Inc.

I'll confess. I wouldn't have this job, which as I've said before is the best job, if it weren't for my business partner. I owe it all to him. Yup, if it weren't for the fact that that clown drove me crazy—and right out of the startup we had spent tw

Ten years ago, Cowboy Ventures founder Aileen Lee was looking for the right metaphor to describe hypergrowth software companies that hit—or surpassed—a valuation of $1 billion. She coined the term unicorn, and on the following page tells Inc. how the

✕ THE problem “When we got our first batch of product from our manufacturer, it seemed great. But when we tried the capsules, they tasted a little funny and a little chemical-y. A little bit like plastic. That was not wdiat we expected. “We panicked.

LaDonna Welch believes in the power of positive words. They're her daily motivator as an entrepreneur and compose the very core of her business's mission. In June, Welch won $25,000 to advance that mission even further at the Small Biz Challenge host

“Since I was a kid, I've been a Type A perfectionist who overworks, overthinks, and is always stressed and burned out. “Once I adopted a nomadic lifestyle, I had to learn how to be more efficient. How do I run a business with no more than two to four

WISDOM SNUCK UP on me. I wasn't looking for it. It didn't amiounce itself. And, quite frankly, I thought for a long time that knowledge and wisdom were twins. I've come to learn they're cousins. In 2013, when the three young Airbnb founders approache

Compensation has been pivotal in the employer-employee relationship since the onset of the Industrial Revolution. What has changed in recent years is the nature of compensation—a mixture of salary, bonus, and benefits—and the importance today's worke

Inc. Founder Friendly Investors First Investment 8+ Years Ago Assets Under Management $2.7B+ Employees 42 Add-on Acquisitions 220+ In the private equity world, most deals are handled by a bank or third party that manages and facilitates the sale of a

Years in Business 17 Assets Under Management $531M Portfolio Companies 19 Employees 31 Private equity is sometimes known as patient capital. Taking a long-term view of growth away from the day-to-day can seem a luxury when there are so many more urge

Assets Under Management $2.5+ Billion Investments and Add-Ons 45 Employees 55+ HQ San Francisco, Calif. With a distinctive focus on investing in high-quality, founder-owned essential services businesses, Percheron Capital employs a repeatable approac

John Yarusi loved the 15 years he spent working in advertising in New York City, bringing campaigns to life for clients such as JetBlue, Mercedes-Benz, and Prudential. Then the Great Recession hit and things went south. The agency he owned went under

Assets Under Management $100B Vista Credit Partners AUM $7.2B PE and Credit Transactions 1100+ Year Founded 2000 One of the most powerful tools a private equity firm can provide is relationships, explains Robert F. Smith, founder, chairman, and CEO o

Decisions. Who even knows how many the typical founder must make in a day, let alone in the course of starting a business? Steve Jobs reached for the same outfit every morning just to get a single quandary off his plate. When it comes to the business

ARIANNA HUFFINGTON IS a lot of things. She's bold, whip-smart, even regal. Most of all, she's prescient. She spawned her workplace well-being platform Thrive Global in 2016—years after reckoning with the kind of exhaustion perhaps only an entrepreneu

THE WHITE HOUSE was calling. They wanted Deepak Chopra, the famed alternative-healing entrepreneur and best-selling author, to join President Biden and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi for a state dinner in June. Thanks for the invite, Chopra said

Joe Speiser was looking for a place to hide. It was late February 2018, and he was sitting at his desk in Manhattan, preparing to share the news that would transform his company, LittleThings, from a Cinderella story into a cautionary tale. The probl

For the past four years, Inc.'s FounderFriendly Investors list has served as a vital resource for entrepreneurs in search of investment firms that support founder-led companies. This year, we added a new type of capital provider to the mix: debt firm

2018 Foraker helps O'Farm expand from 400 stores to 8,500. 2017 Foraker joins O'Farm; in a year, revenue tops $8 million. 2012 As CEO of Annie's, he leads its IPO, raising $90 million. 1994 In grad school, Foraker joins the organic food movement. The

co-founder and CEO Randy Fernando first pitched his company to the venture capital firm Fin Capital on the sidelines of the Money20/20 conference at the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas. It was 2021, and Fernando's New York City-based fintech startup was

As a Sapphire Ventures portfolio company, JFrog grew annual recurring revenue from $15 million to $300 million. $ 300M 2020 $ 15M 2016 Shlomi Ben Haim had gotten used to hearing the word no. After co-founding Sunnyvale, California-based software deve

$ 2018 5x As an SBJ Capital portfolio company, Under Canvas grew its valuation nearly 400 percent. $ 2017 Seven years after founding the glamping company Under Canvas, in 2009, Sarah and Jacob Dusek knew it was time to raise outside funding. The coup

As a North Castle portfolio company, SmartyPants Vitamins grew annual revenue from around $5 million to over $100 million. $ 5M 2015 $ 100M 2020 When Courtney Nichols Gould and Gordon Gould founded the children's gummy vitamins company SmartyPants Vi

As any gardener can tell you, not all growth is good. After all, sunlight and water—the conditions that yield beautiful flowers and ripe veggies—also foster weeds that choke out healthy plants. And the pests you were able to manage on one plant will

Inc.5000 COMPANY SPOTLIGHT N°25 2023 Ranking 11,247% 3-Year Growth $12.1M+ 2022 Revenue 55 Employees When Ryan Sprance, Dave Marcy, and Nat Collins met for dinner in late 2018, they had no idea breaking bread would lead to the creation of one of the

Inc.5000 COMPANY SPOTLIGHT N°549 2023 Ranking 1065% 3-Year Growth 1100+ Businesses Use LinkSquares HQ Boston, Mass. Every business department has access to game-changing technology these days, from CRM platforms for sales teams, to Jira for engineers

Inc.5000 COMPANY SPOTLIGHT N°488 2023 Ranking 1199% 3-Year Growth 35 Employees 37 States After Tankfarm founder and CEO Andrew Heaney ended a grueling and ultimately unsuccessful congressional campaign in Upstate New York during the 2016 election cyc

Inc.5000 COMPANY SPOTLIGHT N°810 2023 Ranking 729% 3-Year Growth 721 Members 670 Caregivers When Kathy Lehmeyer's friend told her that individuals with intellectual and development disabilities “really need your heart,” the comment gave her pause. Wi

Inc.5000 COMPANY SPOTLIGHT N°187 2023 Ranking 2868% 3-Year Growth $41M 2022 Revenue 125K Subscriptions Per Month The supplement market in 2018 was disappointing. At least, that's what the co-founders of Cymbiotika found. They were seeking products to

When Poshmark went public in January 2021, Tracy Sun never expected that her online fashion marketplace would again be a private company just two years later. But Poshmark, which Sun cofounded in 2011, received a compelling offer from Naver, a South