258 Va. companies make this year’s Inc. 5000

This year, 258 Virginia companies made the Inc. 5000 list of the nation’s 5,000 fastest-growing privately held companies. Inc. magazine released the annual compendium Tuesday. 

Coming in at No. 20 overall, Summit Human Capital was the top-ranked Virginia company on the list. Founded in 2018, the Richmond-based information technology staffing firm serves commercial and government clients, specializing in the IT, health care, legal and logistics industries. Summit Human Capital has about 40 clients in at least nine states.

The company doubled its workforce this year to more than 200 employees, including about 40 in India. Summit Human Capital launched a government services division, opening an office in Tysons, in 2021. The firm also developed its proprietary technology to increase its automation capabilities.

“We’ve gone from a local company to now a national company. We have clients nationally, we’ve expanded our presence across the Mid-Atlantic, we’ve secured a portfolio of Fortune 500 [clients],” Summit founder and President Glenn Diersen said.

Three Virginia companies ranked among the top 100 companies on the Inc. 5000 this year: Summit Human Capital; RP Professional Services, an Ashburn-based federal contractor; and Integrated Management Services, an Alexandria-based, woman-owned management consulting firm and federal contractor.

Last year, 310 Virginia companies made the Inc. 5000 and Arlington-based digital media ad company Olympic Media was Virginia’s top-ranked company, at No. 13. Four other Virginia companies ranked within the top 100 in 2021. 

Virginia companies on this year’s list had a median growth rate of 192% over the past three years and brought in $19.6 billion in total revenue. They collectively added 31,171 jobs, and 167 are repeat winners. 

Of the 258 Virginia companies on this year’s list, 190 are in Northern Virginia. North Carolina had 133 companies on the 2022 list, and Maryland had 131.

Ranked by three-year average growth, these are the top 25 Virginia companies on the 2022 Inc. 5000 list: 

20) Summit Human Capital, 14,413%, business products and services, Richmond

74) RP Professional Services, 5,300%, government services, Ashburn

76) Integrated Management Strategies, 5,271%, business products and services, Alexandria

105) Bonnie and Pop, 4,141%, consumer products, Fairfax

111) OneZero Solutions, 3,948%, IT services, Alexandria

129) PingWind, 3,522%, IT services, Annandale

221) Chexout, 2,403%, health services, Vienna

261) Kern Technology Group, 2,053%, government services, Virginia Beach

270) Epigen, 2,008%, IT services, McLean

298) Ignite IT, 1,906%, government services, Ashburn

326) GreenBrilliance, 1,756%, energy, Herndon

350) CloudQnect, 1,666%, IT services, Glen Allen

357) Bent Ear Solutions, 1,635%, business products and services, Alexandria

457) Sierra7, 1,362%, government services, Falls Church

461) PGLS (Piedmont Global Language Solutions), 1,353%, business products and services, Arlington

485) Git The Trucking Commercial Tires, 1,276%, retail, Richmond

524) Identika, 1,185%, advertising and marketing, Ashburn

565) Aptive Resources, 1,115%, government services, Alexandria

687) ThinkTek, 911%, government services, Fairfax

698) Gridiron IT Solutions, 895%, business products and services, Reston

717) Cloth & Paper Co., 881%, consumer products, Henrico

720) West 4th Strategy, 878%, government services, Springfield

731) VRTL Space, 863%, IT services, McLean

737) British Swim School, 854%, consumer services, Virginia Beach

751) Vertosoft, 842%, software, Leesburg

The median revenue growth for the full Inc. 5000 list, which includes companies based in Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, was 230% this year, much higher than normal, said Inc. Special Projects Editor Eric Hagerman. While there isn’t a hard-and-fast explanation, the prevalence of cryptocurrency companies likely contributed to that, Hagerman said. The No. 1 company on the Inc. 5000 is BlockFi, a New Jersey-based financial services company, which saw revenue growth of 245,616%. “The fluctuations in crypto are such that you can get those kinds of numbers,” Hagerman said.

A staffing firm topping the list for Virginia aligns with national trends.

“Staffing companies have really kind of sprouted up everywhere, all across the country,” Hagerman said, “and in a lot of different industries: health care, IT services … you name it, there’s a staffing company there.” That’s likely because of ongoing economic conditions like inflation and the COVID-19 pandemic, he explained.

Annandale-based cybersecurity, program management, infrastructure and consulting federal contractor PingWind slipped from No. 75 last year to No. 129 on the list. But the company still had a 3,522% growth rate over the past three years, which PingWind CEO Aaron Moak attributes to investing in people and partnerships, including a joint venture with Peraton Inc.: Clear Vantage Point Solutions. PingWind has about 130 employees.

“It’s great to provide recognition to the whole team that the work that they’re putting in is providing value to our customers,” Moak said. “So anything that the team can kind of look and say, ‘Hey, we’re doing a good job and … there’s hard numbers that point to that.'”

One first-timer this year is Vienna-based health care IT company Chexout, ranking No. 221. With 36 employees, Chexout works with public health officials to provide services including disease surveillance, outbreak management and contact tracing; it started out in 2010 doing prevention work around sexually transmitted diseases. In 2018, Chexout began rebuilding its software based on input from clients and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Chexout completed its new software system in January 2020 and implemented a COVID module that year. The software did contract tracing, which became a high priority in the pandemic. 

“That was a key to our growth. We were positioned for a broader disease surveillance system to come out in January 2020,” said Chexout CEO Joseph “Joe” Paulini.

In addition to its regular customer base, Chexout started installing the COVID module for places around the country. For instance, “we did the entire state of West Virginia, got them set up in 30 days. We had 1,000 contact tracers working almost immediately.”