When Adam Sklar decided to start , which makes custom handcrafted cyclocross and mountain rides, he briefly considered locating his company in Boulder, Colorado, or Austin, Texas. Then the Montana State University student thought, Why leave Bozeman?
鈥淚 went to school here mostly to go skiing,鈥 says Sklar, 22. 鈥淏ut I loved being surrounded by people who are just as passionate about that as they are about their work.鈥澛
That鈥檚 been happening a lot in Bozeman lately. 鈥淧eople who come to Montana State for that well-rounded outdoor experience don鈥檛 want to leave,鈥 says Brit Fontenot, Bozeman鈥檚 director of economic development. The city has long been home to companies like Simms Fishing Products and Kletterwerks backpacks, but now young entrepreneurs are spread across the state, taking advantage of Montana鈥檚 blend of outdoor access, quality workforce of recent grads, and business-friendly regulations like easy permitting procedures and no sales tax. , which tracks business growth in the U.S., Montana had the highest rate of entrepreneurship of any state in both 2014 and 2015.
Much of the growth is in tech. After Oracle purchased Bozeman cloud-software company for $1.5 billion in 2012, former executives began funding ventures around the state. Most of the money has gone to technology startups鈥攚hich continue to attract young workers from California and the East Coast.
鈥淵ou can鈥檛 live here and not love the outdoors,鈥 says Greg Gianforte, founder of RightNow. 鈥淥ne of our first interview questions was, 鈥榃hat outdoor sport do you enjoy?鈥 鈥澛
Those tech workers are buying into the outdoor lifestyle; today, Montana craftsmen are as common as Silicon Valley coders. Dan Brown and Barbara Pfannkuch started in Whitefish, where they design camping enamelware. James Behring moved from Michigan to Missoula to found . And Alex Buck launched in Bozeman, focusing on durable commuter packs.
鈥淭here is a sense of community with other gear companies,鈥 says Buck. 鈥淨uality of life is more than just a perk here.鈥