How we made the Inc 5000.... Again

The Inc 5000 is a list of the fastest-growing privately held companies in the USA. Being on the list is a badge of honor, and the company you keep is amazing - Patagonia, Zappos, Under Armour, Jamba Juice, Clif Bar, Pandora, and other notable brands have made the list through the years.

Last year, we were very proud of ranking on the Inc 5000 list, and now we’re excited to announce that we’ve made the list a second time and moved up the ranks!

In 2022, we ranked #530 and in 2021, we ranked #542. This puts us in the top 11% of the list for two years in a row. We had an 883% three-year growth rate for the 2021 submission, followed by a 1178% three-year growth rate for the 2022 list. It feels like just yesterday that I was sitting in a coffee house working on my first proposal.

While some companies on the list have received funding or have grown through acquisition, Eyeful Media is fully bootstrapped and has grown organically through word of mouth alone.

Want to know what it took to make the list not only once, but twice (so far)? Read on…

Focus on culture

I never had a dream to build an agency, nor had I ever worked for an agency. Perhaps this is why my perspective has been different since day one.

Rather than following the typical agency playbook, I focused on hiring the best people I could find. I don’t just mean that they had the best marketing skills, but rather that they were high-quality individuals with strong values, including a sense of humility.

We were fully remote before that was a “thing” - solely because we wanted to find the right people, and their location was irrelevant.

My priority has been to create a great culture that attracts high-performers that want to get away from politics and cut-throat environments.

By allowing our people to focus on the long game and operate largely with autonomy, they can do their best marketing and support our clients.

Our team has an average of 13 years of digital marketing experience and has previously worked for leading brands and agencies. They’ve joined me here because of the environment we give them.

Focus on service

Many agencies use account managers as a way to “protect” their marketer’s time. However, I don’t think that this is best for clients or employees. They also often use junior marketers to reduce their overall expense, but I don’t want our clients to feel like someone is learning on their dime.

We give each member of our team a small number of accounts to work on and pair them directly with their clients so that they can get to know the business and feel more connected.

Because of our differentiated high-touch service, along with transparency and our experienced team, clients and friends have rewarded us with referrals. These have been the fuel for our growth since I started with my first client in 2017.

Capturing feedback

Another critical aspect of our growth has been focusing on capturing feedback - both from employees and clients. We use a combination of the following to understand what’s top of mind so that we can improve both the customer and employee experience at Eyeful Media.

“The ideas and expertise they bring to the table which take us way beyond our competition and sets us up for success.”

— Main Event

Weekly pulse scores
Quarterly start, stop, continue surveys
eNPS (employee net promoter score)
NPS (net promoter score)

Our toolkit to capture this information is 15five.com for weekly pulse scores from the team, Typeform for employee surveys, and AskNicely for client NPS and feedback.

Gathering insight makes me a better leader, helps our team share their ideas and desires, and lets us ensure we are on the right track with our clients (or course correct, if needed).

This has been an important part of our growth story, and we’ve earned our team’s trust by acting on their feedback as quickly as possible.

Resilience & Grit

Being a founder is not for the faint of heart. And being a founder of a fast-growing company can be even more difficult. I believe that the most important trait for an entrepreneur is resilience, followed by the ability to juggle a constant stream of conflicting priorities.

You have to get up when you get knocked down, over and over again… maybe after eating a little ice cream first.

High growth rate

The Inc 5000 rank is based on a three-year growth rate and is designed to identify companies with sustained growth.

In 2021, there were 3124 repeat honorees (62% of the list). While the median growth rate was 168%, the top company posted 48,345% growth and the company ranked #5000 had a three-year growth rate of 39%. To reach the top 500, a growth rate of 973% was required.

In 2022, the list became even more competitive. While we would have ranked #452 on last year’s list based on our growth rate, we ranked #530 this year - that’s because the median growth rate increased significantly. We’re still thrilled with the accomplishment.

We made the list each of the past two years by posting really high growth rates, and that’s what it takes to make the list.

Low denominator

In order to make it onto the Inc 5000 list, a company must have $100,000 or more in revenue during the baseline year. This number becomes the denominator in the growth calculation.

A company’s best bet to make it onto the list is to apply in the first year of eligibility. As long as you have achieved at least $2,000,000 in revenue in the most recent period, you can apply for the list.
Most companies will debut at their highest rank and then drop as growth slows. We were proud to have accelerated growth in 2022.

We made it the first time we were eligible to apply, and are now going to see how long we can sustain the momentum. We’ll be going for a three-peat next year and would love to see you on the list!

You can see the full list here and apply here if you’re interested: https://www.inc.com/inc5000/apply