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Clearwater Named No. 1 for Fast-Growing Companies

Posted By Alexandra Hamilton On Thursday, September 15, 2016

Business is booming in our lovely beachside city of Clearwater, and it’s recently gained some national commendation to prove it.

In its latest September 2016 issue, Inc. magazine ranks Clearwater No. 1 in the nation for the number of private businesses rated in the magazine’s annual Inc. 500 list. Four made the cut this year, and an additional five businesses ranked in the Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing private companies.

Inc., founded in 1979 and based in New York City, is a monthly publication that focuses on growing companies. Each year it publishes an annual list of the fastest-growing private companies, titled “Inc. 500;” “Inc. 5000” is an expansion of that list and ranks the country’s top 5,000 fastest-growing companies according to percentage revenue growth over a three-year period. 

For Inc. 500, cities are tiered based on their populations in relation to their highest concentration of fast-growing companies, according to the September edition of the list; this year Clearwater out beat Irvine, CA; Alexandra, VA; Atlanta, GA; and Hollywood, FL  in those rankings, to name a few.

Here are the Clearwater studs that made the Inc. 500 list this year:

1.       Stratus (ranked No. 66)

2.       Telequote Insurance (113)

3.       KnowBe4 (139)

4.       Digital Medial Solutions (434)

And for the Inc. 5000 list:

1.       Progressive Dental (739)

2.       GovDirect (1,150)

3.       Pure Air Control Systems (1,638)

4.       CWU Inc. (1,939)

5.       Murphy Business & Financial Corporation LLC (3,061)

The city of Clearwater’s Economic Development and Housing Director Denise Sanderson was pleased with the news but not too surprised.

“Clearwater has and will continue to attract entrepreneurs, startups and established businesses poised for growth and expansion,” Sanderson says.

This is the fourth year in a row that Stratus, a company based in the language access industry that focuses on video, audio and in-person interpreting solutions, has made the Inc. 500 list, and is showing no signs of uprooting from its home base in Clearwater anytime soon.

“Clearwater has been an excellent home for us, and we plan to continue our growth in this innovative community,” says David Fetterolf, president of Stratus’ language access division. “It’s fantastic to share the same space as other companies that have made the Inc. list.”

Downtown Clearwater’s KnowBe4, an information technology and online security awareness training company, is also no stranger to Inc. magazine’s glory; from 2012 to 2015, Inc. ranked it the No. 1 security company for its percentage of growth in revenue in the nation.  Not bad for a six-year-old company with a 140+ staff.

Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Knowbe4 Stu Sjouwerman humbly credits the company’s success to Clearwater’s business climate and opportunity.

“Being in Clearwater has been great for KnowBe4,” Sjouwerman says. “It offers access to a trained workforce, low cost of living combined with a high quality of life, and a great financial climate that allows a startup to scale fast and generate new jobs.”

Apart from being an ideal spot for business, the nation also knows Clearwater as being an ideal place for pleasure purposes, too - remember how Trip Advisor bestowed it with the No. 1 title earlier this year for best beach in the country? (The second year in a row, let me remind you).

I’m naturally biased, born and raised in the city myself, but all this publicity makes it difficult to deny that Clearwater is just the hot place to be right now. (And that, still being mid summer, my double entendre is inarguably appropriate).