The Montana Mogul: RightNow CEO Greg Gianforte (Part 6)

SM: Have you taken any venture capital funding with RightNow, or has it been solely bootstrapped? GG: We raised about $27 million in 1999 and 2000. The first key is that our partners were really good. We also were a good size, we had about 160 people on board. We had a $6-million-a-year business and they

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The Montana Mogul: RightNow CEO Greg Gianforte (Part 5)

SM: Is there any particular market segment that you have targeted, or do you simply focus on companies by size? GG: We have about 1,800 clients who tend to be larger organizations. Over 60% of our business is with corporations that have over $1 billion in revenue. Some of our larger verticals are telecommunications, which accounts

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The Montana Mogul: RightNow CEO Greg Gianforte (Part 4)

SM: How did you conduct sales at RightNow? GG: Primarily through telesales, which was combined with Internet-based demonstrations and trial periods of the product.

The Montana Mogul: RightNow CEO Greg Gianforte (Part 3)

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.

The Montana Mogul: RightNow CEO Greg Gianforte (Part 2)

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.

The Montana Mogul: RightNow CEO Greg Gianforte (Part 1)

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

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Pioneering Data On-Demand: Salary.com CEO and Serial Entrepreneur Kent Plunkett (Part 7)

SM: Did you enter the competency arena organically or through acquisitions? KP: We moved into the competency area by acquiring some libraries. The ITG Competency Group library is, in our view, the largest standalone productized library of competencies.

Pioneering Data On-Demand: Salary.com CEO and Serial Entrepreneur Kent Plunkett (Part 6)

SM: What are you using your IPO proceeds for? KP: We continue to favor a philosophy of growth with internally generated cash. We are using IPO proceeds mostly to acquire small companies that are good strategic fits with our product line. I am probably one of the few people you talk to who thinks going

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