The 2009 Inc. 500|5000: The Top 10 Indian-Run Companies

Rank: No. 7
Location: Tampa, FL
Revenue: $182.8 million

Born in Zambia, educated in India, Dr. Kiran Patel arrived in the United States Thanksgiving Day, 1976. He returned home to attend medical school, where he met his wife, a fellow student, but ultimately decided to return to the U.S. permanently. "I wanted to make sure my children had a better future, and the political climate in Africa at the time was a bit challenging," he says.

Rank: No. 10
Location: Vienna, VA
Revenue: $20.3 million

Promod Sharma grew up in New Delhi in comfortable circumstances as a child of the elite class. "I had a very nice life," he says. After studying accounting at the London School of Economics, he followed his father, who worked at the World Bank, to Washington, D.C. When he came to America, he jumped into IT and after working with several tech companies, Sharma decided to launch his own business in the industry. He founded Criterion Systems in 2005.

Rank: No. 12
Location: San Francisco, CA
Revenue: $19.8 million

Vikram Kashyap grew up in Ohio as one of the only Indian kids in his school. He learned to speak German because of his communities large German population. "It was pretty interesting," he says, adding that his parents eventually moved to Los Angeles to be in a more diverse area. But while Kashyap says he's proud of his Indian roots and rich cultural heritage, at the end of the day, "I’m an American." Kashyap always wanted to be an entrepreneur, and he launched healthcare payment processing firm Canopy Financial to achieve his lifelong goal.

Rank: No. 33
Location: Chantilly, VA
Revenue: $8.6 million

Born and raised in an upper-middle class household in India, Anuj Khurana set out for Los Angeles with two suitcases and very little money. "I was told America is a land of opportunity, and boy were they right," Khurana says. But he stays connected to his native country through daily contact with ARK Solutions' Indian office and yearly visits home to see his parents.

Rank: No. 35
Location: Montclair, NJ
Revenue: $89.4 million

Even though he grew up in New Jersey, Vinit Bharara considers himself Indian through and through. "My iPod is loaded with Bhangra and my fridge with homemade paranthas from my mom," he says. To start their lives in the U.S., his parents overcame challenges Bharara says he’s not sure he could have faced. Born in what is now Pakistan, shortly before the 1947 partition dividing the two countries, Bharara parents survived a violent upheaval before immigrating as a young married couple with just pennies in their pockets.

Rank: No. 36
Location: Redmond, WA
Revenue: $8.3 million

Born and raised in the Indian state of Andrapradesh, Vijay Gunturu immigrated for a chance at a better education. Technical education wasn’t as advanced in his home region as it is today, so he left for the masters program at Ohio's Wright State University. After working as a software developer, he took another leap in 2001 to start Sirsai, an outsourcing firm serving Seattle's tech industry.

Rank: No. 76
Location: Washington, D.C.
Revenue: $9.8 million

After immigrating in 1974 to pursue a career in library sciences, Anshu Bhatnagar’s father joined the U.S. military. Bhatnagar credits his high school years in Seoul as his reason for wanting to become an entrepreneur. "Most of the Indian community there were businesspeople, hence all our family friends owned their own businesses and were very successful," he explains. Bhatnagar left behind a six-figure salary in the IT industry to start his first business and hasn’t looked back.

Rank: No. 88
Location: New York, NY
Revenue: $8.1 million

Sanjay Kamlani's parents immigrated from India in 1967 in search of opportunity. His father immediately started a company importing birds, and went on to establish entrepreneurial ventures in real estate and women's garments, and now owns an Indian restaurant in South Beach. As CEO of Pangea3, a legal outsourcing firm, he’s come full circle: he recently returned to his parents’ homeland to pursue other business opportunities. "Today, we’re seeing lots of Indians returning to India or going for the first time, because they're seeing far more opportunity," he says.

Rank: No. 130
Location: Louisville, KY
Revenue: $6.9 million

Vidya Ravichandran was born in Bangalore, years before it became India's own Silicon Valley. Her father, a former Fullbright scholar, instilled in her the desire to get higher education in America at an early age. The academic adjustment was hard, but the biggest challenge was being "dead broke," she says. "My parents sold everything, the house, the car," Ravichandran says, to put her and her brother through college. But this entrepreneur, now the president of outsourcing firm GlowTouch Technologies, is quick to point out their investment's been paid back, several times over.

Rank: No. 150
Location: Newark, CA
Revenue: $4.6 million

Born and raised in India's Gujurat province, Atul Parikh earned a master's degree from Maharaja Sayajirao University and was well on his way to a stable, secure position in India's burgeoning IT industry. Instead, in 1993, he left home for the United States to seek his fortune. He started a software company, sold it, worked on several event management projects, and even produced an independent film before launching AB Star Group in 2003.