Twenty-five years ago, when the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 rankings began, software was the #1 fastest growing industry in North America. At that time, it made up only 25% of the fastest-growing companies overall. Today, in 2019, software is still on top in terms of growth and software companies now make up 68% of the list. Software companies also represent eight of the top 10 achievers this year. The shift to all things digital has transformed the Fast 500— and fast!
Over those 25 years, Deloitte, a provider of industry-leading audit, consulting, tax and advisory services to many of the world’s most admired brands, has been the name presiding over North America’s Technology Fast 500™. Deloitte not only continues to recognize the 500 fastest-growing companies in the technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences, and energy tech sectors, the company serves nearly 90% of the Fortune 500® and more than 5,000 private and middle-market companies.
This year, the Technology Fast 500 counts 19 Puget Sound companies including Seattle-based Outreach in the #4 spot on the list.
Of the privately-held software companies on the Fast 500 list, 48% identify themselves as part of the software as a service (SaaS) or enterprise software subsector and 12% of companies are software with a financial services orientation (fintech). Here’s the breakdown:
2019 Technology Fast 500 Software Sub-sectors
- SaaS (software as a service) 48%
- Fintech 12%
- Digital platforms 10%
- Data analytics 7%
- Security 7%
- Artificial Intelligence 5%
- Cloud services 4%
- Consumer software, 3%
Biotech/pharmaceutical companies make up the second most prevalent sector in this year’s rankings, accounting for 11% of the Fast 500 companies and achieving a median growth rate of 402% in 2019. Digital content/media/entertainment companies rank third at 10% of the list with a median growth rate of 439%.
2019 Technology Fast 500 Puget Sound Awardees
#4 Outreach – Seattle
#38 FLEXE – Seattle
#41 Highspot – Seattle
#62 Quadrant Resource – Redmond, WA
#73 Auth0 – Bellevue, WA
#124 Discuss.io – Seattle
#150 Remitly – Seattle
#170 Zenoti – Bellevue, WA
#181 Adaptive Biotechnologies – Seattle
#182 Snap Raise – Seattle
#188 Zipwhip, Inc. – Seattle
#192 Icertis – Bellevue, WA
#233 RiskLens – Spokane, WA
#286 Smartsheet – Bellevue, WA
#287 Apptentive – Seattle
#324 Yapta – Seattle
#357 iSpot.tv, Inc. – Bellevue
#408 DiscoverOrg – Vancouver, WA
#440 Biolife Solutions, Inc. – Bothell, WA
“Over the 25 years we’ve been running the program, the one thing that hasn’t changed is the commitment of the ranked companies to their customers. In order to innovate and achieve sustainable growth, companies need to empathize with and understand the customers and communities they serve,” commented Ed Thomas, Managing Partner, Deloitte/Seattle.
“Our market, Seattle, is the epicenter of customer-centric innovation. We’re home to leading companies that are synonymous with customer-centricity, as well as countless startups committed to addressing the customer needs of today and the future,” he added.
While this year marks Outreach’s first time on the Fast 500 list, the company has experienced consistent revenue growth – doubling its revenue every year since 2014. The company also earned a $1.1B valuation when closing its latest $114 million funding round in April 2019. Customers also continue to flock to the platform – Outreach now supports more than 3,500 customers, from startups to large enterprises.
“It’s humbling to see how far Outreach has come in such a short time – in just five years we went from an idea to a billion-dollar company supporting more than 40 companies that are also worth more than a billion dollars,” said Outreach CEO Manny Medina. “We couldn’t have made this list without the support of our customers and the tireless work of our employees. We will continue to push the evolution of sales engagement through technology such as artificial intelligence so customer-facing reps can focus on creating a stellar customer experience.” [24×7]
