Libby native takes a bite out of the big time

Montana-based company founders appear on The Today Show

By ERIKA KIRSCH Western News Editor

A Libby native and the company she co-founded was featured on The Today Show Thursday morning.

Heather Stephenson, Libby High School graduate class of 1991, is co-founder of IdealBite.com. Ideal Bite, created in 2005, is an online source for ideas on impacting the environment in positive ways. The information is conveyed through tips, editorial and interaction.

The "Red, White and Green" segment on The Today Show airs on Thursday, June 28. The segment is "about greening the 4th of July barbecue," Stephenson said. It offers tips on various foods and drinks to serve on Independence Day, eco-conscious plates and napkins to use for the upcoming holiday and "little changes to make July 4th more green," Stephenson explained.

Both Stephenson and Ideal Bite's other co-founder Jennifer Boulden, who lives in Bozeman, will be appearing on the Red, White and Green segment. This is not the first television appearance the women have made. In October, the Ideal Bite founders appeared on Martha Stewart Living to "green" a Long Island house, Stephenson said.

Born in Missoula, Stephenson and her family moved to Troy in 1974, when she was 1 year old. When she was 8 years old, the family moved to Libby where Stephenson lived until she graduated from Libby High School. Stephenson has a Master of Arts in literature and a Bachelor of Arts in government from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Upon graduation, Stephenson moved to San Francisco during the dot.com era,

then went on to Los Angeles, London and New York City. She worked for an Internet consulting firm in New York City and volunteered for sustainability and other environmental companies. While in New York, she took landscaping classes and learned about the green roof concept, which implements gardens on building rooftops.

"Being from Montana I had a healthier respect for the environment and sustainability," Stephenson explained. "I became interested in knowing where food came from and we always had a garden."

Stephenson formally served as an early vice president of sales in both the United States and Europe at L90, Inc - an international online advertising sales network that went public in 1999. Before her management role in Ideal Bite, she was the founder of UrbanSage, a New York-based rooftop garden design/build firm.

Ideal Bite is based in Bozeman and San Francisco and employs 10 people between the two offices. Ideal Bite is incorporated in Montana, but the majority of the business occurs in San Francisco. Stephenson currently lives in San Francisco.

When not making television appearances and being highlighted in the pages of Vanity Fair, the company is progressing toward launching local sustainability editions geared toward New York City and San Francisco residents, Stephenson said.

"In the fall we'll begin offering more localized information," she said.

Ideal Bite has grown to offer daily eco-friendly and sustainability tips to 125,000 daily readers.

For additional information on The Today Show segment or on Ideal Bite, please contact Mindi Picotte at mpicotte@idealbite.com .