10 O.C. firms make fastest growth list

August 24th, 2010, 11:00 am
by Jan Norman, small-business columnist

Despite the worst recession in seven decades, 10 Orange County companies made the Inc. magazine list of 500 fastest growing companies in America.

Source: Inc.


Some companies have done phenomenally well despite the economy.
The No. 1 company on the 2010 list — Ambit Energy in Dallas — has grown 20,369% in three years.

Note that Point One Technologies, ranking 158 overall, ranked 5th on the list of companies with gross revenue growth.

The Inc. 500 has been around for 29 years, and the publication, since 2007, has listed the three-year growth rates of 5,000 privately owned U.S. companies based on revenues from 2006 through 2009. (Other qualifications: at least $80,000 in revenue in 2006; at least $2 million in 2009 and not a division of a larger company.)
To see that entire list, click here. The special Inc. 500 print edition will be on newsstands in September.

Perhaps the most notable fact about this year’s list is that the company that ranks 5,000th — generationE Technologies in Dower Grove, Ill. — had ZERO growth in the past three years. That compares with 40% for No. 5,000 in 2008 and 20% for No. 5,000 in 2007.

As Inc. notes, “Our measuring period of 2006 through 2009 encompasses the recession…Poignantly, many firms applied for this year’s list even though their 2009 revenue was less than that of 2006.â€