(March 24, 2006) Twenty-one members of the California Chamber of Commerce have made the 2005 rankings of the nation’s 500 fastest growing companies in the country, according to Inc. magazine.

Companies in the Inc. 500 are selected through measurements of their revenue growth over a three-year period, from the end of 2001 to the end of 2004. Companies must have had four full years of sales and been U.S.-based, privately held and independent as of December 31, 2004, to qualify for consideration.

The following Chamber members made the Inc. 500 list. Company headquarter locations are noted in parentheses.

Fastest-Growing Members

• 2Wire (San Jose). Ranked 101. 2Wire develops hardware, such as cable television boxes and gateways, to deliver broadband service and content to homes and small businesses. The company came early to the market with “triple-play” hardware (in which phone, cable and Internet service all come through the same line).



• AbsoluteHire (Roseville). Ranked 124. AbsoluteHire develops and markets technologies for conducting job applicant background checks for large and small companies. Revenue growth is related to an upswing in the number of companies using background checks — 85 percent today, up from 25 percent in 2000, according to the Society for Human Resource Management.



• The Active Network (San Diego). Ranked 246. The Active Network provides customized technologies, marketing campaigns and partnership building services for event planners with community groups, non-profits and a wide variety of other groups. The market is vast for a company providing event planning outsourcing solutions, and The Active Network is thriving.



• Budget Blinds (Orange). Ranked 156. The company supplies and installs residential window coverings. Business is booming because of the huge home decorating and remodeling trend sweeping the country, and Budget Blinds’ more than 900 franchises are right in the midst of it.



• Calypso Technology (San Francisco). Ranked 440. Calypso Technology makes software for global financial institutions to manage all aspects of front-to-back office functions, from foreign exchange to commodities to bonds to credit derivatives. Calypso, a global company, is able to respond to global financial markets’ love of ever-advancing technologies.



• Evolve Manufacturing Technologies (Mountain View). Ranked 12. This company does contract manufacturing for semiconductor and medical equipment companies. Evolve Manufacturing has achieved much of its more than 3,000 percent revenue growth from receiving outsourcing from other tech companies. 



• FlexCorp Systems (New York City). Ranked 119. FlexCorp Systems manages contingency labor pay, benefits and other administrative needs for Fortune 1000 companies. The company’s pricing strategy — offering a flat transaction fee rather than charging a percentage of worker salaries — is key to its success.



• Insulair (Vernalis). Ranked 237. This firm specializes in producing patented triple-wall paper cups that insulate hot and cold beverages. Insulair formerly sold only to coffee chains and convenience stores, but it has expanded into more than 1,200 stores in the retail marketplace. The company’s revenue has grown 498 percent over three years.



• Integrity Applications Inc. (IAI) (Chantilly, VA). Ranked 353. IAI provides intelligence organizations with software that uses satellite data to create 3-D images that guide precision bombs. Chief Executive Officer Joseph L. Brickey was a member of the intelligence community and assures IAI’s products meet the immediate, real-time needs of his customers.



• Networks Plus Technology Group (NPTG) (San Diego). Ranked 235. NPTG is a technology consulting company that does everything from reselling computer software and hardware to providing network security, storage and management services. The company markets its services aggressively, as its growth attests.



• RagingWire Enterprise Solutions (RES) (Sacramento). Ranked 216. RES offers a wide variety of information technology services and solutions that can be diversified and expanded to meet individual clients’ needs, particularly regarding data storage, a need that is booming. RES specifically focuses on large, data-intensive Fortune 1000 companies.



• Red Hawk Industries (Greenwood Village, CO). Ranked 177. This company installs, maintains, repairs and replaces financial security equipment for retail shops and banks and other financial institutions all over the United States. Offering “one-stop shopping” — a wide array of security equipment and services — for a diversity of industries has led to Red Hawk Industry’s success.



• Shutterfly (Redwood City). Ranked 170. Shutterfly customers can store, edit and share their digital pictures online and can order prints or personalized gifts from the website. The country’s interest in taking digital pictures — according to an industry group, 29.5 million cameras will be sold this year — is surpassed only by the need to store those pictures; thus, Shutterfly’s services are in great demand.



• Silicon Mountain Memory (Boulder, CO). Ranked 462. This manufacturer of computer memory components offers its products directly to information technology consumers. Even through the difficult times of the tech industry crash, Silicon Mountain Memory has increased revenues by keeping inventory low to undercut price competition.



• SkinMedica (Carlsbad). Ranked 40. This specialty pharmaceutical firm develops and markets prescription and consumer skin-care products, primarily for dermatologists and spas. SkinMedica’s growth stems in part from the huge uptick in consumer interest in skin-care products and from in-office marketing by dermatologists.



• STG International (Alexandria, VA). Ranked 80. This woman-owned firm, which grew more than 1,000 percent over three years, provides management and technical services to federal clients. These services include medical, human resources, management consulting, administrative and facilities, and library and information management assistance.



• Strategic Business Systems (SBS) (Herndon, VA). Ranked 147. SBS provides information technology system design, installation, integration and operation services across the business spectrum, from corporate to non-profit to governmental needs. Its primary sales are in data storage, a much-coveted service by most companies for legal and regulatory compliance purposes.



• United Pacific Mortgage (Woodland Hills). Ranked 414. This company is a full-service, direct-to-customer mortgage banker and broker. Its 336 percent revenue growth over three years stems from aggressive marketing to real estate agents, an internal system to track customers, and campaigns to educate clients and employees.



• U.S. Labs (Irvine). Ranked 427. U.S. Labs performs cancer screening, diagnosis, prognosis and genetic testing. The company serves more than 1,000 hospitals, surgery centers and physicians around the country. It returns results of prostate and breast cancer tests via the Internet in three days or less and processes about 15,000 tests per month.



• WageWorks (San Mateo). Ranked 24. WageWorks administers consumer-driven tax-advantaged spending accounts for health and dependent care for companies. This 338-employee firm attributes its success to the method and national scope of its product marketing.



• Zantaz (Pleasanton). Ranked 59. Zantaz is a global provider of software to store, manage, archive and retrieve electronic documents and e-mail messages. It attributes its success to companies’ newfound needs to quickly respond to industry regulations and regulatory requests for e-information.