Indholdsfortegnelse for Winter 2025/2026 i Inc. Magazine

Every founder who finds traction with their business faces an inevitable evolution in how they spend their time, from being the person who does every thing (sales, tech support, emptying the garbage) to being primarily a people manager. And as the business grows larger and more complex, it becomes time to transition again to a next-level role that is trickier but more profound. Entrepreneur and author Jay Shetty recently put it this way: “The best leaders don’t create more followers, they create more leaders.” (He credited the insight to motivational author Roy T. Bennett.) Shetty’s thoughts on this stage of entrepreneurship were one of the big takeaways for many attendees at this year’s Inc. 5000 Conference & Gala, held in October in Phoenix. “It distilled something critical for me and…

When Evan Reinsberg left Columbia Business School in 2023, he didn’t go down a typical career path by launching a startup or joining a big bluechip firm. Instead, he started looking for a small business to buy. During school, Reinsberg started thinking about entrepreneurship through acquisition, or ETA, an increasingly popular approach being taken by would-be business leaders, who buy pre-existing companies to scale them up. Reinsberg’s search took a year and a half. During that time, a group of investors, some of whom he met through Columbia’s alumni network, covered his expenses. Now 31, he estimates that he contacted thousands of companies before closing a deal last February to take over Chesapeake Technology, a sea-floor mapping company founded in 1995. “I really wanted to get as much management experience…

IN CELEBRATION WITH This year’s Inc. 5000 honorees were celebrated and given the star treatment at the first-of-its-kind Inc. 5000 Media Day in August. In celebration with Capital One Business, founders of some of America’s fastest-growing companies gathered at Inc.’s headquarters for networking sessions, workshops, and content creation moments. Honorees strengthened their community while basking in the Inc. 5000 spotlight. Every moment was designed to help them make the most of making the list. “This honor, this award, really lets us show to the team: ‘Look at how far you’ve come. Look at the mountain that you have climbed, and where we’re gonna go from here.” – AAKASH SHAH, CO-FOUNDER AND CEO OF WYNDLY…

“For a company that’s growing quickly, it’s hard to tease apart what is a function of your customer changing or your sales channel changing from what’s happening externally, and that makes things even more challenging.” Magic Spoon’s Gabi Lewis “We remind ourselves not to look at volatility as a negative. Instead, we think about how we can use it to leverage our competitive advantage.” Prismm’s Martha Underwood “If you’re always looking on the horizon for when it won’t be like this, don’t—because there will always be a different version of whatever this is.” Teal Health’s Kara Egan A founder’s to-do list never ends. No matter how many wins your company racks up, a new challenge is always waiting for you. So with all your business needs to accomplish right now, how do you…

Rhythms of the Village was always a community magnet. Started in 1979 by Onochie Chukwurah, a musician who’d escaped the Nigerian Civil War and toured with Fela Kuti before finding paradise in Altadena, the family business celebrated Black culture—originally as a performing arts company and later as a retail store and cultural hub selling clothes, African art, carvings, and other imports. The store was located on Lake Avenue in Central Altadena, once an unofficial border between neighborhoods due to historical redlining. When the Eaton Fire took it down in January, all that was left were a few soapstone trinkets. “But it takes one door to close for another door to open,” says Emeka Chukwurah, Onochie’s son, who now runs the store with his partner, Andrea McInnes. They have re-envisioned Rhythms…

Lee Nelson’s local goods and design store, Guad & Co., is named after the river that destroyed it on July 4, 2025. She’d opened eight months earlier in honor of her mother, who had passed away. The girls from nearby Camp Mystic loved coming in to browse among the trendy bandanna necklaces that were popular among them. A torrential rainstorm caused the Guadalupe River to rise nearly 40 feet, killing 27 campers and counselors, and more than 100 other people in Texas Hill Country. The flood pushed through the back door and turned Nelson’s inventory, computers, and silkscreen and embroidery equipment into a toxic stew—a loss, Nelson estimates, of about $175,000. This, combined with the grief of losing some of the girls who came to the store, paralyzed her at…

BOYNECAPITAL.COM BOYNE CAPITAL $700M ASSETS UNDER MANAGEMENT 22 PORTFOLIO COMPANIES 33 EMPLOYEES YEAR FOUNDED 2006 After a record year in 2022, Shane and Tyler McKee weren’t looking to cash out of their family’s water infrastructure company, McKee Utility Contractors. The brothers, both in their early 40s, were seeking a partner who would help them honor their grandfather’s legacy while providing the capital needed to scale. They found that partner in Boyne Capital, a Miami-based private equity firm that’s built its reputation on being a true partner to founders. “We need to find a commonality of vision. We are not great at providing only liquidity to help owners cash out of their businesses. It’s less attractive to us. We’re better when we’re partnering with somebody like the McKees that have growth…

On September 25, President Trump signed an executive order titled “Saving TikTok While Protecting National Security.” Trump announced that a majority stake of TikTok’s U.S. operations—80 percent—would go to “American investors, American companies, great ones,” a.k.a. a group of Trump loyalists, including Rupert Murdoch and Michael Dell, as well as Larry Ellison’s Oracle and an Abu Dhabi investment firm called MGX. Vice President Vance, who said the deal valued TikTok’s U.S. operations at $14 billion, called it a “good deal for investors.” That’s something of an understatement given analysts put the value at $30 billion to $35 billion—or at least double what the investors are reportedly paying. The TikTok deal could be the coup of the century. But for one of the investors, Larry Ellison, grabbing a piece of the…

They advise never meeting your heroes, but Sean Evans keeps meeting his, and these late-night icons keep treating him like he’s a member of their club—a feeling that must be so brain-melting for him, it should come with its own Scoville rating. Last year, Seth Meyers moderated an event at the Paley Center for Media featuring Evans and Chris Schonberger, the founder and CEO of First We Feast, the scrappy production company that launched Hot Ones on YouTube a decade ago. In March, Evans did a Hot Ones sketch onstage with Stephen Colbert during Conan O’Brien’s Mark Twain Prize ceremony at Kennedy Center. He’s been on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and done The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon so many times now that they’ve practically crossed the threshold into friendship, no…

Melisa Tokmak grew up in the small town of Salihli, Turkey, where her parents still operate a perfume shop. Even as a youngster, she remembers, she had an entrepreneurial spirit. “I would always look for ways to get my mom out of the shop so that I could sell to the customers,” she says. Today Tokmak, the founder and CEO of San Francisco-based Netic, is a long way from hawking fragrances. The company, which she launched in 2024, started as an AI revenue engine for large businesses that perform essential home services such as HVAC and plumbing. It now also serves businesses that offer pest control, appliance maintenance, roofing, and solar, and is expanding to wellness, automotive, and more. Tokmak, 31, was inspired to build the company after moving with…

