While Montana news headlines warn of impending affordable housing crises, entrepreneurs and tech executives are also feeling a real estate crunch. Rapid business growth…

Blackfoot hosted tech leaders from across the state - Billings, Bozeman, Hamilton, Helena, Polson, and Rocky Boy - for the Montana High Tech Business Alliance member reception in Missoula on May 24, 2018…

Alliance members mingled on the sixth floor of First Interstate Bank's downtown Missoula building and enjoyed food from Market on Front. Tom Severson and his team at FIB provided a warm welcome at their beautiful building with stunning river views. Many members attended the Montana High Tech Jobs Summit preceding the reception.

Jason Williams’ friends, family and employees like to talk about his career trajectory from intern to CEO at Blackfoot in 15 years.“I like to think my story is inspirational,” Williams said. “I started at the bottom rung, and now I’m leading a company I love.”

With more than 700 attendees, the second biannual Montana High Tech Jobs Summit is testament to local support of high tech growth and jobs in Montana.

Conversations about entrepreneurship often focus on Silicon Valley, Boston or other major metropolitan areas, yet Missoula and Bozeman, Montana enjoy some of the highest levels of entrepreneurship in the nation in terms of startup and high-growth companies, as well as spinoff activities, according to a report funded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.Missoula and Bozeman rank 9th and 12th highest in startup rates among 394 areas in the U.S., and the proportion of high-growth firms is particularly high in Bozeman, higher than Denver (9th in the nation) and almost compatible with Washington, D.C. (1st in the nation), according to the report.