By John Kenyon
CORRIDOR – This year’s Inc. 500/5,000 list of the country’s fastest growing private companies is out, and Iowa companies fared about as well as they did in 2010.
This year, 28 Iowa companies made the list. That compares with 26 that made the list in 2010.
The Corridor fared a bit better this year than last, with 12 companies on the full 5,000 list compared to 10 in 2010.
The top-ranked Iowa company, Thomas L. Cardella & Associates (TLC), calls the Corridor home, with headquarters in Cedar Rapids. The company reported 1,148 percent growth between 2008 and 2010, with revenue of $21 million in 2010. The contact center company is ranked No. 19 in the Business Products & Services industry.
TLC is the only Iowa company to make the top 500, which is published in the September issue of Inc. The other companies made the expanded list of 5,000, which appears on the magazine’s web site.
Other Corridor companies to make the list were:
Clickstop of Urbana (No. 913 with 334 percent growth)
MD Orthopaedics of Wayland (No. 1,636 with 166 percent growth)
Raining Rose of Cedar Rapids (No. 2,445 with 97 percent growth)
TMone of Iowa City (No. 2,727 with 82 percent growth)
Geonetric of Hiawatha (No. 2,804 with 78 percent growth)
MobileDemand of Hiawatha (No. 2,978 with 70 percent growth)
Hybrid Transit Systems of Cedar Rapids(No. 2,226 with 60 percent growth)
Circle Computer Resources of Cedar Rapids (No. 3,298 with 57 percent growth)
RuffaloCODY of Cedar Rapids (No. 2,746 with 40 percent growth)
GreatAmerica Leasing Corp. of Cedar Rapids (No. 4,181 with 27 percent growth)
TrueNorth of Cedar Rapids (No. 4,906 with 5 percent growth)
As is usually the case with volatile lists like this, there were changes. Fifteen from the 2010 list made it again this year, which means 13 companies on this year’s list weren’t on the 2010 list.
That doesn’t necessarily mean they were not growing rapidly. Some likely chose not to apply for consideration. Thomas L. Cardella & Associates, the highest-ranking Iowa company on this year’s list at No. 285, was not on last year’s list. But the company clearly grew quickly in the three years surveyed in 2010. The company topped the Corridor Business Journal’s Fastest Growing Companies list in 2010, which, like the Inc. survey for that year, looked at revenues for 2007-09. Its revenue grew 919 percent during that time, enough to place it in the top 500 at the time.
Involta, which grew at a staggering 5,438 percent in 2010 (which was good enough for 40th on that list) was not on this year’s list.
The annual list is accompanied by about 150 pages of profiles and analysis in the print issue; all of it can be found (though good luck navigating it) online as well. This is the 30th year of the list – which debuted as the Inc. Private 100 – and one of the most interesting features is an interview with Jeff Stoops, CEO of Daleville, Ind.-based Stoops Express, a trucking company that topped the first list.
What follows is a list of the Iowa companies on the 2011 list, including their rank, three-year growth, revenue in millions, number of employees and city where they are based.