O MAR ABOU-SAYED Co-founder and CEO, Vaulted Deep DARIO AMODEI Co-founder and CEO, Anthropic LI HASLETT CHEN Founder and CEO, Howl AVANLEE CHRIS TINE Founder and CEO, Avanlee Care MICHAELINE DEJORIA CEO, John Paul Mitchell Systems SHAI EISENMAN Founder and CEO, Bubble Skincare LARRY ELLISON Co-founder, executive chairman, and CTO, Oracle SEAN EVANS Chief creative officer, First We Feast KEVIN GAST Co-founder, chairman, and CEO, VVATER THIEGO GOULARTE Founder and CEO, Makers TODD GRAVES Founder and owner, Raising Cane’s EMILY GRODEN Founder and CEO, Evergreen SUSAN HOWE CEO, Weber Shandwick JOHN IMAH Co-founder and CEO, SpreeAI JOHN JOYOPRAYITNO Co-founder, president, and CEO, Alafair Biosciences JENNI KAYNE Founder, Jenni Kayne BEN LAMM Co-founder and CEO, Colossal Biosciences ANN LOPEZ Owner and creative director, Studio 790 Interior Design JACQUELINE LOPEZ President, Premier…

Helmed Sweetgreen’s loyalty program overhaul with the launch of SG Rewards, further linking digital and in-store experiences through tech. Led the development of AI Logic, the company’s AI detection software that explains why content has been flagged as AI-generated. Partnered with live event platform Mastermind to deploy an AI-powered support system, serving more than one million conference attendees. Developed the company’s Narrative Intelligence Platform, helping organizations protect against misinformation attacks. Led advancements in cyberfraud protection, including the development of DataDome’s intent-based detection engine. CUSTOMER SERVICE SHOUT-OUT AGS Logistics The company protected one client from millions in losses and now offers a dedicated charter program.…

It’s no surprise that the Innovation category is bursting with big ideas, from a company that invented a brain implant allowing communication through thoughts (Precision Neuroscience) to a baby product man u facturer that made a shield that lets breastfeeding mothers see how much milk their baby is getting in real time (Munchkin). Many businesses streamlined processes, including Hangar A, Lineage, Moveworks, Pivot Bio, Quorum, Rx2Go, Smart-Moving Software, Valu, Veev, and Weka. Others made strides in niche areas, like keeping construction workers safe (Pacific Shoring) or using AI to power selfdriving trucks (PlusAI). In other news, hydration is hot, with water innovation companies flooding this year’s list, like Culligan International, Genesis Systems, and Hope Hydration. Which means more water to nurture the crops that will be more closely monitored for…

NO3035 2025 Ranking 134% 3-Year Growth 2015 Year Founded HQ Washington, DC TCSSERVICES.NET After a multiple sclerosis diagnosis 10 years ago forced him to retire early from the U.S. Army, James Radford began an entrepreneurial journey marked by passion, determination, frustration, and despair. Newly divorced, he’d taken his four kids to Chipotle, only to discover he didn’t have enough money to pay for their meals. “This light went off inside of me, and I told myself, ‘This can’t be the end of the chapter. This can’t be how this works out for me.’ That day, I decided to start my company and to never be in that position again,” he says. Using the skills, values, and experience he’d gained from the Army, Radford created a robust government contracting firm whose…

NO3909 2025 Ranking 30% Year-Over-Year Growth 20 Employees $500M Business Generated for Clients THEBIDLAB.COM To do business with the government or a large enterprise organization, businesses often need to complete a Request for Proposal (RFP). But when people think of responding to an RFP, they usually picture piles of paperwork and weeks of work with no promise that all that hustle will pay off. But don’t tell that to Maurice and Jordan Harary, the co-founders—and husband and wife team—of The Bid Lab. The New York-based entrepreneurs have built a multimillion-dollar business identifying and then crafting RFPs for the many small and midsize companies that don’t have the time or resources to complete them themselves. “RFPs can be very cumbersome,” says Jordan, who got the idea after hiring a costly RFP…

NO316 2025 Ranking 1237% 3-Year Growth $27M Annual Revenue 12 Full-Time Employees ALONGIMEDIA.COM When father-and-son producers Phil Alongi Sr. and Phil Alongi II launched their boutique media firm, they didn’t set out to become one of America’s fastest-growing private companies. They carried forward the urgency, precision, and storytelling talents they had mastered in network newsrooms and applied them to the world of live events. That discipline—combined with a bold bet on sustainability—propelled Flemington, New Jersey-based Alongi Media to No. 316 on the 2025 Inc. 5000 list after posting 1,237 percent growth in three years. Innovation meets sustainability The company’s breakthrough came with the debut of a first-of-its-kind, high-resolution, high-dynamic range 4K HDR Mobile Broadcast Unit in 2025. Designed in house, the trailer arrives fully charged via solar batteries, powering an…

For these companies, the phrase “It’s just business” isn’t an excuse for bad behavior— it’s their ethos for making positive change in the world. Braille Institute, Units Moving and Portable Storage, the Gathering Spot, Dreamday, Visory Health, Resultant, and Empathy provided support for workers, families, and communities. Empathy, for example, helped more than 40 million clients navigate logistics after loss. Companies whose generosity transcended borders included Rizos Curls and Boundless Immigration, as well as Appfire, which offered technology boot camps for children in Tanzania. AeroFarms, Circ, Mill Industries, Paccurate, REI Co-op, Saie, Sedron, and SPX Flow all found ways to protect and nurture Mother Earth, while Watch Duty, an emergency wildfire alert company that serves more than six million people in 22 states, became an essential download during the L.A.…

The winding path that Dan Ni took on his way to creating the TLDR suite of tech-focused news letters is littered with detours: a job out of college as a quant trader, the pain of struggling with a medical condition called Eagle syndrome, the founding and sale of a SaaS business, and even a stint in culinary school. Today, the fully remote media company that he runs publishes a dozen newsletters that all together reach more than seven million subscribers. Ni, 35, employs 22 people full time, and last year for the first time the company raked in over $10 million in revenue. The main TLDR news letter—a reference to online slang for “too long; didn’t read”—arrives in the inbox of some 1.6 million subscribers with a subject line populated…

Losing loved ones to cancer drove best friends Mike Ng, 41, and Nikhil Buduma, 30, to harness the power of AI to save lives. They met in 2013 as students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Ng lost his uncle to lung cancer and was pursuing an MBA to make his career in health care; Buduma lost a mentor who “was like a second mother” to him to cancer the year before he began his master’s program in computer science. Buduma’s mentor, Sally Veregge, learned she had sarcoma of the elbow in 2012, but errors handling her medical records may have contributed to her death. The same year Veregge passed away, Ng broke his back in a gym accident. While recovering, he started spending more time with the doctor he…

VIRTUALSUPPLY.COM For nearly a century, the Virtual Supply team has been behind the scenes of tech brand success stories ranging from Motorola Solutions to Starlink to Ring, while supporting retailers like Walmart, Costco, Target, and Best Buy. Specializing in direct-to-consumer (D2C) and business logistics, fulfillment, and strategic support, we manage every aspect of the relationship from in-store product launches to e-commerce and all aspects of omnichannel retail. Supporting more than 7,500 retail locations in the U.S. market, one of Virtual Supply’s key secrets to success is building long-term partnerships with clients by understanding their businesses. “We earn the opportunity when the mega distributors can’t deliver,” says Chuck Taylor, CEO of Virtual Supply. “Our focus is simple: We do all we can to take care of the customer first. Providing a…

