Amazon.com founder Bezos says business can thrive in small towns

[mandy]

A self-proclaimed computer geek who built a $7 billion-a-year Internet book business out of his Seattle garage says small town life no longer has to be separate from financial success.

Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, who delivered the keynote speech Wednesday at Marketplace, a state seminar for entrepreneurs, said technology can help bring business to rural areas.

"It's getting easier and easier to do amazing things from wherever you happen to be in the world," Bezos said at a press conference. "You can physically be anywhere as you do it, and you can affect the entire world with what you build."

North Dakota has struggled with the problem of keeping young people from leaving the state for better jobs. Bezos said state officials can take hope in people such as Shawn Fanning, who started the Internet song-swapping business Napster from his college dorm room.

full article: http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks...658421.htm