Chicago among top cities for fastest-growing companies, Inc. says
Chicago is a top city on Inc.'s annual ranking of America's fastest-growing private companies, the magazine said today.
The Inc. 5000 ranking for 2014 analyzes companies' three-year revenue growth and lists the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies and small businesses in the U.S.
Chicago has 95 companies on the list — the most of any city except New York. San Francisco came in at No. 7, with 63 companies.
The highest-ranking Chicago-based company was Max Digital, No. 51 on the list. The West Loop company, which develops cloud-based marketing and retail software for the auto industry, had a three-year growth of 5,483 percent and 2013 revenue of $6.6 million, Inc. said.
Inc. asks each company to provide three years of financial information to put together its ranking. "Sometimes they are actually audited," Inc. said in a statement.
Other Chicago companies featured on the list: online broker Insureon, with three-year revenue growth of 3,358 percent; hotel brokerage Paramount Lodging Advisors, with 2,288 percent; and Protein Bar, a chain of healthy fast-food restaurants, 2,182 percent.
Crain's Chicago Business also publishes an annual ranking of the fast-growing companies in Chicago called Fast 50. Crain's looks at companies with headquarters in the six-county area of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will with 2013 revenue of at least $15 million. For the 2014 list, qualifying applicants had to have revenue growth from 2012-13 and no more than one year of declining revenue at any point from 2008-12.
Several of the Chicago-area companies that landed on Crain's Fast 50 list also made Inc.'s ranking:
• Market6 Inc., ranked #6 on Crain's Fast 50 and #143 on Inc.'s list
• Load Delivered Logistics, ranked #10 on Crain's Fast 50 and #1,702 on Inc.'s list
• Access Media 3 Inc., ranked #13 on Crain's Fast 50 and #1,376 on Inc.'s list
• L2T Media LLC, ranked #14 on Crain's Fast 50 and #2,029 on Inc.'s list
• Brad's Deals, ranked #17 on Crain's Fast 50 and #1,006 on Inc.'s list
• Impact Advisors, ranked #21 on Crain's Fast 50 and #2,064 on Inc.'s list
• Coyote Logistics, ranked #22 on Crain's Fast 50 and #1,868 on Inc.'s list
• Gorilla Group, ranked #23 on Crain's Fast 50 and #1,018 on Inc.'s list
• Cooper's Hawk Winery & Restaurants, ranked #24 on Crain's Fast 50 and #2004 on Inc.'s list
• Lyons Consulting Group, ranked #31 on Crain's Fast 50 and #1,073 on Inc's list
Below, a list of all the Chicago-based companies that made Inc's list. To see the entire list of Illinois companies that made Inc.'s ranking, click here.
