eROI Ranks No. 402 on Inc. Magazine's 2007 Inc. 500

NEW YORK, September 6, 2007 – Inc. magazine today ranked eROI No. 402 on its 26^th annual Inc. 500 list of the fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. 

"If you want to find out which companies are going to change the world, look at the Inc. 500," said Inc. Editor Jane Berentson.  "These are the most innovative, dynamic, fast-growth companies in the nation, the ones coming up with solutions to some of our most intractable ills, creating systems that let us conduct business faster and easier, and manufacturing products we soon discover we can’t live without. The Inc. 500 list is Inc. magazine's tribute to American business ingenuity and ambition."

eROI, an interactive agency with powerful email marketing and e-commerce software tools, has recorded such significant growth by truly empowering its customers to become online marketing experts themselves.  eROI's à la carte model lets customers purchase a single service, such as an email template, software, or corporate blog or a portfolio of products, which attracts clients from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies. "From an entrepreneurial standpoint, a lot of our success can be attributed to the tough love, advice, and collaboration of my peers in the Portland startup community," notes eROI CEO Ryan Buchanan.  "eROI has grown as fast as we have because of our unique business model and an incredibly talented group of designers, online marketing strategists, and software innovators."

The 2007 Inc. 500, as revealed in the September issue of Inc. magazine (on newsstands August 28 - October 2), reported aggregate revenue of $16 billion and median three-year growth of 939 percent.  Most important, the 2007 Inc. 500 companies were engines of job growth, having created more than 64,064 jobs since those companies were founded. 

Complete information on this year's Inc. 500, including company profiles and a list of the fastest-growing companies that can be sorted by industry and region can be found at www.inc.com/inc5000.

Hottest Regions for Fastest-Growing Companies

After several years of losing ground to the Washington, D.C., area, California is flush with 90 Inc. 500 companies in 2007, up from 66 last year. Texas is home to 41 of the fastest-growing companies (up by nine), followed by Virginia with 35 (up one company from last year), and New York with 27 (down by seven companies), and Florida with 26 (up one company). 

Washington, D.C., is the top metropolitan area for the fifth consecutive year, with 40 of the fastest-growing companies, down slightly from 43 last year.  New York City is a close second, with 39 (down three companies from last year), followed by San Francisco with 32 (up thirteen companies from last year), Los Angeles with 27 (up two companies), and Boston with 25 (up one company).

Interestingly, finance and advertising--two industries often associated with New York--contributed a quarter of California's total. 

Hottest Industries for Fastest-Growing Businesses

The most notable median growth categories among Inc. magazine’s list of the 500 fastest-growing businesses is in the Environmental Services category (which grew by 1,425.4 percent on average), followed by Food & Beverage (which grew by 1336.8 percent on average), Media (which grew by 1,179 percent on average), Health (which grew by 1,105.5 percent on average), and Telecommunications (which grew by 1,056.5 percent on average). 

The largest business category is IT Services, with 56 Inc. 500 companies in this category.  Advertising & Marketing (48 companies), Human Resources (50 companies), Software (39 companies) and Government Services (38 companies) round out the top five industries ranked on the 2007 Inc. 500.

Industries reporting the highest total revenue from 2003 - 2006 are Health ($3.2 billion), Real Estate ($2.1 billion), Advertising & Marketing ($1.14 billion), Human Resources ($883 million), and Retail ($873.6 million).

Methodology

The 2007 Inc. 500 list measures revenue growth from 2003 through 2006.  To qualify, companies had to be U.S.-based and privately held, independent - not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies - as of December 31, 2006, and have had at least $200,000 in revenue in 2003, and $2 million in 2006.

Companies can apply for next year’s Inc. 500 and Inc. 5,000 by registering with IncBizNet, the new social network for private companies that will launch this fall on Inc.com.

Introducing the Inc. 5,000 - the Inc. 500, Plus 4,500 New Fast-Growing Companies

This year, Inc. expanded the Inc. 500 list tenfold, to create the first-ever Inc. 5,000, the most comprehensive look at the most important segment of the economy - America’s independent-minded entrepreneurs.  Complete results of the Inc. 5,000 can be found at www.inc.com/inc5000, where you can scan profiles of honorees, view lists of the fastest-growing companies by industry and region, and sort the data according to your own parameters.

About Inc. magazine:

Founded in 1979 and acquired in 2005 by Mansueto Ventures, LLC., Inc. magazine (www.inc.com) is the only major business magazine dedicated exclusively to owners and managers of growing private companies that delivers real solutions for today’s innovative company builders.  With a total paid circulation of 681,421, Inc. provides hands-on tools and market-tested strategies for managing people, finances, sales, marketing, and technology.

About eROI

eROI, Inc. helps its clients generate and capture qualified leads online through email marketing, e-commerce, viral marketing, and web development. eROI's unique approach transforms clients' websites into effective vehicles for capturing leads. The company's email campaign management services include planning, email design and email list management and their award-winning technology platform enables clients to build, send and track HTML emails. Clients include Email Experience Council, Hewlett-Packard, InFocus, Kettle Foods, Konami, Microsoft, NW Natural, Ogilvy, PGE, Papa Murphy’s Pizza, Providence Health Plan, SEGA, and Travel Oregon. For more information, please visit our Web site at www.eroi.com.