By Dara Barney Friday, August 31st, 2012

The Tri-Counties made a strong appearance on the Inc. 5000 this year, with 30 firms from the region ranking on the magazine’s annual list of fastest-growing private companies in the U.S.

Here’s a closer look at several of the firms that made the Inc. magazine cut this year. These three firms were also ranked on the Pacific Coast Business Times’ 50 Fastest-Growing Companies list, which published Aug. 24.

For a full list of tri-county firms that made the Inc. 5000 this year, scroll down.

Pensionmark powers up

Santa Barbara-based Pensionmark Retirement Group came in at No. 3 on the Business Times’ list and at No. 1,597 on the Inc. 5000. “We kind of have a running joke around here,” CEO Troy Hammond said. “We are the 20-year overnight success.”

Pensionmark is a financial retirement planning and executive compensation consulting firm. Its revenue has surged more than 225 percent in the last three years.
Hammond said Pensionmark, which was founded in 1988, is now one of the largest retirement advisory firms in the nation.

The firm has gone from two to 22 locations nationwide since 2008 and provides retirement planning consulting services to 650 employers, according to its website.

“I can tell you as a company we aren’t stopping,” Hammond said. “We will continue to grow, but not too fast. I understand there are limits, but we will continue to get better at what we do. We’ll know when the time comes to slow down, but we are nowhere close yet.”

Tempest taps 4G

Another Santa-Barbara based firm that made the cut both nationally and regionally is Tempest Telecom Solutions. With 4G phone networks on the rise, the telecommunications firm, which provides 4G network rollout equipment and services nationwide for wireless carriers, saw a bump in business, Vice President of Marketing Elda Rudd said.

In July 2011, Tempest acquired an antenna systems service provider called Leaf Communications Services, which mostly focused on West Coast-based projects, Rudd said. The firm was able to expand those projects throughout the entire country.

With distributed-antenna systems and in-building wireless, Tempest “can help bring strong 4G networks into buildings nationally,” she said.
Rudd said her company helps bring the 4G network in, then the distributed antenna system improves the network at indoor and sometimes outdoor venues.

With just over 85 percent revenue growth over the last three years, Tempest comes in at No. 14 on the Business Times’ fastest-growing companies list. The company recorded 62 percent revenue growth since 2008 and ranked at No. 3,258 on the Inc. 5000.  Rudd said one contributor to the growth involves Internet protocol migration, where older networks convert to newer networks with the help of the company’s expertise in legacy network support and migration.

 In touch with growth

InTouch Health, a medical robotics company based in Goleta,  landed at No. 13 on the Business Times’ list, with more than 85 percent over the last three years. Its Inc. 5000 ranking was No. 1231, with 252 percent growth since 2008.

InTouch’s customers are hospitals. Its newest medical robot is controlled by an iPad that can remotely assist doctors with data information and examinations.

CEO Yulun Wang said InTouch’s revenue growth comes from being in the right place at the right time with the right product. “It’s a great place where the world is at right now, specifically in health care. Our product is well-aligned with that,” he said.

InTouch is 10 years old. “You have to skate ahead of the puck to where it is going, not where it has been,” Wang said. “We have been fortunate enough to predict where the puck is going with things like an aging population and specialized medicine. Now, we have the health care reform, which no one could have known about 10 years ago.”

Tri-county companies on the Inc. 5000:

#102 — Ontraport, Santa Barbara
#181 — Cadence Research & Consulting, Thousand Oaks
#204 — School Tech Supply, Westlake Village
#219 — FastSpring, Santa Barbara
#991 — Invenios, Santa Barbara
#1231 — InTouch Health, Santa Barbara
#1250 — Blue Microphones, Westlake Village
#1341 — • Mindbody, San Luis Obispo
#1501 — Procore Technologies, Santa Barbara
#1572 — • Lynda.com, Carpinteria
#1597 — • Pensionmark Retirement Group, Santa Barbara
#1644 — Shopatron, San Luis Obispo
#1846 — Bill Terry Insurance Agency, Santa Barbara
#1886 — • iFixit, San Luis Obispo
#2376 — • Lanspeed, Santa Barbara
#2513 — Bruce Clay, Moorpark
#2823 — Topaz Systems, Simi Valley
#2909 — Cloud Creek Systems, Westlake Village
#2944 — • Laritech, Moorpark
#3098 — Ceres, Thousand Oaks
#3258 — • Tempest Telecom Solutions, Santa Barbara
#3357 — • GBL Systems, Camarillo
#3735 — InkJetMadness.com, Simi Valley
#3778 — Meathead Movers, San Luis Obispo
#3975 — Global Power Supply, Santa Barbara
#4388 — • Network Hardware Resale, Santa Barbara
#4451 — • The Select Family of Staffing Cos., Santa Barbara
#4532 — • Hardy Diagnostics, Santa Maria
#4850 — CIO Solutions, Goleta
#4986 — Coverall Mountain & Pacific, Carpinteria

Notes: Bullets indicate companies that are also on the Pacific Coast Business Times’ 50 Fastest-Growing Companies list, which published on Aug. 24. The Business Times’ rankings were based on revenue growth from 2009 to 2011 and included both public and private companies. The Inc. 5000 is based on revenue growth from 2008 to 2011 and includes only private companies.

[EDITOR’S NOTE: CIO Solutions, ranked at No. 4850 on the Inc. 5000, was inadvertently left out of the original version of this story. The correction has been made above.]