The company behind the signs for the new Pasco Aquatic Center, Benton County Fairgrounds’ recently revamped grandstands and the Columbia Valley Center for Recovery has new owners with a bold new vision.

They want to become the biggest and most trusted sign company in the Pacific Northwest.

Mustang Signs has had a presence in the Tri-Cities since 2007, when it was established as Mustang Sign Group. The former owners, Lauran Wang and Will Wang, bought the business in 2012.

Now, it’s owned by CEO Greg Gould and Chief Operating Officer Nicholas Cameron, who acquired the business at 10379 W. Clearwater Ave. in Kennewick in July 2025. 

The pair have moved at a quick pace since acquiring the business, increasing the number of staff and trucks, reorganizing, updating systems and refining workflows. Their work has been in the pursuit of some pretty heady dreams, but they also recognize the importance of setting the business on an even keel and focusing on quality before growth.

“We look at consistency as a competitive advantage,” Gould said – a task that’s not so simple to achieve when Mustang Signs’ entire line of work revolves around custom products. 

From coffee to signs

Gould and his wife wanted to move to the Tri-Cities, where several of his college friends were from, as they focused on building their family. 

Gould founded a coffee company in the Seattle area in 2011, where he worked until 2023, when he left but stayed on as a board member.

He began to look for business opportunities in the area, and Mustang Signs was the right size, the right culture and in the right industry, Gould said. 

It was the cliche of “love at first sight,” he said. 

“You know, Tri-Cities is booming, and we have amazing infrastructure out here as far as the four local cities having really good permitting processes,” he said. “And so it was pretty clear that there was a good opportunity to inherit Mustang Signs, seeing how they had built a strong reputation over the decades.”

The ownership transition was a smooth one, Gould said, and most of the staff stayed on after the changeover. While there was a steep learning curve, Gould was able to lean on his partner’s real estate development experience and the experts on Mustang Signs’ team. 

Like in his coffee business, which supplies coffee shops with custom roasts, packaging and other services, Gould has the chance with Mustang Signs to serve small businesses. He never considered himself as in the coffee business, but rather in the “people business.” 

CEO Greg Gould stands in Mustang Signs’ Kennewick office. The sign company has been growing rapidly, bringing on more team members and trucks, all while focusing on quality.  

| Photo by Rachel Visick

Changes and growth

While Mustang Signs had a strong reputation, Gould also saw the business as being at an “inflection point where the systems and the processes that got it to that point are not the same systems and processes that will take it to that next level.”

Over the past year, Mustang Signs has rapidly gained employees, doubling its sales staff and tripling project management, as well as doubling the number of bucket trucks. 

The company has a total of about 30 employees and “can’t hire fast enough,” Gould said. 

The work requires skilled craftsmen, he said, so they’ve started talking with local colleges to open up pipelines for the work.

The expanded employee base has meant the team can tackle more projects, and the organization saw some restructuring as well.

Since Gould took the reins, the company also has been working to update its systems, ensuring that various software worked together so that information wasn’t siloed. The team is also using artificial intelligence to help with busywork and organization.

The company is working to solidify its workflows into step-by-step processes to ensure consistency. That’s one thing that Gould said is a shift from how Mustang Signs operated before. 

As an entrepreneurial company, it was fast-moving and could get things done quickly, with employees figuring things out, but that’s a difficult model to grow and scale. 

That’s why he’s focusing on getting everything “in spec and on time.” 

Gould said he isn’t trying to remake who they are – after all, he bought Mustang Signs because it had a good culture – but rather to increase capacity without sacrificing quality.

“It’s been a lot of fun watching the place grow,” he said.  

Process and services

Mustang Signs is a one-stop-shop: It sees projects through from their inception all the way to installation. 

When a client brings a new project to Mustang Signs, they meet with a sign consultant who helps determine the business’s needs and budget. 

Consultants survey the property and meet with the design team, which works to complete a draft of the sign. Then the project is turned over to a project management team to execute the project.

Sometimes Mustang Signs outsources its manufacturing process, while other signs are made in-house. 

The company files required permits and coordinates with subcontractors if excavation work or concrete pouring is involved. 

Depending on the size and scope of the work and what materials are needed, the process could take from a matter of days to 12 weeks. 

One of Mustang Signs’ biggest projects under the new ownership to date took a year: the 87-foot-tall hawk on the side of Columbia Basin College’s new dorms.

There’s far more to these projects than just a sign on the side of a building. Work can also include wayfinding signs in parking lots, ADA compliance signs inside buildings, room signs, elevator signs and monument signs outside. 

Mustang Signs also works to install signs for national brands in the area, and the company offers vinyl vehicle wraps for company fleets. 

Mustang Signs CEO Greg Gould, left, and Chief Operating Officer Nicholas Cameron stand outside their office at 10379 W. Clearwater Ave., Kennewick.

| Photo by Rachel Visick

Reaching for the stars

As the team achieves its short-term goal of consistency and quality, it will be ready for bigger goals.  

Mustang Signs already serves all of Washington and Oregon, though most of its jobs are regional, Gould said. The next step is bigger: becoming the biggest, and most trusted, sign company in the Northwest. 

While that’s a big goal in and of itself, Gould said it would be on the path to expanding their model nationally, becoming the sign company for larger national brands, using installation partners all over the country. 

That’s the long-term vision, but the team is preparing to meet that goal by perfecting its processes now.

“If we can deliver results for customers that meet and exceed their expectations, the growth will follow,” Gould said.

Mustang Signs: 10379 W. Clearwater Ave., Kennewick. Contact: mustangsigns.com, 509-735-4607, [email protected].