80% 3-Year Growth $10M Revenue Jan.–July 2025 28 Employees 3 States With Customers PORTEREXTERIORS.COM Since he was kid, Justin Porter has been working in the construction business his father, Roy, started nearly 50 years ago. Today he’s the owner/operator of Porter Family Exteriors, a home renovation company that specializes in siding, roofing, stucco remediation, and window and door installation. “I started at the bottom picking up trash, did that for years, and worked my way up to running the crews in my early 20s,” Porter says. That same opportunity for growth is now a cornerstone of the company’s success. Porter says investing in employees’ long-term careers is one of the biggest drivers of Porter Family Exteriors’s continued growth, along with a sharp focus on steady, sustainable expansion in an often…

NO198 2025 Ranking 1961% 3-Year Growth 30 States With Active Projects HQ Somerville, NJ OPAL.ENERGY Founders often talk about “headwinds,” or the challenges that can slow growth, and “tailwinds,” which are opportunities that can move businesses forward. But Kyle Shroufe, CEO and co-founder of Opal Energy Group, a national energy company specializing in solar, says that they’re two sides of the same coin—and that there are opportunities in every market. “In a tailwind environment, you have to pivot to take advantage. If you don’t, you’re losing market share. In a headwind environment, if you don’t pivot, you expose yourself to downside risk,” he explains. But headwinds also create new opportunities, separating companies that survive from companies that truly thrive, he adds. “We look at situations like recent changes to tax…

1 OVERTIME The sports media company had New Orleans Pelicans player Derik Queen update his LinkedIn on draft day, resulting in 650 million media impressions. 2 SWEET LOREN'S The natural cookie dough brand turned a junior staffer’s mistake—she accidentally changed the company’s TikTok name to her own—into a 227 percent increase in sales. 3 SOL DE JANEIRO The beauty company relaunched its Cheirosa 39 Perfume Mist with a scrappy campaign that included fans’ mean tweets about the scent’s discontinuation, driving millions of video views. 4 TOWER 28 The company launched a new blush with a social series called The Blush Lives of Sensitive Girls, resulting in a 37 percent lift in average engagement. 5 STUDIO 790 INTERIOR DESIGN The design company used SEO, Pinterest, and ChatGPT to grow brand visibility…

NO4575 2025 Ranking 30 Employees 68% 3-Year Growth HQ San Francisco, CA STRONGHOLD.CO As Stronghold, a fintech, crypto, and artificial intelligence (AI) company, knows well, the best business ideas come from personal experience. Founders Tammy Camp and Sean Bennett grew up in immigrant families; Camp’s came to America years ago, while Bennett’s moved from the Philippines to New Zealand. While there, Bennett’s mother would send money back home only to see transfer fees eat a large portion of her earnings. This helped develop the vision for Stronghold and the goal of creating an accessible financial future for all. Camp, Stronghold’s CEO, says, “When you’re sending money to your family and you’re getting heavily charged, that’s a big problem—so we made our business about cross-border payments.” An atypical payment provider Stronghold…

As digital advertising costs continue to soar, companies are getting creative and rethinking marketing playbooks. We asked a panel of 16 founders and CEOs running companies in different industries and at different stages the same question: If you had an extra $1 million to spend on marketing right now, how would you use it? Here’s what they said. —Ali Donaldson 1. Produce a social media reality show starring actual customers 2. Expand physical office presence in key markets 3. Follow up on sales leads with automated direct mailers 4. Invest in IRL experiences— events, pop-ups, and spaces that bring people together 5. Create reference-worthy content that will get cited by LLMs 6. Wrap 500 Uber and Lyft vehicles with ads, selling products that can be unlocked only by scanning a…

"The phrase I use for entrepreneurship is you throw yourself off a cliff and assemble the airplane on the way down. When you have these kinds of chaotic, difficult moments, they are the kinds of moments that actually enable you to be an entrepreneur.” —LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman on the best way to start up As a fractional CFO, I can say with confidence that knowing your business’s cash flow is essential to making informed decisions and ensuring financial stability. The following are five steps I tell my clients to take so they can forecast cash flow effectively, enabling them to hire key employees, secure millions in addi tional funding ahead of critical growth phases, and make strategic cuts before financial challenges escalate. TRACK WEEKLY INFLOWS AND OUTFLOWS Begin by recording…

The best of the best. All our lives, we’re encouraged to learn from the best. And if you’re a sports fan, the GOAT in each sport—or even of your favorite team—stands as a symbol of grit, talent, and commitment. Well, just a few months into my role as chief revenue officer of Mansueto Ventures, parent of Inc. and Fast Company, I had the privilege of attending my first Inc. 5000 Conference & Gala (in Phoenix in late October). There, I saw, heard, and broke bread with greatness. I met the leaders and founders of the Inc. 5000, those who have achieved extraordinary growth through one of the most unpredictable economic periods in recent memory. To hear their stories—their accounts of obstacles overcome, of employees inspired, of customers overjoyed—gives me great…

Something very strange has been happening in the business world lately: Midsize companies are quietly disappearing. This is happening even as entrepreneurship in the U.S. economy is booming. From 2021 to 2024, Americans filed 21 million new business applications, a welcome startup renaissance. Meanwhile, the number of midsize companies has plateaued and, depending on your definition, even dropped. Companies with 100 to 499 employees now account for fewer than 1 percent of all U.S. firms, and the number of companies with 250 to 499 employees has fallen by 22.5 percent since 2020, according to research by Doug Tatum, who teaches at the Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship at Florida State University and is the author of No Man’s Land: Where Growing Companies Fail. So what’s going on here? Some of…

Email is strange. It’s a slow, clunky technology that predates the web and hasn’t really changed since it was invented over 50 years ago. It references forgotten processes, such as “cc” and “bcc,” for “carbon copy” and “blind carbon copy,” when most young people have likely never seen carbon paper. And those functions have no counterparts in modern text ing and direct messaging apps. So, it’s no surprise that over the years, studies have shown that Gen-Zers don’t really feel at ease with email. Indeed, one survey found that 52 percent of Gen-Zers admit that email “stresses them out.” One of the reasons for that stress is that learning how to use email effectively is not easy—but when a member of Gen-Z does write emails, texts, or other messages well,…

For the Brenda Strafford Foundation, putting people first is part and parcel of its mission. In fact, it is its mission. The Calgary-based charitable organization is dedicated to improving lives through compassionate senior care, international healthcare, domestic violence prevention and support, and innovation and research. In recent years, however, the organization’s ability to help people was being compromised by the limitations of its technology. Outdated and fragmented technology infrastructure was creating extra work for employees who routinely had to collect and organize data from many different sources, keeping them from focusing on tasks more directly tied to the foundation’s mission. That lost time represented lost money—a red flag for any organization, but especially for charities working on limited budgets. “For mission-driven organizations, every hour and every dollar counts,” says Brendan…

Gabriella Khalil is sitting across from me in the well-appointed lounge area of 161 Water Street, also known as Water Street Associates, or the WSA building—the 31-story office tower in Lower Manhattan where she’s a fixture. The 1982 building is the former head quarters of insurance giant AIG, and hosts office spaces for designers Bode and Rosie Assoulin and the nonalcoholic apéritif brand Ghia, among others. It’s just one of sev eral Khalil environments in New York: There’s also SAA, the private members club in Bushwick, Brooklyn, and Happier Grocery, an Erewhon-esque super market that serves $16 charcoal smoothies. Khalil has long, jet-black hair parted in the middle and wears a gray cinched-waist Jacquemus denim set and puffy Loewe slides. She’s as poised and put-together as you would expect from…

