Located at the convergence of three rivers and five mountain ranges, Missoula is famous for fly fishing, live music, the University of Montana Grizzlies, and a booming tech scene.

There’s a reason Missoula is known for its natural beauty. Divided by the Clark Fork River with Mount Sentinel rising in the background behind the University of Montana campus, the city is appealing not only for its surroundings, but also its vibrant business culture and growing tech hub status. *Photo by Courtney Brockman.*

November 11, 2021

By Bryan Curry, Martina Pansze, Christina Henderson and Courtney Brockman

The Alliance is writing a series of profiles on Montana cities to help people find the right community when they’re looking at taking a job or locating an office in Montana. Help us capture your communities’ flavor, amenities, and business environment by sending suggestions to courtney.brockman[at]mthightech.org. We’ll write about cities in alphabetical order and update these articles in the future.

Missoula is close behind Bozeman as one of the state’s two largest tech hubs, with just under one-third of Montana High Tech Business Alliance members based in the area. The city hosts offices for global tech firms like ATG, a Cognizant Company, and Workiva, as well as home-grown companies like onX Maps, LumenAd and Blackfoot that draw a workforce from the University of Montana (UM) and the 2-year Missoula College.

Aside from a growing entrepreneurial community garnering local and out-of-state investment, Missoula’s attraction lies in its rich history, access to the outdoors, extensive bike path and trails systems, abundance of parks, community events and vibrant arts and culture scene.

Doing Business in Missoula

In 2019, Forbes listed Missoula as the 27th best place to do business, and Chamber of Commerce.org ranked Missoula as No. 24 for Best Small Cities to Do Business for 2020 based on its business climate. UM and Missoula College are a great source of talent and innovation that drives tech growth in Missoula.

Tech Consulting and IT

ATG (Advanced Technology Group), a Cognizant Company, currently employs nearly 300 people and reaches globally, offering Salesforce-powered tech consulting for commercial and enterprise brands. As a rapidly expanding company, ATG often hires interns from Missoula and offers training to job-seekers in the community interested in a tech career.

In partnership with the University of Montana and Missoula College, ATG recently graduated its sixth cohort from the 12-week Aim Higher technology bootcamp. The program teaches the Salesforce platform, business culture, and consulting to trainees and at the end, participants are guaranteed a job interview. To date, the bootcamp has resulted in a 100% job offer rate and placement at ATG Cognizant.

ATG Executive Director Kym Corwin said the goal is to provide anyone, no matter their background, the learning and skills necessary to transition to a technology career. As someone with a communications degree from UM and no tech background when she joined ATG, Corwin said many people in the Aim Higher program enter from a nontraditional background and emerge as lead developers.

“Never in a million years would I have thought, ‘Hey, I should do this, because someday I'll be an executive director for a tech company,’” Corwin said. “It wasn't even a blip on my radar. But our hope is that we can tell the story and share with people, especially in a community like Miles City, where I'm from, that these opportunities are there, and you can do it from anywhere.”

Blackfoot Communications, a leader in telecommunications, employs 170 people who provide internet, voice and network technology services across Montana and Idaho, in addition to most of the Western United States. Blackfoot also offers a C2M (Connect to More) Beta accelerator program for startups in Montana and Idaho to help teach new businesses how to prototype customer feedback.

Blackfoot is also a vital local player in technology infrastructure, connecting the city with a network of high-speed fiber. Blackfoot contributes funding and fiber to projects like the new Missoula Public Library, which just opened Downtown this fall, and the Missoula College building.

A number of fast-growing Missoula-area companies specialize in technology services, including LMG Security, First Call Computer Solutions, Alter Enterprise, and AxiomIT.

Biotech

Western Montana has long been a hub for biotechnology research and development. Just south of Missoula, the Bitterroot Valley holds a cluster of established biotech companies, such as GSK (Glaxosmithkline), Tonix Pharmaceuticals and Rocky Mountain Labs in Hamilton.

In 2019, Montana became one of seven recipients of a national award from the U.S. Small Business Administration to build bioscience within the state. The growth of more than 400 bioscience entities in Montana is facilitated by the Montana Bioscience Cluster Initiative, and UM.

