U.S. 1 - Meet the 19 Princeton area companies that made the grade. (Cover Story: Inc. 5000)

Princeton, NJ (September 19, 2007) - Inc. magazine this year added a new wrinkle to its Inc. 500 list: the Inc. 5,000 list of the country's fastest-growing companies, featured in the August issue of the 690,000-circulation magazine and on its website. Five Princeton-area companies made the Inc. 500 list. The last time Princeton had this many was in 2002.

Perusing the 5,000 list, we found 19 companies in the greater Princeton area - some that we had never heard of. They present an intriguing array. For instance, two E-commerce firms keep a low profile here but do big business over the Internet. Folica, selling beauty supplies, stakes its success on advanced web tools, like reader reviews. Broadspan Commerce sells furniture, primarily bedroom suites, by having orders shipped directly from the manufacturer. And those souvenirs you buy at Colonial Williamsburg, or those glasses you find at Target - they might have come from one of three glass factories in China owned by Artland.

As usual, information technology companies lead the category list in Princeton. Six of the firms are in this category, led by Epam Systems, First Tek, Software Galaxy, NewAgeSys, SysMind, and Princeton Softech. But a surprising niche is outsourced financial back office solutions, with Billtrust offering to do accounts payable for small-to-medium sized businesses, and ExpertPlan able to administer 401k plans.

There were three service companies - and all three are family-owned businesses: J.W. Poole, Xerographic Document Solutions, and Cooper Pest Solutions. In the human resource area are PrincetonOne (formerly Princeton Search Group) and the Brokers Group. A pharmaceutical manufacturer (Accumed); an pharmaceutical event planner, (Meeting Alliance); and a mega call center firm (AnswerNet/Cerida) complete the list.

Some of these companies never entertained the idea of entering the Inc. 5000 competition until the magazine's writers suggested they apply. The requirements: companies must be independent, not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies, and must be U.S.-based and privately held, They must have had at least $200,000 in revenue in 2003 and $2 million in 2006. They can outsource some work overseas, and 7 of the 19 Princeton-area companies do that.

Expanding the list, says Jim Jelloan, the Inc. 5000 project manager, "allowed us to tell the stories of larger companies, older companies, and a wealth of companies in industries like manufacturing and construction that are underreported in the business media." Those that made the cut get to buy the bling (desktop awards or plaques), They can use the Inc. 5000 materials in their press kits - for a price. To use a logo costs nearly $1,000 for the year. Posters are $590, and postcards start at $2,805 for 2,000.

Of the 782 companies on the 5,000 list from the northeast region, 170 are in New Jersey. Congratulations to the U.S. 1 19:

This article by Barbara Fox and Michele Alperin was prepared for the September 19, 2007 issue of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.