
By Péralte C. Paul
Social123, a Graduate company of the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), has been named to Inc. magazine’s 2015 Inc. 5000 list.
The annual report ranks the 5,000 fastest-growing, privately held companies in the United States.
Social123, which helps its clients identify all the missing or inaccurate records in their databases and enrich it with more than 30 fields of social data, email validation and lead generation, ranked at No. 194. (Two other ATDC Graduate companies, Patientco and WorthPoint, also made the list at Nos. 675 and 4,332, respectively.)
Among the ranking highlights, the magazine noted:
- Three-year growth of 2,144 percent
- 2014 revenue of $2.5 million
- The creation of 16 jobs
Social123, led by Aaron Biddar (pictured), founder and CEO, also is among the fastest-growing private companies in metro Atlanta and Georgia. Inc. ranked the company at No. 11 in both categories.
The recognition, Biddar said, has led to a deluge of emails and telephone calls, more than 100 and 20, respectively.
“It’s created a lot of awareness for Social123, which will help us continue to grow, raise money, and win new customers,” Biddar said. “My email is blowing up with everything from VCs (venture capitalists) to prospective customers to even competitors.”
He credited the company’s success and growth to the coaching and mentorship it received as member of ATDC’s Signature, a highly-intesnsive startup incubation program for technology companies. Those startups accepted into Signature are those judged to be most ready to succeed, attract investors, and grow as independent companies.
“One of the reasons we’re able to do what we do is by being part of the ATDC program, and in particular, the mentorship we received, allowed us to get laser-focused on solving a big problem in the sales acceleration and marketing automation verticals,” Biddar said. “That led us to becoming the fastest-growing software company in Atlanta.”
See Inc.’s full listing here.