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These 50 Are Flooring It.
CTC cites high-flying tech firms
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Business New Haven
11/22/1999
By: Mitchell Young
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In an October 19 fete at Fairfield University's Quick Center, Gov. John G. Rowland joined entrepreneurs, employees and well-wishers from 50 of the state's fastest-growing technology firms. The awards were sponsored by the Connecticut Technology Council (CTC) and Deloitte & Touche.
The CTC Fast 50 "recognizes fast growing technology companies headquartered in Connecticut and serves as the regional awards program for the Deloitte & Touche Fast 500," which cites the 500 fastest growing tech firms nationally. The two fastest-growing Connecticut companies - Open Solutions Inc. of Glastonbury and FitLinxx Inc. of Stamford - are among the top 20 nationally as well.
To qualify for inclusion a technology company must be headquartered in Connecticut, be at least five years old and have had sales of at least $50,000 in 1994. According to the CTC, the average five-year growth for this year's awardees was 262 percent. The top ten grew at a five-year average rate of 2,202 percent.
With sales of $18 million and more than 120 employees, Open Solutions provides enterprise software for community banks. CEO Douglas K. Anderson, a former Savings Bank of Manchester vice president, joined the company in 1995 and has generated five-year growth of 12,770 percent.
The second fastest grower at 12,673 percent, FitLinxx was founded by Keith Camhi and Andy Greenberg in the former's mother's basement. It claims to be the fastest-growing company in the U.S. fitness industry. The pair have raised more than $25 million in private equity capital to accelerate expansion. Hundreds of fitness facilities use the firm's exercise-monitoring equipment.
Local companies achieving Fast 50 include New Haven's CuraGen Corp., No 5 with 3,488-percent five-year growth. Another fast grower is troubled FlexiInternational Software of Shelton, whose five year growth rate of 3,439 percent placed it sixth. Recent problems have decelerated that growth, and the public company was recently de-listed from the NASDAQ exchange for not meeting minimum financial standards.
Also among the locals are Neurogen, the Branford biotech, BICOM, a Monroe manufacturer of voice/fax/telephony processing equipment, and Oxford's CDC Technologies, a manufacturer of hematology analyzers for human and veterinary applications.
Also cited was Basset Computer Systems Inc. of North Haven, a computer systems provider to small and mid-sized firms, and Fairfield's Competitive Technologies Inc., which helps companies, universities and federal laboratories transfer technology, establish partnership licensing and collaborative agreements.
In Shelton, Corporate Management Solutions Inc., develops software for equity compensation and corporate legal professionals. It joins the list with another Shelton firm, Information Management Associates, which provides call-center and e-commerce solutions, IMA president Albert Subbloie is also CTC's chairman. Another Shelton high-flyer, TranSwitch Corp., develops high-speed communications semiconductor solutions for manufacturers of communications equipment.
The diversity of the region's growing technology sector was underscored by Stratford's Nature Plus Inc., which "develops natural enzyme formulations," and Hamden's Fast Mathematical Algorithms & Hardware Corp., which provides mathematical algorithms needed in industrial and technological applications.
The growth of New Haven's Precision Combustion Inc. was fueled by its design and manufacture of catalytic-converter systems for use in advanced combustion systems. Zygo Corp. of Middlefield increased its own harvest by providing "yield enhancement solutions" for precision-manufacturing industries.
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