?” This curiosity led Mark to engage with the city traffic engineer, sparking a fascination with transportation systems and ultimately inspiring the creation of Blyncsy.

Blyncsy, founded in 2014, provides intelligent roadway insights, automated asset management, and near real-time status updates of road infrastructure. Utilizing crowd-sourced dash camera footage from over 800,000 vehicles, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, Blyncsy helps make roadways smarter, safer, more equitable, and more efficient.

Mark’s journey began in Germany, where he spent his early years before moving to Salt Lake City at 14. The transition from liberal Europe to conservative Utah was a culture shock, but it also revealed unexpected similarities. “I came to appreciate the can-do spirit that Utah is known for,” Mark says. “The Beehive State mentality drives really well with my cultural perspective of how hard-working you’re supposed to be.”

Mark pursued his education at the University of Utah, where he was a first-generation college graduate. It was during this time that he immersed himself in innovation and entrepreneurship at the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute. “The University of Utah has one of the top five entrepreneurship programs in the world at the Lassonde Center. I got my first $2,000 for Blyncsy as part of this program, and the university became our first customer.”

PIVOTING SUCCESS. Despite its success, Blyncsy faced challenges, particularly during the pandemic. The company had to pivot, utilizing a new technology that uses computer vision to analyze crowdsourced dashcam imagery. “This was another aha moment for us,” Mark explains. “It was an inflection curve in our business, and what we ultimately built scaled incredibly quickly.”

Building a diverse team has been another challenging aspect of Mark’s journey with Blyncsy. “The longer I’ve managed teams, the more challenging I’ve found balancing that diversity element,” he reflects. “We all look towards what we know, and it’s really uncomfortable for us to step back and open ourselves to possibility.”

As an LGBTQIA+ founder, Mark was initially weary of coming out professionally in a politically conservative place. “I was very quiet about it and kept it very separate from my identity as an entrepreneur,” he admits. It wasn’t until later in his career, after raising money, that he felt more comfortable being open about his identity. “There’s never been a better time to be an LGBTQIA+ founder. I would not ever think of it as a weakness. I would only ever think of it as a strength.”

Mark’s advice to other LGBTQIA+ founders emphasizes the importance of authenticity and self-acceptance. “Do your own mental work. Figure out what it is about yourself that’s keeping you from being authentic and open. You don’t have to make it your background, but you do need to be true to yourself.”