Eden Prairie Has Four of The Fastest-Growing Companies in the Country

It’s not hard to tell Eden Prairie is a hotspot for business. Development projects are rising above local highways, and there’s a bustle near the city’s commercial areas and office parks.

But even that doesn’t tell the full story. Digging into local businesses’ revenue reveals that Eden Prairie has four of the fastest-growing companies in the country, according to the 2012 Inc. 5000 list. Just 94 companies in Minnesota made the list.

Patch spoke with the companies about how they became so successful and what plans they have for the future.

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Reach Sports Marketing Group

• National rank: 2,003
• State rank: 34
• Three-year growth: 134 percent
• Revenue: $3.9 million
• Estimated employees: 46

Success just seemed to come calling on Reach Sports Marketing Group.

“We’re just in the right space, and we have the right people,” co-founder Marc Kline said. “The whole digital media thing is just taking off.”

The company provides recreation and fitness centers with “digital place-based networks”—flat-screen displays that have information and sometimes ads. Reach, established in 2005, has displays in more than 500 centers, such as Life Time Fitness and the Plymouth Ice Center. And it has an ad team that sell ads to offset the cost of the network.

With display prices dropping and more businesses interested in them, Reach is in a prime spot to take advantage of the demand and has carved out a niche supplying the fitness and recreation business, Kline said.

But it’s not just luck. The company prides itself on hiring a solid team. Kline said he’s most proud that Minnesota Business Magazine named it one of the Best 100 Companies to Work For.

“It takes a special breed that wants to grow a company and work with a start-up,” he said.

With demand showing no signs of slowing, Kline is certain the company will keep growing into the future.

“It’s cutting edge. It’s the latest, greatest thing,” Kline said. “It’s a hot space.”

Virtelligence

• National rank: 2,145
• State rank: 37
• Three-year growth: 121 percent
• Revenue: $20.7 million
• Estimated employees: 120

Virtelligence has earned no shortage of awards since it was founded in 1998.

The health care information technology consulting firm has been named among the top 100 companies in its industry and one of the Top 500 Small Businesses in America. The U.S. Small Business Administration also named founder and CEO Akhtar Chaudhri a Small Business Entrepreneur of the Year in 2009.

There’s a reason for those awards. Virtelligence has positioned itself well to take advantage of the growing use of IT in the health-care industry. It’s provided consulting services to major networks such as Allina.

With national offices in Minnesota; California; Washington, D.C.; and Florida, Virtelligence is the biggest Eden Prairie company on the Inc. 5000 list. Yet it’s seeing growth that would make any company proud.

(Virtelligence did not return repeated calls requesting comment.)

Customer Contact Services

• National rank: 2,237
• State rank: 38
• Three-year growth: 114 percent
• Revenue: $2.9 million
• Estimated employees: 59

In a way, you could credit the bad economy for Customer Contact Services’ growth.

The 35-year-old company was able to strategically acquire three smaller companies that, like itself, are so-called boutique call centers offering high-touch, one-on-one service for 100s of callers a day instead of 1,000s, said Janet C. Livingston, the company’s president. Operators may take calls when a doctor isn’t in the office or walk a customer through a company’s iPad app.

It was also operating at a time when uncertainty about the economic climate, health care and the election had made many businesses reluctant to hire their own workers.

So about a year ago, Customer Contact Services made a decision to grow. It started hiring jobs at all pay ranges—from $11 an hour to $100,000 a year.

“All of our services start and end in Eden Prairie—even when we use remote services,” Livingston said.

The growth is even faster than the Inc. 5000 stats show. The company has doubled in the past 12 months, Livingston said. The 59 employees listed when Inc. put its list together is now in excess of 100 employees.

“We could easily see ourselves doubling again,” she said.

SecureConnect

• National rank: 2,623
• State rank: 50
• Three-year growth: 91 percent
• Revenue: $6.5 million
• Estimated employees: 52

Safeguarding customers’ credit card information is a vital responsibility in today’s high-tech environment. While Social Security numbers and other personal data get much of the attention, the credit card numbers that pass through businesses’ hands are even more attractive to hackers.

“There are hackers that spend all their waking time—and, with automation, their sleeping time—trying to get hold of this information,” said Kristyan Mjolsnes, SecureConnect’s marketing director.

That’s where SecureConnect comes in. The company provides a suite of security services that would be too costly for small- to medium-sized businesses to do on their own. The goal is a one-stop-shopping approach that handles everything from the physical firewall to 24/7 monitoring to securing the tablets, Wi-Fi networks and digital menus that are becoming so popular.

“In reality, they’re a prime target, and our job is to protect them,” Mjolsnes said. “There’s layers to this information that they often underestimate.”

SecureConnect is offering these services at the right time, too. Credit card companies rolled out new standards in 2004. Initially, they focused on bringing larger companies into compliance. Over the past two to three years, though, the focus has been on smaller, mom-and-pop businesses.

SecureConnect helps these companies become compliant at an affordable cost so they don’t have to give up the electronic payments so many of their customers rely on.

“That card information is incredibly valuable—incredibly valuable,” Mjolsnes said.