Laura and Quentin Sanford

Alum starts business in Downtown Fresno, serves small businesses worldwide

By ELISA NAVARRO, Student Writer

Three years ago Fresno State student and theatre enthusiast Quentin Sanford started a technology-focused entertainment media licensing company, Broadway Media Distribution (BMD), in Downtown Fresno.

BMD provides backdrop-replacing animated scenic videos to amateur theatres, and in three short years has developed a worldwide base of customers. With Sanford’s passion for both art and business, he has been able to successfully develop this company which serves a great purpose.

“I’ve always been an artist and have been able to develop art in many different functions, and I also know how to represent myself. So I’m able to bridge the gap between the artist and the buyer, making sure the artist gets paid and the buyer gets something real. BMD serves that purpose,” said Sanford.

Itself a small business (they have a staff of eight), BMD works to ensure small theaters with small operating budgets have access to high quality content. Sanford also wants to educate the market about the usefulness of a company like his own.

“There is always a hurdle…and for most small businesses it is the cash flow without hurting relationships, and it’s always a battle and it’s something I have learned,” Sanford said, “I don’t own any art. I represent those artists and I get to sell their artwork to deserving companies all around the world and they are going to get a cut of every sale for the rest of their lives,” Sanford said.

(Company illustration of the staff at BMD) Quentin is on the ladder and Laura, his wife, is next to him.

“We signed some deals with publishers that will take effect in the spring and we are going to be able to jump from targeting 2 percent of the market to 70 percent of the market,” Sanford said. “In the next five years of the company, we are going to see pretty amazing exponential growth, and the way our model is developed with the contracted artist…we are going to be able to scale that very fluently and still have no problem being headquartered right here in Fresno.”

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Fusing theatre and technology
From small town kid to CEO of a global brand