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How do you become a successful entrepreneur in the high-tech industry, a leader in philanthropy, an author, and a huge proponent of computer science skills and education... all from the comfort of beautiful Bozeman, Montana? Greg Gianforte has managed to capitalize on all of these areas in a highly respectable manner.
 
Though his career started strong elsewhere in the United States, most of us around Bozeman became aware of Greg and his wife, Susan, when they founded the local company RightNow Technologies from their personal home back in 1997.  The company, a pioneer in the concept of cloud computing, flourished to over 1,100 employees worldwide and became publicly traded in 2004.  In 2012, Oracle purchased the very prosperous RightNow Technologies for $1.5 billion.
 
Philanthropy runs deep with the Gianfortes, most notably with their involvement with Petra Academy, as well as the Gianforte Family Foundation, founded in 2006. Greg has served as Chairman of the Board at Petra Academy since 2003. Furthermore, the Foundation announced earlier this month a $1 million gift to Montana State University to be used in the College of Engineering and Computer Science Department. The goal of the grant is to better educate and prepare Montana students to compete in computer science-related careers so they ideally will not have to leave the state after graduation to succeed financially.
 
Greg co-founded an organization called CodeMontana along with Rob Irizarry.  The organization encourages high school students to pursue computer science degrees in college in order to be prepared for high-tech jobs which offer above-average pay for Montanans. The vision of CodeMontana is “to give every Montana student the opportunity to learn about the areas of hardware and software technology that interest them.” 
 
Bozeman Technology Incubator is an example of pay-it-forward thinking. The organization is Greg’s way of giving free mentoring for both high-tech and manufacturing businesses throughout the state and creating better entrepreneurs one at a time.
 
Yet another skill Greg possesses is as an author with two books under his belt.  Bootstrapping Your Business: Start and Grow a Successful Company With Almost No Money was published in 2007 and Eight to Great: Eight Steps to Delivering an Exceptional Customer Experience in 2008.  In addition to writing, Greg has been a featured speaker at several top business schools.
 
Greg founded Bootstrap Montana which is a loan program for entrepreneurs that was established in 2007.  As their website lays out, the purpose of the program is to “loan funds to Montana entrepreneurs who embrace the business development philosophy of 'bootstrapping'—or growing a company without the aid of outside (equity) investment capital.”  The idea clearly works for the variety of businesses that have been recipients of the unique  0%, short-term, micro-loans. The program was initially funded by Greg and Susan and is now administered via the Montana State University School of Business.
 
So why Bozeman? According to an excerpt from the book Life 2.0: How People Across America Are Transforming Their Lives by Finding the Where of Their Happiness by Rich Karlgaard, Greg “had an epiphany that the Web would remove the constraint of geography.”  He stated that in 1997 he had the desire to start a new company in Montana which should be located in a university town.  He felt Montana State University offered better strength in science and engineering.  He went about raising capital, hiring top talent, and building key connections with the other high-tech companies in the area. And the rest is history in the making.