In This Issue: MHTBA Annual Meeting Recap, Missoula Success Stories Panel, Satic USA’s Green Energy Tech and Manufacturing Sees Huge Growth, Missoula Robotics Team 3216 Seeks Partnership with Missoula High-Tech Community

November 14, 2022, Hosted by Cognizant ATG

December 9, 2022

By Melissa Paulsen

On Monday, November 14, 2022, the Montana High Tech Business Alliance held its annual meeting and member reception inside Cognizant ATG’s new Missoula office. The panel “Missoula Success Stories,” featured three Montana executives from Missoula-based companies onX, Cognizant ATG, and Lumenad (now rebranded as PathLabs and Joinr) who shared the exciting growth opportunities their companies have had this year, as well as their insights on the future of Montana as a tech hub. The engaging conversation was facilitated by Christina Henderson, executive director of the Montana High Tech Business Alliance. Following the annual meeting and panel discussion, guests enjoyed an evening reception hosted by Cognizant ATG and a tour of their beautiful new facility. Senior Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development for Cognizant ATG, Tom Stergios, and his colleagues, provided hors d’ oeuvres, craft beverages and wine, and helped kick off the reception’s lightning talks. The November reception was the first event Cognizant ATG has hosted on behalf of the Alliance.

CONNECT: The Montana High Tech Business Alliance Shares Key Trends in 2022 During Annual Member Meeting

During the Alliance’s annual meeting, Executive Director Christina Henderson offered observations on key trends that emerged during her conversations with tech leaders across the state in 2022.

The Alliance consists of over 200 members statewide with the majority residing in the western and central Montana tech hub triangle of the Flathead Valley, Missoula, and Bozeman. Montana tech companies have continued to thrive despite the hurdles they faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. And a wave of new in-migration has brought skilled tech talent to Montana.

 “[MHTBA] saw a lot of remote workers, [and] a lot of people who were able to return home to Montana because of the pandemic,” said MHTBA Executive Director Christina Henderson. “Very talented people with incredible tech careers are now part of our high-tech community.”

Additionally, the Alliance noticed that its networking activities across the state were still perceived as valuable and that members wanted MHTBA to continue serving as a source of information to help Montanans and their companies navigate a new economy, learn more about remote work, and stay up to date with their tech-industry peers.

“We're learning and adapting and trying to cover topics that are relevant and current in order to provide a knowledge base on the sort of things that [members] want to know about to lead [their] companies effectively,” Henderson said.

To help keep tech-industry peers connected, the Alliance launched its local chapters program in the Flathead Valley on November 17, 2022, with the help of volunteer organizers David Mayer and Rachel Thompson. Volunteer organizers, like Mayer and Thompson, coordinate meeting times and select a venue to host the local events while the Montana High Tech Business Alliance provides staff support for event registration and marketing. Local chapters provide opportunities for in-person networking as well as a chance for companies to make a difference in their communities by banding together.

The Montana High Tech Business Alliance has also been working closely with Cognizant ATG and the Governor’s Office of Indian Affairs in 2022 as part of the 56-8 initiative to help make sure the positive impact of tech and tech jobs reaches all 56 counties and 8 tribal nations of Montana.

Other projects in the works for MHTBA include resource guides for education and training in eight high-tech career clusters, funding and business support, and a directory of Montana high-tech companies to help Montanans discover high-paying tech jobs and to support local company growth. All the surveys and research MHTBA conducts as an association will also be available on the new resource guide homepage. The Alliance’s resource guides will be an ongoing project throughout 2023.

PROMOTE: Four Missoula Companies See Huge Growth and Share Success Stories

Panelists Joshua Spitzer COO & CFO of onX, Kate Pace, director of strategy operations for Cognizant ATG, and Ryan Hansen, founder of Lumenad, discussed the significant milestones their companies hit in 2022 during the “Missoula Success Stories” panel.

In October, onX landed $87.4 million in series B funding. Driven by a mission to “awaken the adventure in everybody,” onX develops mapping applications for phones to empower outdoor recreationists and helps users discover the wilderness.

Cognizant ATG, a business and IT consulting firm that specializes in implementing SAS software for anything from a medium sized client all the way up through the enterprise level, contributed $122M to the Montana economy and built a new campus in Missoula’s Old Sawmill District this year.