When GlaxoSmithKline moved its Hamilton-based research and development to Maryland in 2016, 15 researchers from GSK’s Hamilton lab formed their own biotech firm rather than leave the state. Inimmune launched at MonTEC in Missoula, in partnership with UM, retaining over $20 million in National Institutes of Health (NIH) research contracts and forming UM’s Center for Translational Medicine. Inimmune was featured on MHTBA’s 2018 Startups to Watch List.

In 2020, Inimmune secured a $22 M Series A investment from Two Bear Capital in Whitefish and partnered with the university to help develop adjuvants for COVID-19 vaccines. Also in 2020, Inimmune was awarded over $30M in new NIH research grants and contracts through collaborative vaccine research partnerships.

Four additional Missoula-area firms were named Montana Biotech Companies to Watch in 2020, including Ahana, FYR Diagnostics, PatientOne, and Rocky Mountain Biologicals.

Downtown Missoula is a hub for the city’s finance sector, with First Interstate Bank’s offices located right next to Caras Park and the Higgins Street Bridge. *Photo by Courtney Brockman.*

Business Investments

Venture capital and angel investment is expanding to match growth in Missoula’s tech sector. Montana-based venture capital funds such as Goodworks Ventures in Missoula, Next Frontier Capital in Bozeman and Two Bear Capital in Whitefish, have invested in Missoula businesses like Submittable, Clearas Water Recovery, Orbital Shift, AudPop, Satic, and LumenAd.

A number of Missoula-grown companies have also secured out-of-state investment.

Outdoor technology company onX, headquartered in Missoula with an office in Bozeman and 300 employees, was named a Montana Company to Watch in 2017 by the MHTBA. In 2018, onX closed a $20.3 million growth equity investment led by Summit Partners, nearly a decade after its 2009 founding by then-26-year-old Montana State University alum Eric Siegfried. Also, in 2018, the company hired former Amazon executive Laura Orvidas as CEO.

onX uses highly-accurate GPS layers to distinguish boundaries of land ownership for hunters and outdoor enthusiasts. The company offers three app products, onX Hunt, onX Backcountry, and onX Offroad, and each allows for use and navigation offline, an essential function for remote adventurers. As part of the Land Access Initiative, onX has helped open 58,400 acres of land and 28 miles of trails for public access, with the goal of securing 150,000 acres and 150 miles of trails by 2023.

Stevensville-based startup Skyfish just announced this spring 2021 that it raised $20 million in seed funding from Bayshore Capital and SBA Communications, both in Florida. Skyfish, which specializes in drones that can create 3D models of critical infrastructure and partners with Sony to analyze the images, hires the majority of its software and engineering talent locally.

Missoula is a financial hub, with institutions such as First Interstate Bank, First Security Bank, a Division of Glacier Bank and Stockman Bank, holding offices in the area. PayneWest insurance, which operates across four states in the Northwest in 26 locations and employs more than 700 people, has its headquarters in Missoula and is a source of risk management solutions and cyber insurance for tech companies. The city is also the location for the Montana office for Dorsey and Whitney LLP, a national firm that has been instrumental in securing some of the biggest tech deals in Montana through the years.

The Missoula Economic Partnership (MEP) and the Missoula Chamber of Commerce provide a number of resources to support local businesses. Local economic development organizations have partnered with the State of Montana to successfully attract Silicon Valley tech firms to open offices in Missoula, such as fitness technology company ClassPass in 2017, and Ag-tech business Sostena Corp. in 2021

Software

The Missoula area is home to a number of established software-as-a-service (SaaS) firms. Education Logistics (Edulog) has been a leading provider of school bus transportation routing software since 1977. Submittable, launched in 2010 and a YCombinator 2012 alum, created a submission platform for artists, creatives, and social impact programs and has raised multiple rounds of financing.

Workiva, an Iowa-based SaaS company specializing in reporting and compliance, has an office in Missoula and has been named one of Fortune’s Best Places to Work multiple times. Texas-based software training company ATR, certified as a Women’s Business Enterprise, holds an office in Hamilton, providing work guidance and knowledge management solutions to high-risk industries.