As the Guadalupe River burst into Karen Taylor’s house and began lifting her toward the ceiling, all she could focus on was trying to get the door open to her 95-year-old mother’s room. Unable to budge it, Taylor climbed on top of the kitchen cabinets. Before she was nearly crushed into the ceiling, she grabbed her tiny chihuahua, dove down into the mix of river, rain, diesel, sewage, and everything else the storm had swept up in its rage, surfaced, and swam. Somehow, she got outside, where she was level with the roof. “I threw the little one on top,” she recalls. Then she climbed on it, too, and yelled at the people coming down the hill. On July 4, the catastrophic flooding in Texas Hill Country killed more than…

At the time of the Eaton fire, Two Dragons, which had been at the same location on Lake Avenue and E. Mariposa Street for 17 years, had just gotten back on its feet after the pandemic. The company had only four employees, but they were busy conducting, on average, 20-plus sessions a week and serving a few hundred members annually. “And then, bam! It’s all the way gone,” says owner Shelene Hearring. In the weeks after, she called all her students and asked them to gather at Brookside Park in Pasadena. About a quarter of them made it; most had lost their homes. “We were clinging to each other, lifting each other up, and bringing back that ‘we can get though this together,’?” she recalls. What began as an emotional…

Excellence in business can come in many forms. For some companies, it could be a strategic use of artificial intelligence that drives exponential growth. For others, it could be a viral marketing campaign or a game-changing invention that propels an entire field forward. But it’s the impact that matters. On the following pages, we present Inc.’s Best in Business list: 250 companies and 40 leaders that achieved exceptional wins this year and exemplified excellence across industries. With grit and vision, these honorees executed breakthrough projects and initiatives that delivered meaningful results for customers, employees, and investors, setting the table for future growth. BEST IN BUSINESS 2025…

Raising Cane’s was already having a banner 2025 when founder Todd Graves got some surprising news: The chicken finger chain had surpassed KFC in annual U.S. sales, making it the number-three quick-serve chicken chain, behind Chick-fil-A and Popeyes. Even Graves, who is not lacking in selfconfidence when it comes to his business, was momentarily given pause. “Wait, what?” he remembers thinking. Outselling Colonel Sanders? The worldwide brand we all grew up with? “We’re bigger than them in the U.S.?” Graves couldn’t have been that surprised, though. We’re speaking in a dining room in his 5,500-square-foot guesthouse, decorated like a stylish hotel, in a tony Baton Rouge, Louisiana, neighborhood. Through a window, you can see the 53-year-old’s custom-built, $400,000 treehouse. This year, Raising Cane’s revenue is expected to exceed last year’s…

Investor updates used to be the bane of Aakash Shah’s month. Now, he says, it’s “just an afternoon with coffee.” Shah founded allergy tech startup Wyndly in 2020, and would spend hours weaving together data from disconnected sources. As a self-proclaimed “hobby coder,” Shah, the company’s CEO, found himself trying to program his own analysis system, to no avail. Then, earlier this year, Shah’s lead engineer gave him a tip: download Claude Code, a new AI-powered software engineering tool from San Francisco-based startup Anthropic, and just ask it to conduct the analysis he needed. Within minutes of typing his first prompt, Shah was fixing problems that had previously taken him hours, and messaging with the tool as if it were a human analyst. Stunned, he recalls thinking that Claude “fundamentally…

Sometimes it takes an upstart to find a novel solution to longstanding challenges, and this year saw exciting developments affecting everything from what shirt you’ll be obsessed with (OTAA), to how much money your kid will raise at her soccer fundraiser (Snap! Mobile). Several companies are leading mini revolutions in the health and wellness space, including Winx Health, Avanlee Care, Icon Dental Partners, Prime IV Hydration & Wellness, Lifeway Foods, and GrayFit Training. That last one is a sports performance company that shrewdly expanded its subscription model to include recovery services. Something that might necessitate a different kind of recovery is Beyoncé’s Sir-Davis American Whisky, which promoted an inclusive vision of whiskey culture and sold hundreds of thousands of bottles in months. (In other beverage news, Aplós pivoted from retail to…

NO2488 2025 Ranking 170% 3-Year Growth $2.4M 2024 Revenue 94% Client Retention Rate GURUOFINSURANCE.COM Guru of Insurance founder and CEO David Rao has always been ambitious. That drive to succeed led him to be selected for the insurance management development program at a major insurer shortly after college. Rao finished the twoyear program in just nine months, which was believed to be a company record at that time. Following several years with that company, and a couple of stumbling blocks along the way, Rao made the leap to entrepreneurship, and Guru of Insurance was born. He had always known that he wanted to follow in the entrepreneurial footsteps of his father, who had run a successful sheet metal business for 20 years. In 2019, the timing was right. Connecting the…

NO2169 2025 Ranking 9 Years in Business 198% 3-Year Growth HQ Huntsville, AL KUOGINC.COM Paul L. Gunn Jr. has done something many founders find difficult: He stepped aside and let someone else lead. The founder of KUOG, who grew the government logistics contractor into a thriving, mission-driven company, recently handed the CEO title to Dr. Roy L. Rucker Sr., a retired U.S. Army chief warrant officer. The decision wasn’t just strategic. It was personal. KUOG specializes in logistics and supply chain management for the Department of Defense and aerospace clients, handling complex operations that range from procurement and warehousing to cybersecurity support. Its fast growth stems from agility and mission alignment. Gunn says KUOG succeeds by showing up for clients and treating every project as a partnership, not a transaction.…

$15M Annual Revenue 50+ Employees 64% 3-Year Growth HQ Montclair, CA THEDUABRAND.COM For many business leaders, the hardest part of running a business isn’t necessarily competition or market shifts; it’s deciding which voices deserve your attention. Customer feedback can be a goldmine, but it can also be a drain on time, energy, and focus. Mahsam Raza, founder and CEO of The Dua Brand, learned that lesson the hard way. For eight-and-a-half years, he felt the need to defend his work against critics and respond to complaints. “I’d focus on the 3 or 4 percent who didn’t like the product instead of the 97 or 96 percent who did,” he said. The breaking point came in 2023 when he unexpectedly found himself in a bidding war for a rare fragrance he…

NO2183 2025 Ranking 197% 3-Year Growth 1600 Employees 7 Locations THEFUNCTIONARY.COM Many companies reinvented themselves during the pandemic. For some, that pivot was short-lived. The Functionary, a global outsourcing and technology solutions provider, made the most of the pandemic surge, then pivoted again to keep growing. Founded in 2017, The Functionary runs customer service operations, information technology (IT) help desks, software engineering, and artificial intelligence (AI) automation for clients worldwide. Before 2020, convincing companies to outsource overseas was its toughest challenge. When Covid restrictions hit, founder Sam Darwish was alarmed about growth prospects, but then he got an urgent call. Could they build a 100-person call center for the state of Texas in two weeks? The team delivered—and soon developed HIPAA-compliant software for Covid test scheduling and results, processing more…

