John Miller

Bootstrap Entrepreneur: How Grit, Faith, and Help from a Chippewa Tribe Built a Technology Company John Miller

John Miller bootstrapped his way into entrepreneurship in 1974, when he founded Turtle Mountain Corporation, a startup manufacturing computer components on a Native American reservation. A mechanical engineer from rural North Dakota and former UNIVAC manager, Miller brought to the venture experience working on groundbreaking computer designs commissioned by the US Navy. But he started his company with just one customer and an end-of-life product.

For Miller, failure was never an option. Weathering a recession, inflation, and the death of its first product, his company created hundreds of jobs for a generation of families on and around the Turtle Mountain Reservation in North Dakota. It also earned the trust of customers like IBM, Honeywell, and 3M. In 2000, Miller sold his business for close to twenty million dollars.

Miller's business memoir is an inspiring true story of ingenuity, can-do spirit, and American values. Well-researched and packed with entertaining anecdotes, it includes little-known facts about World War II projects leading to the birth of the modern computer and about events that impacted the quality movement. The book holds valuable lessons for every budding entrepreneur on topics like employee engagement, customer satisfaction, product-market fit, sales, working with bankers and lawyers, and quality management.
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