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11. Virpie
What it does: information-technology staffing for large U.S. companies.Why it's growing: U.S. tech spending is booming, and larger companies that can't find the expertise they need overseas are increasingly turning back to local techies who will work on a project basis.
What's noteworthy: Virpie persuades clients to let contractors work from home. Then, because geography isn't an issue, it's better able to match the candidate to the project. It also keeps overhead lower and cuts commuting costs and travel times.
What's next: The company plans to remotely staff U.S.-based techies to Dubai, where, according to President Shre Thammana, Western companies opening offices can't locally hire the sophisticated IT help they need.
| Details | |
|---|---|
Headquarters | Southbury, Conn. |
Industry | Human resources |
Founded | 1997 |
2003 revenue | $395,988 |
2006 revenue | $8.2 million |
Growth | 1,970% |
12. TCMPI
What it does: builds private online stores for large corporations running employee incentive and reward programs.Why it's growing: Corporate America spends nearly $30 billion on employee incentives annually, but the market is complex and highly fragmented. TCMPI's software acts as a procurement hub, linking 19,000 corporate-employee-reward buyers to factories at high-end brands.
| Details | ||
|---|---|---|
Headquarters | North Kingstown, R.I. | |
Industry | Software | |
Founded | 2002 | |
2003 revenue | $702,807 | |
2006 revenue | $13.8 million | |
Growth | 1,868% | |
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13. Sonicbids
What it does: gives more than 100,000 musicians from 100 countries the tools to create electronic press kits. These packages, which include MP3s, text, pictures and video, can be e-mailed to event promoters. The musicians pay Sonicbids an annual membership fee of $50 to $100.Why it's growing: the MySpace effect. Printing and mailing traditional press kits is expensive, so broke artists adopted MySpace to showcase their talents, and going electronic became the norm. Sonicbids earns most of its revenue from the musicians but markets to promoters. Half of the artists who use Sonicbids were referred by the promoters.
| Details | |
|---|---|
Headquarters | Boston |
Industry | Media |
Founded | 2002 |
2003 revenue | $248,294 |
2006 revenue | $4.4 million |
Growth | 1,692% |
14. Trancos
What it does: partners with Web sites such as iVillage to present consumer offers tied to sites' content. Its customers are 1,100 advertisers such as Wal-Mart Stores (WMT, news, msgs), Pfizer (PFE, news, msgs) and Red Lobster.Why it's growing: Trancos' technology, which screens potential consumer sign-up names for fakes, isn't readily available elsewhere, and companies get access to 3,000 Web sites that are Trancos' partners.
| Details | |
|---|---|
Headquarters | Redwood City, Calif. |
Industry | Advertising and marketing |
Founded | 1999 |
2003 revenue | $638,000 |
2006 revenue | $11.1 million |
Growth | 1,647% |
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15. Vibes Media
What it does: text-messaging campaigns for carriers such as Verizon Communications (VZ, news, msgs) and Sprint Nextel (S, news, msgs), and marketers including Warner Bros. and Visa.Why it's growing: Kids love to text-message, and marketers like anything that keeps their names on consumers' minds. To promote Verizon's sponsorship of "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," Vibes ran TV, print and radio ads asking consumers to text "DEAD" to a certain number. That led to an elaborate play-by-text game with 20,000 different messages. The average user went back and forth 69 times.
| Details | |
|---|---|
Headquarters | Chicago |
Industry | Advertising and marketing |
Founded | 1998 |
2003 revenue | $407,391 |
2006 revenue | $7 million |
Growth | 1,608% |
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