Three Connecticut companies are among the 500 fastest growing businesses in the nation. That’s according to the latest ranking by Inc. magazine.
Inc. publishes this annual ranking of companies, measuring their rate of revenue growth over the past three years. Norwalk’s Datto, a data security company, makes its third appearance in the top 500 at 314 - the highest ranked Connecticut company, with a three-year growth rate of 1,482 percent.
At 464th is Votto Vines, a wine importing business based in Hamden — it's the company’s first time on the Inc 500, and Votto says the first time a wine importer has ever cracked the list. Just five years old, it began with a thousand cases of Italian wine sold out of a back of a Subaru wagon. Vice President of Sales Jeremy Jerome says they now import from all over the world. "A lot of what we have done has just been with smaller boutique vineyards, which is really where our sweet spot is, and what we’re going to continue to do," he said.
Votto is a family affair with the five founders all being siblings, cousins and in-laws. Jerome says before the family came together in 2009 to found the business they had a wide range of experience. "We’re all from different backgrounds. [CEO] Michael [Votto] is a lawyer, there’s an engineer, our CFO is a financial business guy, my brother-in-law Nick [Votto] is a travel and tourism guy, I was in real estate and had a small business in that," he said. "We all loved wine and had a passion for wine, but none of us were directly from the wine industry."
The third business in the 500 is independent electric supplier North American Power based in Norwalk. It’s hired 80 of its 100 employees in the last year alone, although it’s run into some controversy - it currently has a case pending before state regulators over its marketing practices.
This is a relatively light year for Connecticut on the Inc rankings. Last year the state had seven homegrown companies on the fastest growing 500 list.
