We’re in the business of protecting what’s valued and important to people – a.k.a. the insurance business. We serve individuals and businesses with a breadth of services and coverage, including business and personal insurance, employee benefits, surety and everything in between.

Loenbro actually operates several companies under our name. They include: Loenbro Industrial Construction, Loenbro Inspection Services, Loenbro Insulation, Loenbro Pipeline, Loenbro Oilfield Services, Loenbro Plumbing and Heating, Loenbro Instrumentation and Electrical, RDS Industrial Coatings.

Blackstone provides a community for young entrepreneurs to bounce their ideas off others to get feedback and to create workable, real-world strategies for success. The program offers services including coaching, tools, and grants.

A little over a year ago, Montana State University’s TechLink helped saved the lives of two American medical missionaries who were infected with the Ebola virus during the western Africa outbreak in 2014.

There is often a mindset that technology companies thrive in major metropolitan centers – not in rural areas. But Doug Schust, the chief operating officer of Hagadone Digital, has found the opposite to be true.In 2013, Hagadone Digital, a powerhouse for digital marketing in the U.S. and Canada, expanded its operation to Kalispell, a town with a population of just over 20,000 located in northwestern Montana near Flathead Lake and Glacier National Park.

Five months ago, a Bozeman-based couple launched what is probably the most successful Kickstarter campaign in Montana history. Their goal was to raise $70,000 to take their desktop computer-driven mill into production. In the first hour they surpassed that goal.

Access to capital is the second biggest barrier to growth for Montana’s high tech and manufacturing firms, according to a Montana High Tech Business Alliance survey conducted in February 2015.

Montana’s business community got a huge boost in May when Next Frontier Capital, a Bozeman-based venture capital firm, announced the initial closing of its inaugural $20 million fund.Founder and Managing Partner Will Price spoke on the Montana High Tech Business Alliance’s Big Sky Innovation panel at the Montana High Tech Jobs Summit in September.

Rapid expansion has led Elixiterto relocate four times in Bozeman in the last four years. Founded by RightNow Technologies veteran Andrew Hull in 2011, the digital marketing agency has averaged 100 percent year-over-year growth since its inception.

Technology boot camps and training programs are springing up around Montana to address the #1 barrier to growth for the state’s high tech and manufacturing firms: finding skilled technology workers.

Want to find a chiropractor, a life coach, or a chimney sweep? Need to schedule a haircut or a guitar lesson? How about an oxygen-infused bath and a teeth brushing for your Golden Retriever? Need a visit from a plumber or maybe a session with a flight instructor?

Employing some 250 people, Zoot Enterprises is a cornerstone of Bozeman, Montana’s high tech sector. Its headquarters, built in 2001, sit on the edge of town in Four Corners with panoramic views of the Bridger, Gallatin, and Madison mountains.

A Montana company with leading edge technology has spent the past two years working on a project involving 2 million students (most of whom are girls) and 30,000 school buses to ensure that these young women have the opportunity to get an education.

When Workiva (WK) had its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange in December 2014, Jeff Trom had been there before. The Chief Technology Officer and six members of Workiva’s founding management team took a previous company, Engineering Animation, public in the 1990s.But the second time around, the IPO was easier and less costly thanks to Workiva’s proprietary Wdesk platform, which automated the process of filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Last summer, Tom Stergios sat on the deck of Finn and Porter in Missoula with some of his clients, watching people fly fishing on the Clark Fork River and listening to the legendary Paul McCartney who was performing across the river at the University of Montana Washington-Grizzly stadium.

From the shop in rural Lewistown, Allied Steel workers are busily manufacturing structural steel for malls, schools, hospitals, sports arenas, power plants, and other buildings in places as far away as Alaska or Hawaii.

A little over 25 years ago, Tim Robertson, came to Montana on a business trip and “fell in love with Central Montana, Lewistown in particular,” he said. “When the opportunity arose in 2003 to move my family here to Lewistown and take the reins of Century, I took it.”

What started out as a two-person shop on a family farm has grown into a multi-million dollar company, which employs 50 people in the heart of Montana.Spika Welding and Manufacturing specializes in designing and manufacturing industrial work platforms and ground support equipment for people working on military aircraft, tactical vehicles, and satellites. Last year, Spika Welding was named “Manufacturing Exporter of the Year."

Related to the maturation of key industries in Montana is the emergence of a number of highly sophisticated startups that could be poised for big growth in 2015.

Over the last nine months, I’ve had the privilege of hearing from members across the state about their plans for the year ahead and some patterns have emerged. This is the first of a series of three posts detailing trends I see coming in 2015.