community
The Inner City 100
100 street-smart companies.
61. Roman Realty
345%
2.9 million
39
Frustrated by the poor treatment he received while trying to buy a home, Victor Roman started this real estate brokerage with the goal of providing fair and friendly service to Connecticut's Hispanic community. Roman counsels first-time homebuyers on everything from the importance of establishing a good credit rating to how to fill out a mortgage application.
62. Maya Viz
344%
5.2 million
60
Maya Viz has landed in Iraq. The United States Army's First Cavalry Division uses Maya Viz's software to maintain communication between commanders and units in the field. To implement the project, Maya Viz sent 10 staffers to Baghdad (without incident). Says owner Steven Roth: "How does it feel to come in in the morning and know what you are working on is heading to Baghdad to protect some young soldier? The sense of responsibility and excitement has changed the culture."
63. DocuVault
339%
3.8 million
41
Upon moving back home to Denver from Hawaii, where he worked for a file storage business, Bowen Banbury discovered that his father had a lease on two vacant floors in a downtown office building. He thought to himself: "This place is perfect for storage." Nine years later, Banbury's document and data management company houses more than a million boxes in seven offices. And if what you need is the opposite of storage, DocuVault offers high-volume shredding.
64. Educational Directories Unlimited
334%
3.1 million
28
Chester, Pa.
Mark Shay's company runs how-to websites aimed at students, such as StudyAbroad.com. The firm recently moved into a two-story high-tech building that was erected as part of a local effort to attract companies to Chester, a depressed manufacturing city. "The building is spectacular," says Shay, who has hired 15 new employees since the move. "It's so out of place amidst the crumbling row houses."
65. MetroPro Realty
328%
2.3 million
42
Donna Jackson and Margie Smigel established their reputation in Chicago real estate by working with developers on the city's poor South Side. These days, the partners handle listings all over the city -- from multimillion-dollar mansions to $200,000 lofts. They handle every aspect of selling a property, including appraisals, "staging" a home for an open house, and arranging financing; in some cases they even cover up-front expenses for sellers. Last year, they created a radio show, a kind of Car Talk for homeowners.
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