Brennen Bliss is founder and CEO of Propellic, the Austin, Texas travel marketing agency he started at 14 as PixelCutLabs and refocused on travel in 2021. He is a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree in marketing and advertising and speaks on how travel brands earn visibility as travelers turn to AI assistants.
PixelCutLabs, From a Bedroom
Bliss founded the business in 2014, at 14, building websites and running SEO from his bedroom under the name PixelCutLabs. On his about page he writes that for years it was a general agency that took the work that came, and by 2020 it was spread thin across industries it did not understand. The travel clients were the exception.
"So in 2021 we cut everything else and rebranded to Propellic," he writes. "That was the real founding, if I'm honest about it." The agency now has about 25 people, all focused on travel and tourism.
Travel Discovery in the AI Era
His focus now is how travel brands earn visibility inside AI answers and how that ties back to bookings and revenue. "Ranking is not the same thing as being the answer," he writes. He is coauthoring research with Phocuswright on how ready the travel industry is for AI discovery, and he speaks at WTM London, Phocuswright, and Arival.
Propellic's AI search service tracks travel brands across more than 50 AI scenarios daily in a 90-day sprint.