SharkNinja doesn’t just enter markets—it descends on them. Some times, the company, famous for its viral kitchen, cleaning, and beauty products, creates the market from scratch. Other times, it muscles aside the competition. And perhaps most impressive, SharkNinja produces an unending stream of unique appliances with features that spark consumer frenzies, such as its home soft-serve ice cream makers and its selfemptying cleaning robots. Says CEO Mark Barrocas: “I don’t think there’s another company that’s been able to develop such a consistent track record of disruptive innovation across so many different product categories.” This year, the 31-year-old publicly traded com pany is on track to exceed $6 billion in revenue, as items like the Ninja Creami ice cream maker have gone viral. “We have high school kids doing TikToks on…

NO2731 2025 Ranking 153% 3-Year Growth $2M Invested in Harlem 100+ Industry Awards ELITEMEDIAWILL.COM Christopher Crawford, founder and CEO of Elite Media, is a serial entrepreneur who says he is “heaven-bent on having a positive impact” through his full-service creative agency’s services. Recognized by numerous industry outlets for its best-in-class content and advertising, Elite Media has grown from startup to powerhouse during the past decade. Inspired by the movie “Kidco”—a film about children who start a composting business—when he was young, Crawford became an entrepreneur at a young age. He sold snacks and candy at school, did landscaping in his neighborhood, and launched his first official venture—a creative agency—in college. Although the agency ultimately left him six figures in debt, the lessons learned through failure also set him up for…

1 EVERGREEN The Glencoe, Illinois-based frozen waffle company, which uses nutritious ingredients (hello, hidden vegetables!) and no preservatives, is projected to make $26 million in sales this year. 2 FRONTIER CO-OP The spice company collaborated on an initiative that helped smallholder farmers in rural communities bridge technology gaps and adapt to climaterelated pressure. 3 PETE AND GERRY’S In an insane year for the egg industry—even Waffle House hiked its egg prices— the egg producer, which pulled in over $500 million in revenue, developed a public education campaign during the avian flu outbreak. 4 NIGHTINGALE ICE CREAM SANDWICHES Boasting scrumptious flavors like Chocolate Blackout, the handcrafted ice cream company expanded to national distribution, increasing overall retail distribution by 191 percent. 5 LITTLE SPOON This year, the New York City-based baby food…

NO1922 2025 Ranking $150M+ Annual Revenue 90 Locations 2020 Year Founded THEROOTBRANDS.COM When biotech engineer Dr. Christina Rahm and environmental toxicologist Clayton Thomas launched the Root Brands in 2020, they weren’t trying to sell another supplement—they were out to transform the wellness industry from the inside out. Even under organic standards, raw materials like plants and minerals can carry harmful contaminants. Rahm had already developed patented methods to detoxify these ingredients—technologies advanced enough to be applied to both consumer ingredients and even remediate nuclear waste. Today, she holds nearly 30 patents spanning nutraceuticals, skin care, packaging, and environmental cleanup. What if those same processes could be applied to everyday nutraceuticals? That insight shaped Root’s DNA. The company would clean inputs at every stage—sourcing, manufacturing, and packaging—to create safer, more bioavailable…

NO369 2025 Ranking 40 Employees 1081% 3-Year Growth $8.5M Est. 2025 Revenue AALISMC.COM When Ebony Wilkins founded Aalis Management Consulting, which specializes in financial management, digital transformation, and acquisition support for the federal government, she knew she would have an edge over the competition. After working as a financial manager for the government for several years, creating access to stakeholders and lifelong mentors, she had laid the groundwork for the relationships and experience needed to launch her business. Helping government agencies operate Currently, Aalis works with 10 different government agencies, including U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Defense Health Agency, and the Holocaust Museum. Much of the company’s work has involved helping agencies modernize their technology infrastructure and ensuring clients are efficiently allocating their financial resources. However, its latest project puts…

1 SURGE AI This 150-person data labeling startup bootstrapped to $1 billion helping companies refine AI models. 2 BINDERY The seven-person NYC creative agency has partnered with brands as early as the strategy and concept stage, increasing year-over-year revenue by 125 percent. 3 DATADOCKS The SaaS platform used AI to streamline dock and shipyard management, increasing supply chain interactions by 163 percent, all with a team of seven. 4 FREE AGENCY The eight-person fractional CMO services and martech firm is on track to increase revenue by 76 percent. 5 MARCELLA The minimalist coolgirl fashion brand with 75 staffers doubled its sales over two years. 6 INTROL SOLUTIONS The AI infrastructure company executed a large-scale AI data center deployment with a lean team of 45. 7 PLIABILITY This 15-person wellness and…

JIM ALLWEIN Therabody Helmed the TikTok fave wellness technology company’s double-digit revenue growth. JONATHAN CARR Armis Oversaw the cybersecurity firm’s growth from $200 million ARR to $300 mil lion in under 12 months. JOSHUA GITTLER Poppi Steered the viral Gen-Z fave prebiotic soda brand through a nearly $2 billion acquisition deal to Pepsi. GINA MASTANTUONO ServiceNow Led corporate strategy and venture initiatives for the growing enterprise software company. JOHN McGRATH Nourish Took the nutrition startup to unicorn status after Series B funding led by J.P. Morgan.…

NO4497 2025 Ranking 2019 Year Founded 71% 3-Year Growth HQ Lindon, UT PUREMANUFACTURING.COM Serial entrepreneurs Lorne Berry, Scott Bland, and Russ Losee struggled to find a manufacturing partner that could deliver the quality and consistency they expected on their timeline. So, they took matters into their own hands and launched Pure Manufacturing, a contract manufacturing company specializing in high-end powders and capsules. “We were tired of dealing with other manufacturing companies, getting the runaround, not having a first-class experience, etc.,” says Bland, the company’s president. The decision to start their own manufacturing company let them “go to the front of the class, create our own products, and make sure they’re all manufactured the right way,” he adds. While they initially set out to meet the needs of their own dietary…

Omar Bailey credits Toastmasters. The 42-year-old footwear visionary— former head of the Yeezy Innovation Lab at Adidas and now founder and creative director of celeb-fave sneaker brand Fctry Lab—says his gift of gab, nurtured at the old-school public speaking club, is almost as responsible for his success as his design acumen. “When I got to New York [early in my career], I was like Superman: During the day I’m at Timberland doing my day job, and then at night I’d change into my networking outfit,” says Bailey. “The only asset I had at the time, other than my ability to draw shoes, was my mouth.” He struck gold at a (aughts alert!) Maxim party, where he chatted up NBA star Allan Houston’s attorney, who said the player wanted to design…

NO892 2025 Ranking 37 Employees 475% 3-Year Growth 16M Students Served JAR-SYSTEMS.COM Schools face many challenges, from teacher shortages to limited resources — yet one of the biggest obstacles is surprising: dead devices. Every day, lessons pause as uncharged computers silence digital learning. This challenge alone costs classrooms six learning days each year, says Axel Zimmermann, CEO of JAR Systems, LLC, based in Lakewood Ranch, Florida. More than 20 years ago, Zimmermann was at Hewlett-Packard when he and two colleagues recognized the transformative potential of mobile learning. Inspired, they founded JAR Systems to serve the educational technology market. “Our mission was to transform the classroom,” he says. At the time, laptops were in their infancy. So-called “computers on wheels,” or COWs, were an early solution to providing classrooms with devices…