Lumenad, a Missoula-based digital advertising and software support services business, rebranded as the parent organization to two digital media companies, Pathlabs and Joinr. As an end-to-end digital media partner, Pathlabs helps ad agencies scale for digital media activation and marketing, and Joinr is a free app that makes data visualization, reporting on ad performance, or extracting campaign insights quick and easy.

The three panelists also touched on their career journeys, what the future may hold for their companies, and how they’re partnering with Montana’s university system to create more career opportunities in tech.

Stay tuned for a full recap of the panel discussion in an upcoming newsletter.

During the reception’s lightning talks, B.D. Erickson II, CEO of Satic USA, highlighted the impressive growth his company has experienced in 2022.

Satic USA is a green tech engineering and manufacturing firm in Missoula that makes high-end electronics that help alternative energy systems function more efficiently. By removing dirty electricity and electromagnetic radiation, Satic’s cost-effective products create healthier home environments.

Carried by large-scale global solar companies, as well as major retailers such as Sears, Costco, and the Home Shopping Network (HSN), Satic USA’s product line has generated revenue and created huge growth opportunities.

“The biggest solar companies in the world carry our product line, and tech manufacturing out of Missoula, Montana now [contributes to] about 20% of every solar installation that goes on in the country,” Erickson II said. “We're hiring constantly [and] we're able to pay very high living wages, three weeks paid vacation, full benefits, [and] corporate bonuses at the end of the year.”

Additionally, Satic USA’s warehouse tripled in size from 4,000 square feet to 14,000 square feet to accommodate the increased demand for their products.

“I'm exceedingly grateful for what we have, and for green tech manufacturing renewable energy in America,” Erickson II said.

ACCELERATE: Missoula Robotics Team 3216 Seeks Partnership with Missoula High-Tech Community

Every January, Missoula Robotics Team 3216 is given a new scenario and a time-limit of six to eight weeks to build a robot from scratch. The creation process entails paper drawings, computer-aided designs (CAD), constructing, programming, and wiring the robot. The Missoula Robotics team is the only team in Montana that competes at the highest level in the FIRST robotics challenge and placed fourth in the regional competition held last year in Boise, Idaho.

However, the team doesn’t just build epic robots, but also hones its business skills through planning fundraisers, learning financial management, and creating presentations. Donations from the Missoula community enable the team to continue traveling to FIRST robotics tournaments. Senior Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development for Cognizant ATG, Tom Stergios, issued a challenge to other MHTBA members by being the first to donate $1,000 dollars on behalf of Cognizant ATG to help the team attend their next competition.

Besides monetary donations, Alliance members can also support the Missoula Robotics team through mentorship, or by providing a space inside their company warehouse or manufacturing bay as a place for the team to practice.

“We love to have [businesses] as mentors to support us, and we need space to run our robots [because] our school doesn't have enough space for us to try and [practice] something [requiring] 50 by 30 square feet of room,” said team member Ethan Braun.

The Missoula Robotics team also serves in the Missoula community through electrical engineering internships with the architecture, engineering, and design firm Cushing Terrell. Team Captain Tim Walters completed an electrical engineering internship with the firm over the summer. Walters shared how the opportunity inspired the Missoula Robotics Team to partner with Montana’s high-tech companies to work toward involving more high schoolers as interns.

“One thing that we are trying to grow is getting [tech] businesses familiar with how much our students achieve and all the skills that we prepare them with for the workforce in robotics,” Walters said. “Even if it’s a three-month internship over the summer, having one high school student can really change the trajectory of [a company’s] onboarding and help build [the Montana] workforce.”

To learn more about sponsoring the team in their 2022-23 season, visit their website donation page or contribute directly to their GoFundMe campaign.

About the Publisher: Launched in 2014, the Montana High Tech Business Alliance is a nonpartisan nonprofit association of more than 200 high tech and manufacturing companies and affiliates creating high-paying jobs in Montana. For more information, visit MTHighTech.org or subscribe to our biweekly newsletter.

About the Author: Melissa Paulsen is the Communications Coordinator for the Montana High Tech Business Alliance. She graduated from the University of Montana in 2022 with a BFA in creative writing and a minor in history.