Private TitansInc. staff These Are America's 1,000 Largest and Most Inspiring Private CompaniesIntroducing Inc.'s second annual list of the most dynamic private companies in the U.S.
Private TitansBill Saporito Inside the 1,000 Largest Private Companies in the U.S.Startups create the buzz, but some outfits, like music publisher Hal Leonard, born in radio days, outperform for decades.
Private TitansZachary Lipez How This Milwaukee Institution Has Turned Sheet Music Into a $250-Million-a-Year BusinessHal Leonard is still making sheet music and beating the digital band.
Private TitansSteve Goldberg This Family Lumber Company Has Survived 11 Major Economic Downturns. Here's HowHancock Lumber learned how to sell global and act local.
Private TitansChristine Lagorio-Chafkin This 100-Year-Old CEO Still Follows 2 Rules at His Sports Equipment Company: Make Time to Ski and Check Your Ego at the DoorKlaus Obermeyer still runs Sport Obermeyer, a 73-year-old outdoor apparel company that prides itself on a tight-knit, active culture.
Private TitansMarc Emmer How to Emulate Tesla's Success (While Avoiding Its Costly Mistakes)8 keys to successfully scaling your company
Family BusinessChristine Lagorio-Chafkin Kids Have Been Eating Smarties on Halloween for 70 Years. Here's the Story of the Family-Run Company Behind It AllOctober 31 is the biggest day of the year for Smarties. The candy business, which has been run by the Dee family for generations, has been preparing since last November.
Private TitansBob Diddlebock How This $1 Billion Family Business Has Beat Every Recession Since 1920Elkay Manufacturing has endured for a century in an unforgiving, cyclical industry by innovating relentlessly around the ordinary.
Private TitansKimberly Weisul From Bootstrapped to Billion-Dollar Exit: Quest Nutrition Sells to Atkins Bars MakerThe 3 Quest founders bootstrapped their company for 5 years before taking a private equity deal in 2015.
Private TitansChristine Lagorio-Chafkin EzCater Launched With an Idea for Feeding Hungry Doctors. Now It's a Billion-Dollar Catering BusinessSales reps tend to have a higher success rate if they deliver their pitches along with free food. That key realization led two founders to start ezCater over a dining-room table. Now the company has 750 employees and is going international.
Private TitansCameron Albert-Deitch Why Entrepreneurs Should Pay Attention to Chobani's Latest Big MoveThe yogurt giant is helping to create fair-trade dairy.
Private TitansSteve Goldberg Why This $2 Billion Business Swears By the 'Pencil Rule'Red Ventures is going places. Where? Not sure. And that's the plan.
Private TitansChristine Lagorio-Chafkin After Years of Struggle, This Pioneering Craft Brewery Finally Caught On. That's When the Founders' Real Problems BeganDan Kenary didn't want to sell Harpoon, which he'd started with friends in his 20s. Here are the incredible lengths he went to in order to keep it independent.
Private TitansMarc Emmer The 5 Most Common Mistakes When Trying to Scale a CompanyIs your company committing one or more of these five deadly business sins without even realizing it?
Private TitansCameron Albert-Deitch Want to Build a $1 Billion Company? Look to These 3 Industries, Says a New ReportThere are more unicorn companies than ever before--and a third of them joined the club only last year.
Private TitansKevin J. Ryan02:15 Private Companies Want to Take You to Outer Space. Here's How Close They Are to Doing ItThe long-promised launch of manned flights is nearing realization.
Private TitansChristine Lagorio-Chafkin The Radical Self-Improvement Plan That Pushed Trek Bicycles to $1 Billion in SalesJohn Burke is leading the bike-maker with an intense focus on customer service and a driven company culture.
Private TitansSteve Goldberg How Going Private Has Freed Up Skullcandy to Return to Its Edgy RootsGoing private again allowed Skullcandy's culture to reemerge.
