Top 10 Internet Companies

Paul Hurley, CEO
New York City

No. 1
2010 Revenue: $77.7 million
Three-Year Growth: 40,882%

Founded in 2006 and based in New York City, ideeli has pioneered the idea of the flash deals site and is the Inc. 500 No. 1 company this year. When the site launched, people mistook it for a wedding of Kmart and Overstock.com, but serial entrepreneur and founder Paul Hurley (not pictured), who previously consulted with high technology companies, envisioned something more exclusive. Up until 2010, the site required that new members be sent an invite code. Now anyone can register as a user and gain access to ideeli’s upmarket deals and luxury brands.

Tony Shap, CEO
Thousand Oaks, Calif.

No. 11
2010 Revenue: $10.8 million
Three-Year Growth: 10,058%

This payment processing company, founded in 2004, serves thousands of retailers, restaurants, and other businesses. The company provides services that accelerate credit card payment processing made online from three to five days down to one. PaymentMax ranks No. 12 among Financial Services companies in last year’s Inc. 5000.

Ari Ramezani, CEO
Canoga Park, Calif.

No. 30
2010 Revenue: $7.8 million
Three-Year Growth: 6,337%

Established in 2005, this VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) provider has surged since 2007. In late 2010, the company acquired VOIP.com, based in Boca Raton. Ari Ramezani, Phone Power’s CEO, said that the acquisition has his company poised for continued growth. Phone Power partners with major retailers like Best Buy to provide small businesses and consumers with access to phone service over the Internet with packages that offer unlimited calling in the United States and Canada.

Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah, Co-Founders
Cambridge, Mass.

No. 33
2010 Revenue: $15.6 million
Three-Year Growth: 6,015%

Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah, co-founders of HubSpot, met at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2004. For the next two years, they exchanged ideas on how the Internet could help small businesses. The Internet had changed the business landscape, they decided, so they built HubSpot, which designs marketing software that gives small businesses online exposure. In addition to growing the business at a breakneck pace since 2007, Halligan recently found time for more mellow pursuits and co-authored a book, Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead.

Israel Ganot, CEO
Allston, Mass.

No. 35
2010 Revenue: $21.3 million
Three-Year Growth: 5,753%

Israel Ganot had the idea in San Francisco in 2006, when he tried to recycle two Blackberries and was told he had to pay a fee. In Boston, perhaps not at the same time but nearly, Rousseau Aurelien had the same idea when he encountered a statistic that told him that more than 40 million computers are trashed each year. When Ganot moved to Boston later that year, the two met by chance and decided to found Gazelle, which now recycles more than 100,000 gadgets and gizmos a year.

Robert Reynolds, CEO
Las Vegas

No. 40
2010 Revenue: $35.1 million
Three-Year Growth: 4,644%

Founded in 2006 and with a client base of more than 150,000, CPAlead has carved out a space for itself in America’s gambling capital. CPAlead provides advertising and pay-per-action programs that help websites monetize their content. The company says that they’ve made it a priority to maintain a small business feel even as they’ve grown rapidly in recent years. Ping pong battles on the company’s in-house table can reportedly be fierce.

Josef Gorowitz, CEO
Torrance, Calif.

No. 43
2010 Revenue: $12.3 million
Three-Year Growth: 4,461%

All the talk among marketers these days is about gamification, loyalty programs, and virality. Prodege has found a place for itself in a rambunctious marketplace. The company has users vote in polls, search the web, and watch videos in exchange for Swag Bucks, a virtual currency redeemable at Swagbucks.com. Co-founder Scott Dudelson started Music for Charity, a nonprofit consulting firm, before launching Prodege in 2008.

Bryan Johnson, CEO
Chicago

No. 47
2010 Revenue: $4.6 million
Three-Year Growth: 4,156%

When Bryan Johnson’s (pictured third from right) first stab at building a small business, a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) company, fell apart in 2007, Johnson didn’t sit around for long. Two months later he founded Braintree, a company that helps merchants process online credit card payments. Braintree has forged partnerships with other burgeoning small businesses like Animoto, 37Signals, and SCVNGR to help them streamline their payment systems.

Stephen Gill and Zachary Robbins, Co-Founders
Philadelphia

No. 48
2010 Revenue: $5.8 million
Three-Year Growth: 3,932%

Stephen Gill (pictured fourth from the left) started his first company, NoLimit Interactive Media, while he was a student at Rowan University. While he was there, he also met his Leadnomics co-founder, Zachary Robbins (pictured third from the left). Robbins and Gill decided to partner up, and started Leadnomics shortly before they left campus. Leadnomics specializes in generating high-quality leads for financial services, insurance, and the education sector.

Lee Chen, CEO
San Jose, California

No. 54
2010 Revenue: $55 million
Three-Year Growth: 3,785.5%

Lee Chen, A10 Networks’ CEO and founder, fled to Taiwan with his family as a child from their home in war-torn China. After coming to America and working with two start-ups, Chen was inspired by the CEO of Foundry Networks to strike out on his own. Chen did, and in 2004 founded the Silicon Valley-based server appliances provider A10 Networks. The company helps clients keep pace with advances in Internet and communications technology by providing network management tools and solutions.

--Matt DeLuca