Marketing Technology

LumenAd, an advertising management platform launched by UM alum Ryan Hansen in 2014, has rapidly expanded, earning designation as a Montana High-growth Company to Watch in 2018. In 2020, LumenAd landed at No. 29 on Inc. magazine’s fastest-growing companies list. That same year, LumenAd closed a $2 million seed funding round led by Next Frontier Capital.

Today LumenAd employs roughly 80 people in offices in downtown Missoula and in Bozeman, as well as remotely. LumenAd launched advertising intelligence software for digital marketers and has sponsored a digital media planning and reporting course in the UM College of Business.

Other Missoula-area companies like Subset and TOMIS also offer services in marketing technology.

Manufacturing and Engineering Innovation

Companies around Missoula also engage in manufacturing, including innovative research and development. Satic U.S.A. is an electronics manufacturer and professional engineering firm that specializes in building clean energy products and was named a Montana High-growth Company to Watch in 2018. Sunburst Sensors creates sensors for researchers studying ocean carbonation and won both purses of the $2 million Wendy Schmidt Ocean Health XPRIZE in 2015. Relatively new startup Kart Kleen manufactures sanitization equipment for hospitals, first responder gear and even grocery store carts.

Additional manufacturers in Missoula include CM Manufacturing specializing in aerospace, and in Bonner east of Missoula, Coaster Cycles creates pedicabs revolutionizing the delivery transportation system. Two local companies - Paradise Dental Technologies and American Eagle Instruments - specialize in medical equipment for dentistry.

Civil engineering planning and design firm WGM Group resides in Missoula, as well as Bozeman, Kalispell, Hamilton and Helena. Cushing Terrell is an engineering, architecture, and design firm with a staff of 400 employees across offices in Missoula and a dozen other cities. Jackson Contractor Group, which constructs manufacturing facilities, office spaces and data centers statewide, also has an office in Missoula.

Film and Media

As a stunning location in a vibrant arts community, Missoula attracts its share of creative professionals in media and film. AudPop, founded by Paige Williams, is a global company based in Missoula that connects video creators from around the world to businesses, providing them a network and resources such as a jobs portal and film distribution platform. AudPop also was a part of Blackfoot Communications’ inaugural C2M Beta program.

Warm Springs Productions boasts more than 115 employees, many drawn from the University of Montana. The company produces more than 40 reality TV shows, including Mountain Men, Log Cabin Living, and Duck Commander, from its home base in Missoula.

In 2019, the Montana Economic Development Industry Advancement Media Act (MEDIA) Act came into effect, offering a 20% income tax credit on production expenditures within the state with the potential for an increase of 35%. Film crews have taken advantage, as the Missoula and Bitterroot areas, surrounded by natural beauty and friendly people, naturally lend themselves to great locations for films, such as the popular Yellowstone series featuring Kevin Costner.

New startup Montana Film Tax Credits seeks to bring in more production companies by connecting them to Montana State Income tax buyers to secure the media tax credit.

Whether traveling by bus, car, bike or walking on one of the city’s bridges, there are many options for anyone to get around Missoula. *Photo by Courtney Brockman.*

Transportation

Missoula’s International Airport has six different airlines with flights connecting to major cities, such as Salt Lake, Seattle, Las Vegas, Dallas and Atlanta. Currently, the airport is under construction to expand flight routes and accommodate more national and international travelers and just received small hub status from the Federal Aviation Administration for its increased traffic and improvement in air travel.

Missoula also has a comprehensive bus system, with Mountain Line routes stretching from Downtown across the city. The Zero-Fare bus system earned a 2021 Transit System of the Year award by the American Public Transportation Association for its accessibility, sustainability, safety and efficiency.

Missoula is also home to the Southern Rail Initiative, an effort from Amtrak and the recently formed-Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority to connect towns across the expansive state through bringing a rail line to southern Montana.

Education and Workforce

Missoula’s identity as a college town is a major asset to local businesses. The University of Montana, a top-tier liberal arts institution, boasts programs in computer science, data analysis, MIS and media arts, as well as the only Master of Business Administration in the state.