Tip SheetSophie Downes02:19 Waffle House: From Tiny Cult Brand to a $1.3 Billion Restaurant EmpireThe chain has long had a loyal cult following, and now has nearly 2,000 locations in 25 states.
Private TitansChristine Lagorio-Chafkin The Surprising Principle That Has Guided This Family Business for 80 Years: 'Don't Fall in Love'Now it employs tens of thousands around the planet and does billions in revenue. Here's how Carlson grew from loyalty stamps to global business travel powerhouse--and how it plans to sustain itself through a fourth generation of family leadership.
Private TitansJessica Rovello Attention, Tech Founders: Going Public Isn't Your Only Option (No Matter What Your Investors Say)Going public while you're losing hundreds of millions of dollars every year isn't sound business, and this isn't the only way to grow.
Private TitansDeirdre van Dyk Imagine a Company Where Peers Determine Your Salary and There Are No Leaders. It Exists and It's Been Around for 61 YearsAt W.L. Gore, anyone can lead--but no one is the boss.
Featured VideosGuadalupe Gonzalez02:13 Glossier Founder Emily Weiss's Entrepreneurial JourneyAn entrepreneur since childhood, Weiss has raised nearly $200 million in funding for her popular skin care and makeup business.
Private TitansMarc Emmer All Successful Entrepreneurs Who Scale Their Companies Have These 5 TraitsWant to scale successfully? Incorporate these five personal characteristics into your business strategy.
Featured VideosGuadalupe Gonzalez02:10 Why Investors Love the Pizza BusinessVenture capital and private equity firms have been sinking their teeth into a variety of new pizza chains in recent years.
Private TitansGuadalupe Gonzalez Denim-Maker Levi's Targets a $100 Million IPOLevi's is banking on a direct-to-consumer approach, and using tech to rejuvenate its brand.
Private TitansMarc Emmer How to Build a Smart Acquisition Strategy for Your Company: 3 Key ApproachesA careful buyer integrates all three M&A approaches to transform their company's value.
Private TitansChristine Lagorio-Chafkin How This 'Crazy Inspiring' Founder Got to $18 Million in Sales Without a ComputerA cycling company's founder has learned enough to know that analytics can't beat putting yourself in the rider's seat.
Tip SheetSophie Downes02:20 Mixing Business and Politics? It's Part of the Super-Successful Strategy Behind These 3 BrandsYou take a risk by publicly aligning your business with one side of a contentious issue. But if done right, the move can pay off.
Private TitansMarc Emmer 5 Key Steps to a Billion Dollar ValuationBuilding enterprise value is a formula, not a magic bullet.
Private TitansMichael Lastoria 3 Powerful Lessons From the Entrepreneur Who Gave Away 30,000 Pizzas During the Government ShutdownYour business should always lend a helping hand during a crisis. It's what a decent person would do.
Private TitansGreg Satell Big Companies Shouldn't Try to Act Like Startups. Here's WhyBig companies have deep expertise and resources, but can't match the entrepreneurial energy of someone striving to build their own business
Private TitansChristine Lagorio-Chafkin The Bizarre Case of a Massive Employee-Ownership FlopHow one of the country's oldest employee-owned firms handled slowed growth and near-crippling expenses.
Private TitansSean Wise When Venture Capital Runs Dry, Use These 6 Techniques to Soldier OnSome VC firms are once again warning that a "long winter" of funding is coming. Here's how to prepare for a downturn in VC funding.
Tip SheetGuadalupe Gonzalez01:59 Groceries Are a $600 Billion Business. Here Are the New Ways Companies Are Cashing InBusinesses are innovating the food-shopping experience to make it easier and more efficient.
Private TitansSteve Goldberg Forget WeWork. Topgolf Is Fast Becoming the Cool Place to Do BusinessThe company that reimagined the driving range as an interactive sports and business space is growing rapidly. It could even make golf popular again.
