Analyzing the Inc. 500 List.

• Author: Kroll, Karen
• Position: Private companies

During 2006, 2007 and 2008, the U.S. gross domestic product grew at 2.7 percent, 2.1 percent and .4 percent, respectively, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. At the same time, the companies on the Inc. 500 list were racking up revenue gains that measured in the thousands of percent.

Take Northern Capital Insurance of Miami, Fla. It occupies the top spot, with revenue of $95 million, up 19,800 percent over the previous three years. At the other end of the list of 500 companies, Spinnaker, a Denver-based logistics and transportation company, boasts revenue of $9.6 million and growth of 529 percent.

To be sure, because the Inc. list is based on revenue growth over a three-year period, any downturn companies experienced last year may be offset by the go-go growth at least a few experienced during the boom times of a couple years ago. For sure, the list shows that even in difficult times, companies can grow.

Many of the firms that have seen the most growth share common attributes: They're in industries in which demand has remained steady or increased. The sectors with the largest representation on the list include 57 firms in information technology; 50 in government services; and 47 in advertising and marketing.

That sector's strong showing likely was due to increased demand for experts in search engine optimization and Internet marketing, says Jim Melloan, project manager for the Inc. 500 and 5,000 lists. The ongoing drive for greater efficiency in health care helped boost that sector from 35 companies in 2007 to 43 in 2009.

Operating in a thriving sector has been key to the success of Flipswap of Torrance, Calif., number 81 on the list, says John Woodlock, chief financial officer at the $11-million firm. The company's leadership team "chose to get involved in an area that's still growing rapidly," he says. Flipswap takes consumers' old cell phones as trade-in for either cash or credit at various retailers. The number of mobile phone users around the world has grown from 2.7 billion in 2006 to an estimated 4.4 billion in 2009, according to the European Information Technology Observatory.

Flipswap also benefits from consumers' growing desire to dispose of their old cell phones in eco-friendly ways, as Woodlock notes, a "groundswell of support for doing things that are environmentally the right thing to do."

GlowTouch Technologies, an IT services provider in Louisville, Ky., hit 130 on the list with about $7 million in revenue, a jump...