The 2010 Inc. 5000: Top 10 Companies by Growth Rate

Ambit Energy

Dallas

No. 1

2009 Revenue: $325 million

Three-Year Growth: 20,369.42%

Thompson's company Ambit Energy, an electricity and natural gas provider, has grown quickly because he keeps a keen eye on overhead and makes shrewd decisions. Thompson initially set up shop in an old warehouse building because he wanted to pour all his money into hiring a strong team. Friends cautioned him that everyone would think the company didn't have any money, to which he replied, "the smart people will get it, don't worry about anybody else."

ModCloth

Pittsburgh



No. 2

2009 Revenue: $15.6 million

Three-Year Growth: 17,190.98%



For Eric and Susan Gregg Koger, 2006 was a whirlwind of activity. They graduated from Carnegie Mellon, got hitched, and Eric sold ownership in his Web development and consulting business. They also started Modcloth, a vintage clothing e-tailer, growing it from $90,000 to $15.5 million in a mere three years through a combination of offering a broad selection to keep customers coming back, vivid product descriptions and customer outreach. "We pay attention to the long tail of social networks so our list of the little sites in which our customers live is pretty long," he says.

Luke & Associates 

Merritt Island, Florida

No. 3

2009 Revenue: $37.5 million

Three-Year Growth: 16,636.55%



When probed for the secret to Luke & Associates' speedy growth, Barfield modestly joked that, "even a blind squirrel gets an acorn every now and then," but in truth a great deal of planning went into building his company, which provides medical staffing, and military contracting services. Barfield took a year before he even bid on a single contract, in the meantime, he assembled accounting and IT systems designed to keep overhead to a minimum. When the company finally made a bid, they landed a substantial part of a $1.9 billion contract.

Lexicon Consulting

El Cajon, California



No. 4

2009 Revenue: $14.4 million

Three-Year Growth: 14,017.74%



When Jamie Arundell-Latshaw and her husband Leroy started Lexicon Consulting, they each had distinguished military careers under their belts but they were green when it came to government contracting.  Lexicon offers linguistic and cultural training to U.S. troops about to deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan; some training takes place in model villages such as the one pictured at left. Arundell-Latshaw says that it was word of mouth among the troops and a commitment to Lexicon's government clients that catapulted the business to success. "We went above and beyond and paid close attention to detail and the customer appreciated that," she says.

WDFA Marketing

San Francisco

No. 5

2009 Revenue: $17.9 million

Three-Year Growth: 13,969.46%



Prasad caught the advertising and entrepreneurial bug from watching the TV show Full House. Seeing the show's protagonists, who ran an ad agency and spent their time "home all day and coming up with cool creative things to do," caused Prasad to snub the aspirations of his peers to become cops, doctors, or actors and set his sights on running his own agency. He gives credit for WDFA's growth to their farm system of hiring recent college graduates who stay with the company for years as they rise through the ranks.  

Coyote Logistics

Lake Forest, Illinois

No. 6

2009 Revenue: $249.8 million

Three-Year Growth: 13,846.79%



Silver discovered prior to launching Coyote Logistics in 2006 that it was necessary to seek the wisdom of others. Before going solo, he worked at American Backhaulers (ABH), a business that, like Coyote Logistics, helped companies coordinate their truck and train shipments for maximum economic and environmental efficiency. In addition to the knowledge he gained as an employee in the industry, Silver took five years off after leaving ABH to get an MBA at the University of Michigan as well as a master's of engineering in logistics at MIT. "It was the perfect time to sit back and think about how to do it differently, how to do it better, and how to do it faster," he says.

Debt Free Associates

Oklahoma City

No. 7

2009 Revenue: $26.2 million

Three-Year Growth: 12,376.19%



Smith's company grew 12,376 percent in a mere three years and he had help from the sour economy. Smith launched Debt Free Associates, a debt consolidation company, in 2006, well before the zenith of the housing and financial crises. "It's somewhat bittersweet," he says, "we've been able to market, and expand, and hire good analysts but at the same time you're dealing with people who are in a very sensitive state." So does a recovery spell doom for his company? Not yet. Now that the economy is on the uptick, Smith is hoping it will increase the barriers to entry for potential competitors.

LifeLock 

Tempe, Arizona

No. 8

2009 Revenue: $131.4 million 

Three-Year Growth: 11,474.27%



It seems like such a simple move. Retailers are always giving out samples of their products to win customers over. Why shouldn't Davis, the CEO of LifeLock, give out his social security number to demonstrate how successfully his identity theft protection company could protect it. The idea came to Davis three years ago just minutes before he was supposed to give an interview on CNBC. After a quick call to determine the legality of what he was about to do, he gave out his SSN on the air and interest in the company exploded. "The phones went nuts, the enrollments went crazy," Davis recounts. "We had people not only calling to sign up but wondering how they could invest in us."

Carbonite  

Boston

No. 9

2009 Revenue: $19.1 million

Three-Year Growth: 11,207.6%



Carbonite, a developer of online backup software, grew from sheer marketing savvy. The company realized that while all of its competitors were touting the technology as the value proposition, the real value was buying from a brand that you can trust. "You can talk about encryption and all the technical stuff till you're blue in the face," says Friend. "It doesn't mean anything to consumers." To help win consumer trust, Friend launched a marketing campaign in which radio hosts ranging from Rush Limbaugh to Rachel Maddow vouched for the product.

KPaul

Indianapolis

No. 10

2009 Revenue: $11.2 million

Three-Year Growth: 10,925.57%

Paul moved from India to Indianapolis with his parents at the age of eight but he adapted quickly, cutting his teeth as an entrepreneur by mowing lawns and working a paper route. He spoke of the stereotype of Indian parents pushing their children into the fields of law or medicine, but says his folks were supportive when he joined the Army straight out of high school and his 14 years in the service taught him to handle clients. "Just give them the facts, don't sugarcoat anything," he says. His experience at KPaul has taught him that patience and persistence are the most important factors to contracting for the government. While he's seen beginning contractors give up after six months, he says it can sometimes take years to land a sizable contract.