It’s no surprise that some of the best marketing ideas come from our country’s finest chain establishments, starting with Chili’s Grill & Bar, which ran a cheeky “Fast Food Financing” pop-up (con veniently next to a McDonald’s) in NYC that took a swipe at how expensive a fast-food meal can be. Other brands indulged in tasty partnerships, like Impossible Foods and comfort sandal brand Chaco; the latter launched a sold-out collection of Waffle House-themed footwear. (For those looking for a higher-end experience, the reservations platform Resy expanded to events connecting diners and chefs.) There was no shortage of beauty companies with buzzy launches, including Bubble Skincare, DedCool, John Paul Mitchell Systems, Madison Reed, Sacheu, and the musthave brand for damaged-hair girlies everywhere, Olaplex, with a campaign promoting hair health. Wellness-driven…

NO2020 2025 Ranking 25 Employees 214% 3-Year Growth $12.6M 2024 Refunds SALESANDUSETAX.COM Founded in 2005, Agile Consulting Group, Inc., helps businesses navigate the complex world of sales and use tax laws and discover financial gains they might have otherwise missed. The company specializes in identifying and recovering overpaid taxes for clients, particularly those in health care, transportation, and manufacturing. “It’s kind of like looking for buried treasure,” says Aaron C. Giles, founder and managing principal of the Norcross, Georgia-based firm. Leader in expanding exemptions Operating within a financial services niche so narrow that many of its own clients have never heard of it, Agile has branded itself as a pioneer, bringing original, unique, and proprietary ideas to market. The firm has won legal cases by interpreting existing state tax laws…

For too long, the narrative around customer churn—losing a regular customer—has placed an undue burden on customer success (CS) teams. The common refrain often suggests that if customers are leaving, it must be because the CS team isn’t doing enough to support them. But churn is fundamentally a whole-company problem. Every team—from sales and marketing to operations, finance, support, and product—plays a part in churn. Here’s how to get everyone on the same page and moving toward a fix. FOSTER COLLABORATION Break down silos between departments. Sales, product, marketing, and CS must work in concert, sharing insights and align ing strategies to create a seamless and positive customer journey. PRIORITIZE CUSTOMER FEEDBACK ACROSS TEAMS Implement mechanisms for every department to receive and act upon customer feedback. This ensures that product…

1 Liz Brody In “America’s Rebuilders” (page 44), New York City-based Brody explores the ways entrepreneurs have recovered from catas trophe. “You can talk about rebuilding, but they’re just trying to dig out of serious trauma,” Brody says. “This is the part that’s not talked about.” A National Magazine Award winner, Brody has previously written for Glamour, the Los Angeles Times, and Entrepreneur. 2 Devin Gordon For Inc.’s Winter issue, Gordon interviews Sean Evans (page 96). “This is a man who’s taped nearly 400 episodes of Hot Ones—that’s nearly 4,000 chicken wings he’s eaten on camera—and yet his passion for the process doesn’t seem to have dimmed a bit,” he says. Gordon, who’s based in Brookline, Massachusetts, is a contributor to The New York Times, The Atlantic, and Fast Company.…

In 1998, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, still students at Stanford, introduced a prototype for the Google search engine in a nowfamous paper. Back then, search engines rarely yielded great results, and people often relied on humancurated lists to find information online. Since then, Google has become an internet gateway for billions of users worldwide—that is, until AI. Thanks to AI-driven search platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity as well as Google’s own AI-powered summaries, U.S. search referrals dropped from 2.3 billion to fewer than 1.7 billion in a year, according to a 2025 Similarweb report. (Those numbers will likely drop further now that the ChatGPT Atlas browser has launched.) Dubbed zero-click search or Google Zero, the idea is that web searches will no longer result in a click to a…

Maor Shlomo had a vision of the holy grail of software. The Tel Aviv-based founder of B2B data platform Explorium had left his company in 2023 to join the Israeli army reserves. After a year of service, Shlomo decided to try making his vision a reality: an AI application enabling anyone to build software, simply by prompting a chatbot. He launched his startup, Base44, in February 2025, the same month OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy coined the term vibe coding to describe this new form of nontechnical programming. As a solo founder, Shlomo handled every aspect of Base44, from sales to engineering to customer support. Early on, he would wake up every two to three hours to make sure the platform was still running. Just one month after launching, Base44 had…

1. Sky High Farm Goods Wildflower Honey, $22 “I love good honey, like this one, or a gallon of raw, unfiltered honey from local bees.” —Rory McAuliffe, co-founder of the Ojai, California, restaurant Rory’s Place 2. Unimatic U3 Classic Chrono Watch, $760 “Every time Unimatic comes out with a new model, I have to buy it. Watches have been a passion of mine from a young age.” —Todd Snyder, founder of the New York City-based menswear brand Todd Snyder 3. Jolie Filtered Showerhead, $169 “Just about anyone would benefit from tossing their showerhead for a Jolie. It’s functional and thoughtful. You can gift it to anyone.” —Chris Echevarria, founder of the Brooklyn-based fashion brand Blackstock & Weber 4. J. Press Wide-Wale British Corduroy Pants, $195 “I’d love a pair of…

Everything north, south, east, and west of Fair Oaks Burger was destroyed. But the restaurant run by the Lee family since 1987, on the corner of Fair Oaks Avenue and East Calaveras Street in Altadena, was, miraculously, left standing in the vast smoking emptiness. That doesn’t mean the business wasn’t scorched. The fences around the property burned, the solar connections melted, ash destroyed the HVAC and swamp cooler, and smoke infiltrated the kitchen. When co-owner Christy Lee sneaked in to see the restaurant’s fate as soon as the fire subsided, she thought she’d return the next day to clean; she wasn’t allowed back for over two weeks. By then—with the power out—the raw chicken and ground beef stuffed in the freezers and all the eggs and vegetables in the fridge…

When Jordan Catapano lost her home in the Palisades Fire, her business went with it. Catapano and her sister, Jocelyn Dunn, ran This Girl Walks Into a Bar out of her house for eight years. They employed nearly 90 women bartenders, booking them for parties and events, mainly around L.A.; in 2024, the company earned $350,000 in revenue. “It was really humming along,” says Catapano. But after the fire, they dissolved the business because they’d lost too much—“all of our bartending equipment, all of our uniforms, tools, everything,” she says. “We didn’t have it properly insured.” Given the money and time they would need to get it all back up, it didn’t make sense when people were so scattered. “Even if you haven’t been directly affected by the fire, people…

Five years ago, Javon Frazier quit his career as a gaming executive to start his own company and spend more time with his family. To launch Maestro Media, he had to pull money from his house in the Crenshaw neighborhood of Los Angeles. It was an enormous risk, but within 90 minutes, the Kickstarter campaign for his first card game raised $1 million; in 30 days, it raised $6.7 million. But after a burglar broke in, Frazier moved his wife and two daughters to a magical 1941 house in Pacific Palisades, with charming nooks and handcrafted stained glass. It became the place that grounded Frazier amid the chaos of growing his company by 2,300 percent over the next four years, creating games for brands such as Disney, Hello Kitty, and…

