About

Thom Stratton was born and raised in Idaho, and is quite content to live here forever. He discovered computer programming when he was nine and borrowed his sister’s college textbook on BASIC. He wrote his first computer program on notebook paper. Soon his parents bought him his first computer, a TI-99/4A.

At that point in time the Internet was but a twinkle in Al Gore’s eye, and 8 MHz processors were considered blazing fast. Thom wrote lots of programs and games, but never seriously considered computers as anything but a hobby. He set his sights on a career as a music teacher instead.

By the time he graduated from college with a degree in music, however, he was no longer sure what he wanted to be. He just knew he wanted to be out of college. The Internet was just starting to take form, with bulletin board services like CompuServe and AOL forming the bulk of the public experience. Knowing he needed to find something, Thom set out to discover his career in the booming metropolis of Boise.

His first job, in customer service, didn’t last long and instead he fell quite unintentionally back into the world of computers. Working primarily as systems analyst, he worked for a small, private company, and then a large, Fortune 500 company. Along the way he picked up an MBA, and an interest in entrepreneurship.

By now the Internet was reshaping the way the world did business, for better and for worse. Social Media was just coming into its own. Curious but cautious, Thom stayed on the sidelines for awhile and watched, trying to make sense of what this all meant for business in general, and for him specifically. Finally, he became convinced that Social Media was not a fad, it was an entirely new way of applying time-honored business principles.

He also realized that there were quite a few businessmen out there who didn’t understand or trust what Social Media had to offer them, but were undoubtedly hearing from all the pundits that they needed to embrace the Internet or perish. People needed him, he realized. He could do what they needed done.

And so Thom Stratton Consulting was born.