2 Forest Hill Companies Among Fastest Growing In America

FOREST HILL, MD — Forest Hill is home to two of the fastest-growing companies in America, according to Inc. The weekly business magazine recently released its annual "Inc. 5000," a list of the top private revenue generators for 2019, and two Forest Hill establishments were recognized.

To make the Inc. 5000 list, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2015; be privately held, U.S.-based, for-profit and independent as of Dec. 31, 2018; and have minimum revenue of $100,000 in 2015 and $2 million in 2018. They were ranked according to the percentage revenue growth from 2015 to 2018.

The top spot on the Inc. 5000 list this year went to advertising and marketing company Freestar, which is based in Phoenix, Arizona, and grew 36,680 percent in the past three years. Its niche is in online ad sales. Next up was logistics and transportation firm FreightWise in Tennessee, which grew 30,548 percent from 2015 to 2018.

Here are the two companies in Forest Hill that made the cut:

• Ecotone was No. 3008 on the list. It made $15 million in 2018 and grew 123 percent in the past three years, according to Inc. The environmental services company is in the business of ecological restoration, designing and building ecosystems to address issues like stream bank erosion, storm water management and wetland conservation. This was the fifth year on the list for the company, located on Industry Lane.
• CadmiumCD was No. 3441. It made $7.7 million in revenue in 2018 and grew 102 percent in the last three years, Inc. reported. The event software company designs products to help event planners and conference coordinators through mobile apps, digital recordings and websites. This is the fourth year on the list for the company, which is based on Newport Drive.

"The companies on this year's Inc. 5000 have followed so many different paths to success," says Inc. editor in chief James Ledbetter. "There's no single course you can follow or investment you can take that will guarantee this kind of spectacular growth. But what they have in common is persistence and seizing opportunities."

Here are the top 10 fastest-growing companies in the United States:

1. Freestar — Phoenix, Arizona
2. FreightWise — Brentwood, Tennessee
3. Cece's Veggie Co. — Austin, Texas
4. LadyBoss — Albuquerque, New Mexico
5. Perpay — Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
6. Cano Health — Miami, Florida
7. Bear Mattress — Hoboken, New Jersey
8. Connected Solutions Group — Mechanicsville, Virginia
9. Providence Healthcare Management — Cleveland, Ohio
10. NOM — Los Angeles, California

One Havre de Grace company also made the list. It was ranked No. 1080.

Patch reporter Gus Saltonstall contributed to this report.