On Inc. Magazine's annual list of the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in the U.S., a Madison tech startup claimed top honors as the company with the biggest growth.
SwanLeap earned the prestigious honor by posting revenues of $99 million in 2017, a whopping 76,000 percent growth from three years prior.
Founded in 2013 under the name ClearView Audit, the startup rebranded in May to SwanLeap. The company has largely flown under the radar until now, a strategy CEO Brad Hollister said was intentional to keep a competitive advantage.
SwanLeap is a logistics technology company that brings artificial intelligence to the supply chain. The startup helps companies automate shipping decisions, like deciding whether an order should be shipped via freight or parcel delivery.
"We saw an industry in 2013 that was still working much like the industry did in the 1990s," Hollister said in an interview.
SwanLeap's insights help companies make decisions based on real-time market conditions, allowing businesses to make the logistics process more efficient. Its clients have included New Balance, Sub-Zero and JBSS, the parent company of Fisher Nuts.
SwanLeap has around 70 total employees, 50 of which work in Madison.
The startup has taken a somewhat unconventional path to hyper growth---it has avoided venture capital, opting to self-fund the business based on revenue.
For Hollister, earning the top honors on this year's Inc. 5000 list was a recognition that those early decisions were correct, and that SwanLeap is proving to be a valuable logistics asset to many of top businesses.
"It is a validation," he said. "It's a very big honor with the history of the names that have appeared on top before."
Flying under the radar has been a double edged sword at times, as potential customers were sometimes wary of doing businesses with an unfamiliar brand.
"We’ve been turned away from companies that need what we have. We’re going to save their company. We're going to help them make their earnings," Hollister said. "And they still decide not to buy from us because we’re so new and different from what they’ve known."
A top spot on the Inc. 5000 means SwanLeap's flying-under-the-radar days are over, something Hollister hopes will help take SwanLeap to even bigger heights.
"We don’t believe we’ve even started our business yet," he said. "We have no sales people. Everything we’ve done is through channel partners."
It's the first time a Wisconsin startup has landed No. 1 on the Inc. 5000 since 1986, when ABC Supply claimed the top spot.
There are a total of 41 Wisconsin companies on the Inc. 5000 this year, including Diamond Assets (7), Driftless Glen Distillery (316) and TechCanary (393). You can see the full Inc. 5000 list here.
