http://cptv.vo.llnwd.net/o2/ypmwebcontent/Chion/sm%20120928%20sb%20tech%20top%2040.mp3
Last night over 400 people gathered at the Oakdale Theatre in Wallingford for the Annual Marcum Tech Top 40. The event, sponsored by the Connecticut Technology Council and Marcum LLP, highlighted forty of the fastest growing companies in the state that have had substantial revenue growth over the past four years.
Matthew Nemerson is the CEO and President of the Connecticut Technology Council.
These aren't just the forty fastest growing companies, these are forty fastest companies broken into six different categories. But what's important here is we're able to look at the leaders in different industries because these are the key industries of the future.
And Nemerson says that looking to the future and supporting these tech companies is vital for the state to have a position in a global market.
When you watch these companies, you are watching the economy changing.......And the truth is, in economic development we often are forced to spend a lot of time trying to preserve companies that were great and were very important, and that's important, but it's also important to be looking at the future and to make sure that we're competitive.
The six industries recognized were Advanced Manufacturing, Energy and Environmental Technologies, IT Services, Life Sciences, Software, and the winning category, New Media/Internet and Telecom.
Robert Friedland is CEO of Proton Onsite. He was one of the companies recognized in the Energy and Environmental Technologies category.
Renewable energy is great but the wind doesn't always blow and the sun doesn't always shine when you need the power so, energy storage is a global problem...
Now in their 16th year, the company is committed to storing and moving renewable energy.
Hydrogen is one of the methods that you can use to store that energy and essentially shift it to a time when you need it and convert it back to electricity or use it as a fuel.
And just as any good idea starts with finding a solution to problem, Giovanni Tomassi started his company, RSL Fiber Systems, with the idea that there are more innovative and safer options for lighting.
We started with a product that did not exist before – and we introduced it to the US Navy to solve some real life problems with conventional lighting.
The company works with fiberoptic illumination and one of their main clients is the US Navy. Tomasi says that his company is finding that their products are also gaining traction in new markets.
I believe that as we show what our fiberoptic lighting can do to an end user, they are coming up with applications we didn't even think of....We're really solving critical problems such as maintenance, such as fitting lights, lights are an afterthought on a navy ship, but fitting it next to all the electronic equipment....and we are being viewed now by our key customer, the US Navy, as a problem solver, the go -to company when there's a problem – let's call the RSL team.
This year's overall winner – Connecticut's fastest growing tech company – is iSend LLC from Middlebury, Connecticut. The company offers users the ability to transfer money and make electronic payments for various purchases across the globe in real time.
We've found phenomenal people here in the state with skills that you could put up against, you know, anybody in the world.
That's iSend CEO Steve Labella. He says that along with a highly qualified team, his success comes as a result of being in the right place at the right time.
We caught the market that we're in, of course we have competitors now, but we caught it at the right time so we've been able to grow in a market that's global.
The other Connecticut companies to win in their respective category were: RSL Fiber Systems, FuelCell Energy, Datto, Alexion Pharmaceuticals, and eVariant.
For WNPR, I'm Sarah Miner.
