Tyler Christner can adapt.
As a child, he sold beach glass, berries and homemade survival bracelets to tourists in rain-soaked Southeast Alaska. After his family moved to Eagle, he worked as a teenage ranch hand on southern Idaho’s arid Snake River Plain.
Now a University of Idaho junior earning a bachelor’s degree in natural resources enterprise management from the College of Natural Resources and an entrepreneurship certificate from the College of Business and Economics, Christner has turned a problem he encountered on the ranch into a business.
His company, Boundary Sign, makes aluminum signs that slide over metal fenceposts, making them difficult to remove or destroy. He credits U of I mentors with helping him bring the product to market.
“My professors at the College of Natural Resources and the College of Business and Economics encouraged me to pursue this sign project and helped me get connected to the right people,” Christner said.
Christner won last year’s Idaho pitch competition, a fast-paced entrepreneurial event where students pitch innovative product ideas to local business leaders and investors. a fast-paced entrepreneurial event where students pitch innovative product ideas to local business leaders and investors.
His idea to construct aluminum boundary signs that slide over metal fenceposts, making them difficult to remove or destroy, caught the attention of investors who attended the event. The idea was inspired by his work on the ranch of Harry Bettis, a U of I donor and one of the state’s biggest cattle producers.
“A lot of people would trespass on Harry’s land, drive four-wheelers, build bonfires, bust down fences and shoot up the signs,” Christner said.
To address the problem, Christner and his dad came up with the idea of building a more durable no-trespassing sign.
“On the old signs, they would get stolen or destroyed by people. Cows would rub them off or the sun and wind would fade them real bad,” Christner said. “I had to install a lot of signs and found there was no way to secure them to a metal T-post.”
His dad, Matt Christner, ’96, a U of I alumnus who graduated with a degree in architecture, is the one who ultimately came up with the final design.
“These signs just take a couple seconds to install. You slide them over the post and they lock on securely,” Christner said. “They are durable and reliable.”
I took the idea for Boundary Sign off the shelf, and sure enough the judges and investors liked it.
Tyler Christner
Undergraduate in natural resource enterprise management
The design was tweaked several times, Christner said. Although he and his dad produced signs that were used on the ranch, the production cost was high, so they quit making the signs and the project was put on the backburner until Christner was preparing for the pitch competition.
“I took the idea for Boundary Sign off the shelf, and sure enough the judges and investors liked it,” he said.
His U of I mentors helped him find a Spokane manufacturer that could make the signs at a lower cost using higher-quality aluminum, he said.
Christner’s aluminum fencepost signs are stocked in farm and supply stores in Idaho and Montana, including in Great Falls and Boise, and he plans to expand into neighboring states such as Utah, Wyoming and Washington.
George Tanner, director of Idaho Entrepreneurs and senior instructor of entrepreneurship at U of I, helped develop CNR’s natural resources enterprise management curriculum three years ago. He said Christner and his sign company are a great example of what the program strives to produce.
“Tyler has taken a solid idea, created a great company around it and has turned it into a profitable enterprise that combines his love of the outdoors with his passion for independence and the freedom a startup provides him,” Tanner said.
Christner credits his childhood sales ventures and ranch work with helping him develop a strong business acumen and work ethic, he said.
“I did the labor jobs the other ranch hands didn’t want to do,” Christner said. “It forged my work ethic and problem-solving skills, which I utilize in my current studies and business ventures.”