Inc. magazine has positioned its Inc. 500 list as a scorecard for entrepreneurs, and we like touse it as an indicator of how the entrepreneurial economy is doing in St. Louis. This year'sresults are mixed: The area landed just two companies in the top 500, down from three last year,but it has 43 companies in the broader Inc. 5000, up from 36 last year. Unfortunately, St. Louisstill doesn't have enough fast-growing companies to merit a separate search page on the Inc.site.
The fastest-growing local companies this year wereVeteran Corps of America, based inO'Fallon, Ill., at No. 476, and Stratus Building Solutions, of Overland, at No. 494. VeteranCorps, a government contractor, reported revenue of $19 million and 18 employees, and Stratus,a building-maintenance franchise company, reported revenue of $100 million and 11 employees.I wrote columns last year about the entrepreneurs behind both companies: William Wheeler ofVeteran Corps andDennis Jarrett andPete Frese of Stratus. Wheeler also merited a "my story"feature in this year's Inc. 500 issue, and the magazine included Stratus on a list of top 10franchise companies.
St. Louis' entries on the broader Inc. 5000 list ranged from tech companies like Datotel andRose International to old-line law firms like Bryan Cave and Thompson Coburn. Since the listis based on a three-year growth rate beginning with the recession year of 2008, its lower rungsweren't all that challenging to reach. The bottom companies on the list showed three-year salesgrowth of just 2 percent.
Higher on the list, growth numbers were spectacular. Veteran Corps reported revenue growth of726 percent, Stratus grew 689 percent, and the No. 1 company, New York online retailer ideeli,raised its sales 40,882 percent in three years. |
