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

by 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 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.
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.
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.

216 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 15, 2022

About the author

John “Tip” Miller was born and raised in Underwood, North Dakota, studied mechanical
engineering at North Dakota State University, and received a reserve officer commission in the US Army. He began his career in St. Paul, Minnesota, at a time when the Twin Cities were what Silicon Valley is now—the epicenter of the computer revolution. An inductee of the North Dakota Entrepreneur Hall of Fame, Miller lives in St. Paul. Bootstrap Entrepreneur is his first book.

Reviews

[Artur · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an entrepreneur, I found John Miller and Christina Schweighofer's book fascinating. While John's personal story is interesting, their ability to put it in the context of historical events, social and economic events makes this book a "must read" for all interested in the reasons behind the explosive growth of computer technologies and the American middle class in the second part of the 20th century. The development of computer technologies from electronic tubes and core memories to complex integrated circuits, the drivers of this growth, military needs and space exploration, the early ability to diversify the workforce - the use of Native Americans, the interplay between private industry drive and grid, and government regulations and policies, lack of the initial understanding of the American industry of the importance of product quality - it is all there. Fifty years of complex technological, social, economic, and political changes, as observed by John Miller during his professional career, told in a compact and readable fashion. It is like reading ten books compacted into one. Extremely well done! Congratulations, and thank you.

[Lisa Pelto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful and inspiring.
I love the willingness of Mr. Miller to do whatever it takes to get the job done. His story is one of determination, creativity and openness to new thinking. As a business owner, I look at this as a blueprint for any budding entrepreneur for how to realize their dream of innovation and building a business.