Entrepreneur of the year[R]: 2017 Utah Region.

• Position: Cover story

BUSINESS SERVICES

AWARD WINNER

KARL SUN

Lucid Software

Karl Sun joined Lucid Software in 2010 to help launch the Lucidchart diagramming app beyond its initial enthusiastic core of users. The move was personally risky for the former Google exec, because he had to turn his back on a traditional career path. Sun was also the first to invest in Lucid Software and went without a salary for a year.

Despite those financial risks, Sun was not in a hurry to launch the product. To further develop the software, he assembled a small team engineers (mostly students working part time) who worked from the basement of a home. That early crew has grown to a workforce of 200, and Lucid Software recently began construction on a new headquarters building in South Jordan. Lucid Software now has a user base that includes 80 percent of the Fortune 1000 companies, and it has raised $42 million in funding.

Sun says the next step for Lucid Software will be defining a new and better way for people to work, "where they're able to tie together all the different applications and tools that they're using--they're able to tie in collaboratively with their peers and colleagues and work in a more collaborative environment."

JUSTIN NIELSEN

Onset Financial, Inc.

Justin Nielsen founded Onset Financial in 2008 to bring dependable equipment leasing options to the market. Creating a financial services company during the peak of the Great Recession was risky, and Nielsen had to work long and hard hours to bring on investors. Now, the company has diversified its funding sources and can turn to banks, private investors, its own capital and many other sources to meet its clients' needs. In fact, Onset Financial has experienced growth every year since its inception. In addition, Nielsen knew technology was the wave of the future in the financing industry, and in its early days, Onset Financial hired its own team of software developers to create a program that makes the lending process fast, precise and simple.

MATTHEW RISSEL

TSheets.com

Launching and growing TSheets.com was a grueling process for Matt Rissell, especially because he bootstrapped the company until it was profitable and growing 100 percent year over year. The early years of hard work paid off, and now the company, which provides online time tracking and scheduling software, has grown to 200 employees and is used in more than 100 countries, tracking time for over $9 billion in payroll last year. And in 2015 TSheets finally accepted $15 million in Series A growth equity funding.

TSheets is based in Boise, Idaho, and Rissell is active in the region's growing tech hub. He is the previous chair of the Idaho Software Alliance, serves on the executive committee of the Idaho Technology Council and sits on the advisory board of the Boise State University Computer Science Department.

CONSUMER SERVICES

AWARD WINNER

CASE LAWRENCE

CircusTrix

CircusTrix is in the business of fun, says founder Case Lawrence, who created the company's first park in Fresno, California, in 2011. Previously a commercial real estate developer, Lawrence had been hit hard by the recession. But he pulled together resources to bootstrap the growing indoor extreme recreation company--and found immediate success with that first park in California.

CircusTrix has been a pioneer in the fledgling industry, and was the first company in the industry to garner a major private equity deal. "When you're in a new industry, one of the challenges is that you really don't have any models or tried-and-true tracks of growth or innovation to follow, and so it really requires you to double down on your creativity," says Lawrence.

That creativity, and an extreme attention to detail within each of the unique parks, has fueled success for CircusTrix, which is now the largest owner and operator of trampoline parks in the world, with over 30 parks in the United States, Europe and Asia. But Lawrence is not done. He plans to continue pushing the model in new, exciting directions--and hopes to become the first indoor extreme recreation company to go public.

TERESA WHITEHEAD

Citywide Home Loans, a Utah Corporation

The home mortgage industry was still experiencing the fallout of the financial meltdown when Teresa Whitehead became CEO of Citywide Home Loans in 2012. The loan origination process was becoming increasingly complex, and the industry faced multiple failures and consolidations. But Whitehead had an aggressive plan to grow the company rapidly in order for it to survive in the new, heavily regulated environment. The company began a hiring spree, bringing on hundreds of sales and operations professionals. It became licensed in dozens of states and opened over 40 new branches. And all of that growth was financed from its own profits. Whitehead's strategy has been a spectacular success, with the company growing from $400 million in annual revenue to $3 billion. It now operates in 39 states with a workforce of 750.

DAVID TANNER

Granger Medical Clinic

Granger Medical Clinic was founded by two physicians in 1954 as an independent physician organization. It grew slowly over the years, and by 2013 had 72 providers and four...