Private TitansGuadalupe Gonzalez02:07 Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the $4.6 Billion Greeting Card BusinessAmericans buy more than 6 billion cards each year. Here's how the business became the behemoth it is today.
Private TitansFred Wilson VC Fred Wilson: Thinking Ahead to 2019Big-name IPOs could coincide with an economic slowdown next year. Here's what that means for the startup sector.
Inc. UncensoredEmily Canal Black Friday Isn't a Holiday, But Here's Why Designated Shopping Days Matterinc-uncensored-podcast-episode-196.html
Private TitansSophie Downes02:52 How Chick-fil-A Became an Iconic $9 Billion Business--Without Ever Going PublicThe company has created a fast-food empire with more than 2,000 locations, but its growth hasn't come without controversy.
Private TitansChristine Lagorio-Chafkin How Carhartt Engineered Ageless Cool, and Won Fans From Skateboarders to Barack ObamaCarhartt clothing was designed for railway workers and adopted by rappers and skaters. Its rugged, reliable, made-in-America appeal is spreading.
Private TitansNick Bastone 35 U.S. Tech Startups That Reached Unicorn Status in 2018Each of these startups reached a valuation of at least $1 billion this year.
Private TitansKevin J. Ryan Unlimited Private Jets on Demand? This Startup Is Betting More Than Just the Mega-Rich Want InMeet Wheels Up, one of Inc.'s Private Titans--the nation's most dynamic non-public businesses. No, it's not Uber for jets. But the rapidly growing company is lowering the price of entry into the world of private aviation.
Tip SheetGuadalupe Gonzalez01:50 Everything You Need to Know About Coinbase in 2 MinutesThe cryptocurrency exchange has more than 20 million users and $1 billion revenue.
Private TitansPaige Leskin These Are the 25 Most Valuable Tech Unicorns in the U.S.These private giants are worth a combined $300 billion.
Private TitansChristine Lagorio-Chafkin How This Third-Generation Family Business Has Minted 70 MillionairesTwo brothers took over their father's farm, and built an ice-cream empire
Owner's ManualJeff Haden Take Your Startup Public? This CFO Says an IPO May Be the Last Thing You Want to DoWayfair CFO Michael Fleisher, a veteran of three IPOs, on what every great business is built on, and why going public may be the wrong move for your company.
Private TitansGuadalupe Gonzalez In IPO, Uber Would Be Worth More Than GM, Ford, and Fiat Chrysler CombinedUber investors, who have poured more than $22 billion into the company, may soon see a return on their investments.
Private TitansJim Schleckser 6 Things a Private Equity Firm Will Do After It Buys Your BusinessAnd they aren't necessarily what you would do.
Private TitansSuzanne Lucas Court: In-N-Out Doesn't Have the Right to Control Employee UniformsThe NLRB is serious about workers' right to concerted activity.
Private TitansGuadalupe Gonzalez01:25 Inside WeWork's Massive (and Unusual) Business EmpireWeWork's many recent investments have moved it far beyond co-working spaces.
Private TitansWill Yakowicz Inside Juul: The Most Promising, and Controversial, Vape Company in AmericaHow the San Francisco nicotine delivery startup Juul, now valued at $15 billion, set out to make cigarettes obsolete and inherited the tobacco industry's baggage along the way.
Private TitansChristine Lagorio-Chafkin A Giant Company Wanted to Buy His Business for $120 Million. He Walked Away From It--and He's Glad He DidHe's the first to joke he's a little bit of a control freak.
Private TitansJames Ledbetter Stay Private or Go Public? These 5 Charts Help Settle the DebateA sampling of private versus public in corporate America.
Private TitansBill Saporito These Are the 1,000 Most Iconic Large Private Companies in the U.S.: Warby Parker, Levi Strauss, In-N-Out Burger, and MoreIn this inaugural list, Inc. and Grant Thornton have teamed up to create an exclusive roster of the 1,000 largest, most vital American companies that are not public. These companies maintain growth and relevance as they continue to thrive.