Butte Entrepreneurs

They are shirking business-as-usual models in favor of what Butte native and recent returnee Carole Murphy calls a new paradigm in which profits are no longer considered the only measure of success.

In a brainstorming summit of sorts, 60 entrepreneurs converged on the Thornton Building in Uptown Butte recently for Startup Weekend Butte, a crash course in creating a business.

“When I heard there was a Startup coming to Butte, I couldn’t have been more excited,” said Murphy, a dentist turned fashion-bag designer and seller who had access to a constant array of startup workshops in California.

Marc Nager, who travels the world leading Startups, said the key is changing the culture within the new business model.

Facilitating the Butte Startup, Nager emphasized that becoming a community leader and creating flexible but stable businesses are part of the new paradigm.

“We have an amazing force of volunteers who support startups around the world,” said Nager, Startup Weekend founder and UP Global CEO.

He said he was impressed with Butte’s high-energy mix of young, tech-savvy innovators and traditional, experienced business types who worked together to create eight businesses from scratch in a mind-bending 54 hours.

Ray Rogers of the National Center for Health Care Informatics in Butte mentored the upstarts.

Ts’ Small Potatoes is marketing, advocacy and consulting firm that specializes in working with small-scale and startup food companies.

Murphy said it’s important for creative entrepreneurs to “Create an environment where it’s OK to fail.”

Only 20 percent of startups succeed, but the trick is to try again.

She moved back last February and launched her New Moon Clothing, a bootstrap startup.

“There is a very large network for entrepreneurs in Butte.”

Murphy sees investors investing in other startups that bolster the community as a whole.

“We’ve finally reached a point in our community in which we have viable wealthy investors here in Butte,” said Murphy, referring to angel funds and private grants from consortiums, for example, in Montana.

“We can create our opportunities wherever we are,” added Murphy.

(Credits to Renata Birkenbuel)

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