A look at one of Utah's newest public companies.

• Author: Francom, Sarah Ryther
• Position: From the Editor - Company rankings

The number of Utah IPOs has dropped in recent years--no local companies, in fact, have taken the private-to-public leap so far this year. But the IPOs that have happened recently were highly successful. In this issue of Utah Business, we feature Utah's top public companies ranked by 2011 revenues. See how the companies stack up beginning on page 62. While the list includes many longtime Utah giants, like Huntsman and Zions Bancorporation, there are a few newcomers to the list, including Fusion-io--one of Utah's newest public companies and a prime example of a recent IPO success story.

Headquartered in Cottonwood Heights, Fusion-io is considered by many to be one of the state's most promising tech companies. Launched in 2006 by cofounders David Flynn and Rick White, Fusion-io invented ioMemory--technology that significantly speeds up data used in today's information-rich world, ranging from online banking to social networking sites. The company, which boasts Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak as chief scientist, has developed industry partnerships with global giants like Dell and HP.

I recently spoke with David Flynn about Fusion-io's IPO success and the company's plans for the future. Like many tech companies, Fusion-io started with a goal to solve a seemingly simple problem--slow data processing. "Before we invented ioMemory, data centers were still using slow-spinning, disk-era technology. The resulting data bottlenecks were rapidly becoming a problem in our digital information economy," Flynn says. "We [started] with a handful of people working on an idea out of a small, borrowed office space in Salt Lake City. Employees worked for little or even no pay. After our first full year selling product, in 2008, we had revenues of $648,000."

Fusion-io has grown rapidly since its humble beginnings. The...