Inner City 100

From a Philadelphia glass blowing outfit, to an Oakland-based 3D printing shop, and a high-end Brooklyn chocolatier, America's urban core is filled with a wildly diverse array of fast-growing businesses. Here are this year's 100 fastest-growing inner city companies, as ranked by the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City.

EXPLORE THE LIST METHODOLOGY

The Top Ten

Bithenergy

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Robert Wallace grew up in Baltimore but left his hometown for college and later founded Bithenergy. In 2005, he moved himself and his green energy consulting firm back to Charm City. Bithenergy’s clients include hospitals, universities, and the Maryland state government. The company recently won a major contract to provide solar energy services to U.S. military bases around the world. Through its internship program, Bithenergy connects local youth to opportunities in the energy industry, and Wallace is active in promoting small and minority business in Baltimore and beyond.

BWI

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In 2005, Gary and Lori Hobbs founded BWI to develop, build, own, and manage sustainable housing for affordable and market-rate communities in Indianapolis. Hobbs calls his company “a developer with a purpose” and focuses on building spaces for special needs residents such as seniors and single mothers. The company remains dedicated not only to the construction of a project, but to the long-term satisfaction of its residents: BWI conducts annual quality-of-life surveys to make sure its facilities are serving tenants well. As it grows, BWI aims to explore development opportunities elsewhere in Indiana, including Gary, Evansville, and Fort Wayne.

Caduceus Healthcare

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Of all the lessons Caduceus Healthcare CEO Carlos Lopez learned during his 20 years in the Marine Corps, one really stuck with him: Always take care of each other. Lopez connects workers with employers and guides them through the particulars of working in a military hospital or other federal institution. Based in downtown Atlanta, Caduceus regularly recruits interns from nearby Georgia State University. As the company continues to grow and diversify into the commercial sector, Lopez says he and his team will do their best to maintain their culture of loyalty and dedication to one another.

Rise Interactive

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Jon Morris started Rise Interactive in 2004 while getting his MBA at the University of Chicago. His plan was to teach traditional marketers how to manage their Internet campaigns, but so many of them asked him to manage them himself, Morris pivoted and shifted his focus to search engine marketing for small businesses. Now Rise is a full-service digital marketing agency for Fortune 1000 companies throughout the U.S. The company receives regular accolades from local and national press for being such a cool place to work, and with 160 employees, it plans to more than double its staff in the next two years.

Business Resource and Security Services

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Business Resource and Security Services founder Johnson Akingbade honed his chops while working in finance for the World Bank and Central Bank of Nigeria, where he often coordinated events with high-profile guests who had major security needs. Today his company provides basic and special police training, with instruction in firearms, crisis management, and access control. As a subcontractor for national security firm AlliedBarton, BRSS provides services to government buildings in the District of Columbia. Akingbade hopes to continue expanding throughout Maryland and Virginia, and is currently focused on building his team’s expertise in cybersecurity.

StreamLink Software

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After years leading a non-profit and dealing with the headache of organizing grant and board materials on a limited budget, Adam Roth started StreamLink Software to make things easier. His company provides software that helps non-profits and government organizations track their data and be more organized, efficient, and transparent with their funds. StreamLink is based in downtown Cleveland, and Roth believes the success of the entire region depends on his city’s economic revitalization. His plan: to help build a Cleveland whose residents’ children—including four of his own—can get jobs and stay to build families of their own.

Concrete Constructors, Inc.

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Dee Brown knows when to make business a family affair. As he was building a team for the company that would become Concrete Constructors (formerly known as IBC, Inc.), he enlisted his father-in-law, an industry veteran whose knowledge of government contracts complemented Brown’s own commercial experience. Headquartering in the central Mississippi city of Jackson gives Concrete Constructors a hub to reach key markets in nearby states, including Louisiana, Tennessee and Texas. CCI works primarily with government agencies to improve infrastructure, a business that Brown predicts will only grow in the coming decade as more roads and bridges age.

Impact Makers, Inc.

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After working in health care-related information technology for some time, Michael Pirron was drawn to the Newman's Own brand model for social enterprise and wanted to see if it could work in B2B. His IT management firm, Impact Makers, is the result. A certified B Corporation, the company gifts 100% of its profits to charity and attributes its success to a combination of conscientious consumers, a labor market interested in social mission, and investor groups keen on impact. Impact Makers says its central location is key to getting clients and access to Richmond’s local workforce.

Creative Business Solutions, Inc.

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Integrity, service before self, and quick thinking under pressure—those are the assets Robert Palmer gleaned from 25 years in the U.S. Air Force. That’s why the CEO of management and IT consultant Creative Business Solutions hires veterans, because he says they combine “understanding of what needs to be done to accomplish a mission and the work ethic to get that mission done.” His team’s military background gives them the insights needed to understand their top customer: the federal government. Palmer is also building CBS’s IT arsenal so it can help both government and private groups boost their cybersecurity.

The Onyx Company

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When John Hamilton came to the Onyx Company as a consultant in 2010, he’d been looking for the chance to do sustainable, business-driven work. He found it and turned a traditional janitorial goods company into a leading supplier of sustainable food service products. Under his leadership, Onyx has helped mainstream the sustainable packaging supply chain by educating customers on the benefits of using green products as it tailors pricing to their needs. The company credits its high staff retention rate to talented local professionals and job training programs available in its Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago.