Greg Gianforte, president of RightNow Technologies, a bootstrapped information technology firm in Bozeman, Montana, is at it again.

In 1997, Gianforte began bootstrapping a company that by 2002 was reporting sales figures in the $30 million range even though it was launched from a spare bedroom where Gianforte cold called prospects with a software app that hadn't even been created yet, according to a profile at Inc.com.


Today with the help of an organization specializing in high tech startup and growth, Gianforte is helping other rural Montana entrepreneurs do the same.

The Montana entrepreneur has partnered with TechRanch (check out their website) to create the BootStrap Montana Micro-Loan Program funded through his own private foundation, the Gianforte Family Charitable Trust, reports MontanaBusiness.com.

The program will offer loans between $5,000 and $20,000 at zero percent interest for one year rising to two percent interest if a second year is necessary and will be awarded for the purpose of increasing sales or competitiveness.

We've already seen with a previous post the role micro-financing can play in the developing world by bootstrapping people out of poverty.

Now Gianforte puts the same principal to work for rural economic development in the U.S. and the program should serve as a model for others both domestically and around the world.

Here are the guidelines established for the Montana program which could serve as a template for setting up a similar initiative anywhere else in the world including in my home state of Pennsylvania. (Hint! Hint!)