Each year, the UM College of Business hosts the statewide John Ruffatto Business Startup Challenge to allow young entrepreneurs to present their ideas and network, and business teams compete for $50,000 in awards. Some of the winners have resulted in startups still in business today, such as popular Brazilian restaurant Five on Black and Downtown’s Market on Front.

UM is home to Accelerate Montana, which helps nearly 700 businesses a year in various stages of development expand and brings in millions of dollars of investment capital, grants and contracts to the state. Organizations comprising Accelerate Montana are the Montana Procurement Technical Assistance Center, Montana Code School, the Montana World Trade Center, Blackstone LaunchPad business startup support, the Montana Small Business Development Center, MonTEC and the Accelerate Montana Rural Innovation Initiative.

MonTEC, UM’s business and technology incubator housed next to Missoula College, currently hosts the Montana High Tech Business Alliance and bioresearch companies.

Additionally the university offers resources to female entrepreneurs with its Women’s Entrepreneurship and Leadership Lab. Earlier this year, MonTec and UM secured a grant to create one of 20 of the nation’s new Women’s Business Centers to serve women-owned businesses throughout the state.

Just across the Clark Fork River, Missoula College prepares students for the workforce through developing career pathway programs like its Cloud Computing Certificate, launched in tandem with Amazon and as part of UM’s Tech Skills for Tomorrow Initiative. The college just received a $100,000 endowment for trades education for students in the Industrial Technology Department.

Companies like Blackfoot leverage apprenticeships through Missoula College to provide local students with on-the-job training in fields like sales, accounting, or IT.

“We try to get them real-life projects they can in essence add to their resume,” said Jessica Bracey, Blackfoot’s information systems manager. “We'll help them build their portfolio, and I would be lying if I said it didn't benefit Blackfoot as well.”

Business and Community

Businesses are also actively involved in the local community, and Missoula has no shortage of organizations to volunteer with. With more than 200 locally-focused nonprofits, Missoula is ranked 4th in the country for the number of local nonprofits per capita.

Various nonprofits focus on issues impacting those locally and globally, such as wildlife and land conservation, food and housing insecurity, and refugee support. Many Missoula-area companies support volunteering as an employee benefit.

“We've got about 120 colleagues in Missoula, and we give them volunteer time off to contribute to organizations, whether it's the YWCA, the Missoula Food Bank or to serve on boards like I do,” said PayneWest’s CEO Kyle Lingscheit. “We want our people involved in the community and doing everything they can to help make Missoula a better place to be. It's kind of like having a little army that can get out there and help.”

Employees for companies like ATG may work at local animal shelters, the Clark Fork River cleanup and Adopt-A-Highway Program and other organizations. Though most companies in Missoula’s tech sector serve clients nationally and globally - a trend increased by the pandemic - their commitment to investing locally remains strong.

“During COVID and the lockdown was really heavy, we did this really cool thing of adopting a restaurant and locations in town because we wanted to ensure our community stayed our community,” Corwin said.

The 18,800-acre National Bison Range, only an hour north of Missoula, was established as a wildlife conservation area in 1908 and is home to a herd of between 350 and 500 bison today. In spring, the Bison Range blooms with wildflowers including the yellow arrowleaf balsamroot. *Photo by E. Henderson.*

Amenities and Fun

Outdoor Recreation

All summer long, the Blackfoot, Clark Fork and Bitterroot rivers are dotted with hundreds of people leisurely riding the current on rafts or innertubes. Truly a river city, locals flock to the waters for afternoons at the Jacob’s Island Bark Park, walk along Maclay Flats or watch surfers and kayakers on the artificially engineered Brennan’s Wave at Caras Park. Tubing on the Clark Fork has become such a mainstay of students’ summer activities and a cherished pastime for many Missoulians that some businesses like The Clark Fork Yacht Club, which offers shuttle services to customers, have created an industry around it.

Opportunities for visiting Seeley, Flathead and other lakes are less than an hour away. Home to numerous outfitters and guide services, Missoula is a top hunting and fly fishing destination and is also only a few hours from Yellowstone and Glacier national parks and close to other destinations such as the National Bison Range.

