Thoughtleader Thursdays...introducing the first column from Greg Gianforte, CEO of RightNow Technologies, one of the hottest IPOs of 2004

Posted by Tom Foremski - July 21, 2005

I've been wanting to have a "thought leaders Thursday" section for a long time on SiliconValleyWatcher and to feature guest columns, interviews, and profiles of our new generation thought leaders.

Greg Gianforte is one of my favorite high tech execs because he knows how to build companies, time and again. As CEO of RightNow Technologies he is leading one of the largest companies in the fastest growing sector of the IT market, the software as a service sector, Salesforce.com, Netsuite, etc. (BTW, this is not ASP by another name.)

Greg loves sharing his hard-won expertise in person. I've seen entrepeneurs following Greg around at conferences, asking him questions about running a startup business. And small crowds develop when he dispenses his advice.

Greg has a book coming out soon, for those that don't get a chance to buttonhole him in person. "Bootstrapping Your Business: Start and Grow a Successful Company With Almost No Money."

Also, be sure to read and clip his article in today's SiliconValleyWatcher on why VC money is bad for business.

It's a very compelling argument, and I'd love to hear reader response. Also, please send in questions for Greg for future columns, to me: tom @ foremski.com (w/o spaces).

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