Montana’s robust startup scene

Folks at the Kauffman Foundation – one of the more credible of the various organizations that track entrepreneurship activities across America – recently ranked the various states in terms of the strength of their entrepreneurial sectors. As gener8tor’s Joe Kirgues wryly noted, "at least Wisconsin finished in the top 50." Which is to say, 50th.

I must say I am not a huge fan of these kinds of rankings. Frankly any ranking of this sort that doesn’t have Northern California at the top of the list is more than a little suspect. Still, by chance I happened to be in Missoula Montana last week, working with several startups at Montana Technology Enterprise Center, or MonTEC, the University of Montana’s technology accelerator. That Montana. The Montana that Kauffman put at the top of its list of states ranked by the strength of their entrepreneurial sectors.

In a lot of ways, Montana is a lot like Wisconsin, only more so. It is hard to get to. The climate is challenging. Not a lot of people live there. And there are no big cities (in fact, there are no cities as "big" as Green Bay). There is just one institutional venture capital investor. It’s fair to say, I think, that Montana’s challenges, in terms of building a high impact entrepreneurship sector, are even more formidable than those facing Wisconsin.

Paul Jones, Michael Best & Friedrich

Full Story: http://www.jsonline.com/story/money/business/onramp/blog/2016/10/04/jones-montanas-robust-startup-scene/91542528/