Missoulians have access to the Rattlesnake Wilderness, Blue Mountain and Pattee Canyon trail systems all within minutes from Downtown. Numerous well-maintained trails in and around the city’s limits make hiking, biking and trail-running easily accessible activities. For curious cyclists, Downtown’s Adventure Cycling Association offers an assortment of maps and information showing how Missoula links up to expansive bike routes like the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, which runs from Antelope Wells, New Mexico, all the way into Canada.

Tucked into the mountains just north of town, Missoula’s Snowbowl provides year-round recreation to tourists and locals alike. In the winter, two lifts provide access to 950 acres of skiing and snowboarding while the summer months offer ziplining, mountain biking and special events like trail races.

Why wait for weekends? Through the changing seasons, Missoulians are so close to rivers and mountain trails it’s easy to fly fish on a lunch break or slip away for a few hours of skiing on a good powder day.

“I love that if I had a break in the day, I could easily go mountain biking and get a couple rides and then go right back and be on my computer later on,” Corwin said. “My husband is an avid mountain biker, and I pretend pretty well. It's been fun to get our daughter, we have a two-year-old, quite excited about mountain biking. Getting out on the trails with her and just out as much as possible, I've always enjoyed that.”

History

Merriweather Lewis and William Clark wrote about nearby Lolo Hot Springs and the Bitterroot Mountains in 1805, and the areas along the Lolo Trail they traveled remained largely unchanged for those retracing their route today.

Missoula, originally a mercantile town filled with outfitters resupplying settlers on their journey West, began engaging in interstate commerce with the introduction of the Northern Pacific Railroad and ability to transport goods in and out of the valley in 1883. When UM was built in 1893, lumber and education became the initial driving factors behind Missoula’s growth.

Fort Missoula, built in 1877 to protect settlers who traveled the Mullan Road, in 1888 became home to the Buffalo Soldiers of the US Army’s 25th infantry regiment, a Black cohort. These soldiers tested the feasibility of using bicycles for troop travel, with training rides reaching as far as Yellowstone National Park and St Louis, Missouri.

Once an active military base, the site also was used for the internment of POWs during World War II. Today, Fort Missoula is a historical museum and vast city park complex.

Missoula’s trails system has been redeveloped beyond its initial size, and while historic buildings draw in those wishing to take in its storied past, a number of city parks, a dog park, baseball fields and a disc golf course span its acreage and make it appealing for residents and visitors today.

Cultural Events/ Festivals

With an active Missoula Downtown Association, the city hosts a rich nightlife and ample opportunities for art, music and fine dining. First Friday art walks each month support local artists, and Caras Park hosts events highlighting new food trucks and local bands. In recent years, the Garden City also has seen an influx of more than 15 breweries, wineries and distilleries, making it the city with the tenth most breweries per capita in the United States as of 2019.

Missoula has a large offering of live music, with two amphitheaters, the Adam’s Center and UM’s Washington-Grizzly Stadium, as well as more intimate venues, such as the Wilma Theater. These venues host everyone from obscure artists to big names such as Paul McCartney, Pearl Jam, the Steve Miller Band and Lindsey Stirling. Annually, the River City Roots festival features an art show, food trucks, live music on Main Street and many other peripheral events such as Run Wild Missoula’s 4-mile Roots Run.

The Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, founded in 2003, features critically acclaimed documentaries from around the world for 10 days every February. With an average of 150 films featured, the event takes place across four Downtown venues (the Wilma Theater, The Roxy Theater, The Crystal Theater and the Top Hat). The International Wildlife Film Festival, founded in 1977, features a curated collection of environmentally significant documentaries and films each spring at the Roxy Theater.

Bracey cites town vibrancy as a major benefit for businesses choosing Missoula. Whether she is visiting the Farmer’s Market on Saturdays or gathering with other baseball families at Highlander Brewing Company, she said there is never a shortage of things to do.

“The thing I like about Missoula is the small-town feel that it's got with Downtown Tonight, the Out to Lunch, all of the free events that the community does such a great job at promoting,” Bracey said. “It's amazing to me how sometimes Missoula can still encompass that small-town feel, even though it's a bigger city.”

More information on things to do in Missoula is available at https://destinationmissoula.org/.

Great Places for Tech in Montana: Missoula