Rob Giglio says his Canva Challenge was the most fun he’s ever had during a job interview. Every potential hire goes through the exercise. Giglio, who was interviewing to become Canva’s chief customer officer, was asked to pitch a plan for how the company could reach $1 billion in B2B sales. Giglio presented his plan with a slide show created in Canva, naturally—a platform with an aesthetic that leans heavily on a gradient palette of purple and turquoise, with a liberal use of emoji and clip art. For 90 minutes, senior leadership grilled Giglio on his work, a process he relished. “It caused me to think about whether I thought Canva could do what they wanted to do,” adds Giglio, who previously held senior roles at Adobe, HubSpot, and Docusign.…

Few clothing brands are synonymous with a pair of sleeves alone. Such was Jenni Kayne’s claim to fame this year after Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, draped her beige-striped cashmere sweater over her shoulders in her hit Netflix show, With Love, Meghan. As the sleeves dangled over frittata, the show’s guest star, Mindy Kaling, asked Meghan about her outfit. Her white linen pants were Zara and her top was Loro Piana, she said, before opening the sweater sleeves around her shoulders and revealing “Jenni Kayne.” Most brands would kill for this kind of viral moment. But for designer Jenni Kayne, the exposure was not necessarily a difference maker. A disciplined builder who prides herself on eschewing fleeting fashion trends, Kayne stopped chasing this kind of celebrity clout long ago. Instead, she…

THEGARENGROUP.COM NO 295 2025 Ranking 1309% Annual Revenue Growth 5 Employees (All Family Members) $3.7M Annual Revenue Some people shy away from working with family. Not Brenton Garen. At first, he was solo when he launched the digital marketing agency The Garen Group. He reached $250,000 in annual revenue before adding his father Frank as head of sales in 2021. By 2023, brothers Liam and Mitch joined the agency as account managers, and brother-in-law Mike Dean became an account manager the following year. The five-employee firm is now a seven-figure business “that runs on trust, loyalty, and relentless drive,” Brenton says. Unlike the stereotypes about family businesses, Brenton says the agency has no unhealthy competition or hierarchy concerns. Instead, the family connections benefit clients. “When you work with us, you’re…

NO944 2025 Ranking $32M Annual Revenue 453% 3-Year Growth 94 Employees AWESTRUCK.AGENCY There are many reasons why companies succeed, including strong staff and a great product or service. However, no entrepreneur will amount to much if they don’t ask themselves one key question: What problem am I trying to solve? That’s what Ryan Sprance and Dave Marcy have been thinking about ever since they started Awestruck. The company works with resorts and other tourism destinations on branding, content creation, over-the-top (OTT) advertising, social media, and digital marketing, to name a few services. Back when they launched their business in 2019, Sprance and Marcy recognized that the destination sector, in large part, lacked a purposeful vision for cohesive, multichannel digital marketing. In addition, they saw an opportunity to bring increased transparency…

1 ATROPOS HEALTH The company leveraged AI to reduce diagnostic delays and enable earlier testing and treatment. 2 BUNKERHILL HEALTH The health care company created an AI-powered platform that flags high-risk patients and improves clinical outcomes. 3 CAMBRIDGE MOBILE TELEMATICS The company used AI to improve its crash-detection technology, preventing an estimated 19,600 vehicle crashes. 4 CAREMESSAGE The nonprofit incorporated generative AI to reduce barriers to health care for low-income populations. 5 DERMASENSOR The company created a handheld medical device that screens for skin cancer with a 96 percent sensitivity. 6 FUNCTION HEALTH The medical imaging company expanded access to AI-powered health screenings. 7 LIRIO The platform offered an AI tool to deliver personalized patient interventions. 8 NEXAR The AI company collaborated with Waymo to improve safety, lowering pedestrian-injury crashes…

We’re officially in peak AI, and this year, companies came up with fresh ways to leverage artificial intelligence to make our lives easier, safer, and more fun. We’ll start with the tedium busters, for which we are eternally grateful: Avahi, Datanetiix Solutions, Deel, Everise, Griffin Funding, Homebase, Lexitas, Qu, Qwikkit, Uni phore, and Writer all found ways to automate or simplify tasks, with a special shoutout to Luma Health, a medical communications platform developer that launched an AI tool to reduce fax processing time, because, for better or for worse, your doctor still has to fax. In related news, three companies help you decipher the always-thrilling worlds of insurance (Insurify, LionRock Financial Services) and property management (Leasecake). One of the most meta (lowercase) things about the AI boom is the rise…

NO791 2025 Ranking 533% 3-Year Growth 65 Employees 100% Customer Retention CATALYSTOPS.COM In a crowded government contracting field, Catalyst Operations & Analytics has distinguished itself by delivering solutions that combine expertise, adaptability, and innovation. Founded in 2017 by CEO Robert Saenz, the firm supports mission partners with services ranging from highly skilled personnel to advanced technology—and when the right tools don’t exist, Catalyst builds them from the ground up, ensuring every solution is tailored to mission requirements. From language services to operational support “One of our earliest contracts involved translating the Osama bin Laden documents into English,” Saenz says. “Although the government had possessed the files for years following the U.S. Special Forces raid on bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan, they were written in multiple languages and hadn’t yet been…

KRISTA DALTON CMO and chief digital officer, Tecovas Led branding strategies, including TikTok partnerships and a Yellowstone collab, for the fast-growing company. ELIZABETH DRORI CMO and head of e-commerce, Kizik Steered the brand’s global marketing strategy, including an eight-city Try-On Tour for its signature hands-free footwear. ERIC HIRSCHHORN President and CMO, Frida Led the innovative launch of Breast Milk Ice Cream (relax, there’s no breast milk in it), to bring awareness to the postpartum experience. JOON SILVERSTEIN CMO, Coach Oversaw Gen-Z-focused brand initiatives, including immersive retail experiences and store formats, such as the Coach Coffee Shop. MEG AN STROUD CMO, SirDavis American Whisky Helmed the brand’s launch, with a goal to welcome more women and people of color to luxury whiskey.…

NO1807 2025 Ranking 241% 3-Year Growth 10 Warehouses >700 Employees BLUEPRINTSTUDIOS.COM When event design and production company Blueprint Studios launched 25 years ago in San Francisco, its first clients were other small startups that later evolved into multibillion-dollar enterprises. “A lot of our clients have been unicorns, companies that have grown and become global very quickly,” says founder and owner Mircea Manea. “And what we brought to the market that was different was the ability to think and create plans and work alongside these companies.” Blueprint Studios creates both internal and external brand experiences for clients in a wide range of industries, operating in regional, national, and international markets. 'Studio of studios' A design agency at its core, Blueprint Studios begins every project with ideas. But what sets this agency…

The AI boom isn’t just taking over just San Francisco real estate; it’s also taking up space on this year’s Best in Business list. Let’s start, fittingly, with robots: Humanoid (a London-based company that makes 7'3" humanoid robots) is one of the new kids on the AI block, along with Bijou Build, Butcher Power Products, Exodigo, Halcyon, VVater, and ElectraLith. The “Netflix for fashion” rental service Taelor also hit, having achieved nearly $2 million in ARR this year with its clothing sustainability model. Shifting to inner beauty, several startups focused on making us healthier and happier: Equip, Varda Space Industries (which makes medicines in space), Xpanceo, and Alice Mushrooms; the last one is famous for its chocolate collaboration with HBO Max’s The Last of Us. (Star Pedro Pascal is an…

