This story appears in the February 28, 2016 issue of Forbes. Subscribe
TWO TECH BUSTS ago--in 2002, when things were slow--I launched my single-engine Cessna and flew around the U.S. looking for entrepreneurs who were still alive and optimistic. I found many in America's small towns.
One was a fellow who'd just sold his company to
In 2001 Burgum sold Great Plains, which he had run since 1983, for $1.1 billion. That buys a lot of wheat. But Burgum didn't stop there. He pulled off another near-impossible feat by starting a venture capital fund in Fargo. Repeat: Not in Silicon Valley or New York ... Fargo. One of his early investments was in SuccessFactors, of which Burgum became chairman. He helped sell the company in 2012 to software giant
Then Burgum really reached. One of his next investments--again, from little Fargo--was in an Australian software-tools company, called Atlassian. Again, Burgum became the company's chairman. And last year Atlassian went public and was listed on the Nasdaq (as TEAM).
Burgum is one of those crazy North Dakotans who think their frozen state is the center of the universe. His spectacular record almost argues for it.
What's next for Burgum? In mid-January he announced he's running for governor of North Dakota. He'll seek the Republican endorsement at their April convention and in the June primary election. **[NOTE: Original version of this column, which appeared the February 29th issue of Forbes Magazine, wrongly stated that Burgum might run as an independent.]**
Burgum's timing couldn't be better. The North Dakota oil boom is dead in the well. Global oil prices have killed the market for hard-to-refine shale. Oil prices would have to double for the state's shale oil to again become competitive. But, as Burgum has shown, North Dakota is more than oil and farming. He will make a great leader for his state.
PUNCHING ABOVE THEIR WEIGHT
Across North Dakota's border another serial software entrepreneur, Greg Gianforte, is running for governor of Montana, also as a Republican. I happened to meet Greg during my 2002 Cessna flying/reporting trip as well. At the time he was moving his latest company, RightNow Technologies, out of his Bozeman bedroom into an office park.
RightNow, a Web-enabled call service center, was a pioneer in its day. Greg was born in San Diego and educated in New Jersey, but he fell in love with Montana and decided he wanted his latest startup to be in a place where he could knock off early and go skiing or fishing. RightNow thrived in Bozeman, and Gianforte rode the Web wave hard. In 2012 he sold RightNow to
Gianforte's and Burgum's successes give the lie to the idea that all good tech startups in the U.S. must eventually migrate to Seattle, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Austin or Raleigh-Durham--or at least to a town with a decent-size airport and where cars don't have to stop for freight trains and cattle cars. For all the talk about technology's startup and financial energies dispersing around the U.S. and the globe, the fact is that hotbeds like Silicon Valley, Sydney and Shenzhen have consolidated their share of tech creation and wealth. Social demographer Richard Florida says the world is getting spikier, not flatter. The rich are getting rich, and the poor are getting new Wal-Marts.
Gianforte and Burgum are passionate outliers to this dreary defeatism. They think their states can punch above their weight to become players--not just locally but globally. And the people working for smart, global-facing companies in those states can have wonderful lives--with ridiculously affordable housing, good public schools, fine outdoor recreation, college sports teams to cheer for and up-and-coming restaurants in which to dine.
These are the kinds of happy results that Gianforte and Burgum, as successful entrepreneurs, have created for their small states. And now both propose to govern their states in a way that attracts capital and talent and other raw material beyond rich soil and deep wells. Makes you feel good about our country. Even good about Republicans.
