Four Kentucky-based technology companies were recently named to the Top 1000 Global Service Providers in 2022 by Clutch, a B2B service review research platform.
The list represents approximately 1% of service providers across the globe.
The four companies are Louisville-based NowSourcing, a content marketing firm specializing in infographic design, which came in at No. 7 overall; Lexington-based Helpware, a customer service outsourcing and call centers services operation, which was ranked No. 82; Wilder-based Red Hawk Technologies, a software and mobile app development company, which was ranked No. 353; and Louisville-based Slingshot, a software and mobile app development company, which was ranked No. 774.
NowSourcing and Helpware, which was acquired by a private equity firm in September, also made the list in 2021 as well.
“It is our distinct honor to be once again listed on the Clutch 1000 list, this year being ranked among the top 10 of all global service providers. We are grateful to our wonderful team, clients and partners. We look forward to a bright future for our clients,” NowSourcing founder and President Brian Wallace said in an email.
In March 2022, NowSourcing earned the ranking of top content marketing company by Clutch. As of a recent date, the company, which was founded in 2006, ranked No. 2 out of 18,581 service providers in its field.
The company is fully remote, but Wallace said a majority of its 15 employees either reside in the Louisville or Cincinnati metro areas.
Since 2017, Clutch has assembled a list of 1,000 ranked companies based on four criteria: the number, quality and recency of verified reviews on its platform; selection of clientele and portfolio of work; a robust company profile with competitive specializations; and considerable experience in their particular field, and strong brand awareness and industry recognition.
According to Clutch, its platform has more than 140,000 verified peer reviews that are used by companies when looking to partner with external firms. All the reviews are inputted manually by Clutch representatives after interviewing clients themselves.
Slingshot is making its first appearance on the list.
“As you can imagine for software development, for mobile development … the biggest driver of business is referrals from other companies,” Savannah Cherry, Slingshot’s director of marketing and new business, told me. “The closest thing to a referral — and the other place where not only us, but a lot of other companies get business from — is through Clutch.”
Cherry said that her company is coming off its best revenue year to date with more than $6.5 million — and that was after doubling its revenue and the amount of clients it had both in 2020 and 2021.
The company has 55 employees, 25 of whom are based out of the Louisville area and its main offices at 700 N. Hurstbourne Parkway.
In addition, Cherry — who co-hosts “The Founders’ Fable” podcast as part of the Slingshot Ventures platform that began in 2020 as a way to help foster B2B tech companies — said that her firm has recently added a dedicated teams model to its list of services, as way to assist large companies who are “stuck in a support loop” or have bandwidth or tech-talent issues.