When she was only 6 years old, Ruby Bridges walked to school in November 1960 and made history. Dressed for her first day at what was, until that moment, an all-White elementary school in New Orleans, federal marshals flanked her as she made her way through a phalanx of people spitting racism at her. It was such an all-American image that Norman Rockwell painted it. Bridges was 71 in September of this year when she walked through a considerably friendlier crowd. Emerging on the catwalk at New York Fashion Week between two large images of her younger self—including the Rockwell painting—Bridges smiled widely as she walked in her black hoodie dress. Civil rights legends don’t often model in high-profile fashion shows. However, the theme for Actively Black’s event was “This…

NO4512 2025 Ranking 7X Inc. 5000 Honoree 1000 Team Members 71% 3-Year Growth CARKEYSEXPRESS.COM In 2002, when Mark Lanwehr started selling car keys online to earn enough to cover his bills, the term “side hustle” wasn’t part of the popular vernacular. He was struggling to pay his rent, and his student loans were in default. But after nearly four years of building what would become the company’s product database, he finally considered going all-in on launching a business. “Working out of my bedroom, I remember the moment I considered asking friends to work with me. I thought, ‘Is selling car keys really what you want to do with your life?’ If I asked someone to leave their job, I had to commit. That was when I made the choice,” he…

NO330 2025 Ranking 1197% 3-Year Growth $42M 2025 Revenue ~100 Staff Members INTYPOWER.COM When Jonathan Clavijo started Inty Power in 2017, he knew his residential and commercial solar installation business needed to stand out in a crowded market. His strategy was simple: Focus on quality and put the customer first. “We take more of a holistic approach to solar, with quality over quantity and understanding what will be best for the homeowner,” he says. Staying ahead of the curve Unlike many rivals who buy cheaper products overseas, Inty Power sources its panels from Georgia-based Qcells, one of the few U.S.-based manufacturers. That decision has paid off as tariffs have affected imported panels. “We were ahead of the curve,” Clavijo notes. “Now there are a lot of solar companies wanting the…

RIGHIT.COM RighIT Solutions, LLC, is a forward-thinking technology and consulting firm committed to transforming businesses through intelligent information technology (IT) solutions. From IT infrastructure modernization and cloud integration to cybersecurity, software development, and data analytics, RighIT offers comprehensive services tailored to meet diverse business needs. With a focus on reliability, innovation, and measurable results, RighIT empowers organizations to navigate the complexities of digital transformation with confidence and clarity with a focus on reliability, innovation, and measurable results. The company emphasizes that technology should be an enabler, not a challenge. Its team of expert engineers, developers, and consultants work collaboratively to deliver end-to-end solutions that align with each client’s strategic goals. What sets RighIT apart is its customer-centric philosophy. “We don’t just provide services; we build partnerships. By understanding the unique…

NO1742 2025 Ranking 251% 3-Year Growth 7300+ Employees 348 Branches EQUIPMENTSHARE.COM With years of experience owning construction businesses, brothers Jabbok and Willy Schlacks started EquipmentShare with a shared vision—to solve the problems they faced as contractors: jobsite breakdowns due to lack of connection, lost or underutilized equipment, wasted time, and data living on clipboards or pieces of paper. “As contractors, we saw jobsites breaking down not from lack of effort, but from lack of connection,” says Jabbok Schlacks, co-founder and CEO of EquipmentShare. “There was no system to bring all the moving parts of a complex jobsite together in real time—and that’s the problem we set out to solve.” Tracking with telematics What started as an idea in 2013 became reality in 2015, when the brothers launched EquipmentShare and began…

1 MAKERS A talent incubator based in Latin America that nurtures the next generation of entrepreneurs and launched a CMO census. It brought together 150 marketing leaders responsible for nearly $20 billion in media investments. 2 TROVE BRANDS A family of lifestyle brands that launched new drinkware products incorporating customer feedback; a recent event for its Owala brand drew more than 5,000 attendees. 3 LITTLE WORDS PROJECT A customizable friendship bracelet company that aims to inspire kindness with uplifting words and community. Makes sense: It started as a bracelet brand for sorority sisters. 4 VACATION A cult sunscreen com pany with novel packaging (sun protection in a can of whipped cream—see below) that’s on track for $80 million in sales for 2025. 5 ODDLI A clothing company that prioritizes sustainability…

On a sweltering day in July, a group of business owners and elected officials gathered in Hutchinson, Kansas. Despite the heat, the occasion was festive, complete with ice cream from a local purveyor and a DJ playing Top 40. Julia Reichelstein, the 33-year-old CEO of carbon removal company Vaulted Deep, was celebrating the expansion of her company’s flagship waste management site, which she believes is the future of climate change mitigation. “We’re helping make sure that Hutchinson’s water, air, and land are clean,” she says. The company uses technology originally applied to the oil and gas industry: it injects carbon-rich organic waste up to 5,000 feet underground, permanently sequestering it deep in the earth, halting decomposition and ensuring it can’t release greenhouse gases. This also protects the communities it serves…

In a year when HR didn’t get the best press (farewell, Astronomer couple), it’s nice to know that HR companies dominated the Best Customer Service category this year. ▶ INSPERITY The HR and administrative services company launched a program for business leaders, delivering research and actionable strategies to help its community build more engaged workplaces. ▶ JUSTWORKS The HR company advocated for its small-business clients to receive ERTC funds owed to them by the IRS, helping to secure the release of $50 million in funds, with an additional $40 million released to customers in May. ▶ LATTICE The HR company debuted new offerings to help customers save time and identify employee burnout, retaining top talent without compromising privacy. For full coverage of the BEST IN BUSINESS 2025 list, go to…

NO124 2025 Ranking 2936% 3-Year Growth 2021 Year Founded HQ Santa Monica, CA TALENTCOMPASS.CO Fast-growing companies face unique recruitment challenges, often lacking the tools and know-how to identify, reach, and hire top talent. Too often, though, founders and the recruiters they hire try to solve these challenges with intuition rather than data and strategy, explains Alex Ham. She and Eli Castle are co-CEOs of TalentCompass, a data-driven recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) company that partners with fast-growing companies to create more efficient and evidence-based recruitment lifecycles. Ham and Castle have not only advanced the data-driven recruitment movement—they have also penned their own impressive growth story. Applying data best practices to drive hiring success TalentCompass, based in Santa Monica, California, began as a division of the executive search firm ECA Partners, where…

LRA.CO NO1169 2025 Ranking 11 Employees 370% 3-Year Growth HQ Houston, TX The founder of L’Renee & Associates (LRA), LaToshia Norwood, remembers when her usually soft-spoken husband gave her an unusual pep talk. Freshly laid offfrom her six-figure project management job, she spent days perfecting her website and pitch decks but avoiding the real leap. “I wish you’d hurry up and fail,” he told her. His comment wasn’t cruelty. It was a dare. He knew failure would sharpen her. That nudge pushed Norwood into motion and laid the foundation for LRA, now a multimillion-dollar project management consulting firm based in Houston. LRA has earned a spot on the Inc. 5000 list of the country’s fastest-growing private companies. Embracing her identity Norwood had already laid the groundwork for LRA when she…