SM: What came after Brightwork /McAfee? GG: I ‘retired’ to Bozeman, Montana in 1995. I used to vacation in Montana when I was a kid. I did some backpacking trips there. I decided to retire there because I thought it would be a good place to raise my family.
SM: What were your revenues at Brightwork? GG: Ultimately it grew to $10 million a year in revenues. SM: What are some nuggets of knowledge you took away from Brightwork? GG: Brightwork was my first entrepreneurial endeavor and I had a steep learning curve.
We have just started publishing The Montana Mogul, an interview with RightNow CEO Greg Gianforte, who has bootstrapped an over $100-million-a-year public company headquartered in Bozeman, Montana.
Greg is a serial entrepreneur and author of Bootstrapping Your Business. He was awarded the 2003 Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year. His current company, RightNow, was founded in 1998, had an IPO in 2004, and has passed $100 million in revenue. SM: To start, let’s talk about your background. GG: I am an
My new Forbes column Bootstrap Yourself highlights Silicon Valley’s hottest new trend, Bootstrapping. Great bootstrapping case studies I have covered are Sridhar Vembu, Frank Levinson and Jerry Rawls, Cree Lawson, and Beatrice Tarka. Sridhar, Frank and Jerry did it almost without any outside money, while Cree and Beatrice have done it with very small rounds
By Frank Levinson, Guest Author [Frank Levinson shares his experience bootstrapping Finisar, which became a public company later. Last year, we spoke with Jerry Rawls about Finisar’s Turnaround story, also a worthwhile read.]
The story of Sridhar Vembu’s innovative bootstrapping. A story all entrepreneurs should understand.
The VC-Entrepreneur Compensation Disbalance post has generated great discussion. In it, a theme that emerges over and again, is Bootstrapping. You have read a few of my prior writings on Bootstrapping [Is Bootstrapping Becoming Sexy and Again? and Protect Your Dilution]. There is no doubt at all anymore that bootstrapping is, indeed, becoming sexy again.