Appcore tops list of companies in Five Elms Capital’s first Flyover 50

Appcore, a Des Moines-based provider of cloud computing infrastructure, topped the list of companies recognized as part of the inaugural Flyover 50, an effort by Five Elms Capital to recognize the 50 fastest-growing companies in the middle of the country. All told, the Flyover 50 includes 11 companies based in the geographic area covered by…

Appcore, a Des Moines-based provider of cloud computing infrastructure, topped the list of companies recognized as part of the inaugural Flyover 50, an effort by Five Elms Capital to recognize the 50 fastest-growing companies in the middle of the country.

All told, the Flyover 50 includes 11 companies based in the geographic area covered by Silicon Prairie News (parts of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska). The list was compiled by Five Elms Capital, a venture capital and private equity firm located in Prairie Village, Kan.

“We created the Flyover 50 to highlight great companies in the middle of the country for potential employees and customers,” Fred Coulson, the managing partner of Five Elms Capital, said in a press release. “Flyover 50 honorees are proof that there are plenty of reasons to land in the central U.S.”

Companies had to apply or be nominated to be considered for the Flyover 50, which was determined based on percentage of revenue growth. To qualify for consideration, companies had to be based in a 20-state area in the middle of the country and have revenue of greater than $1 million in 2011. All revenue and growth figures used in Flyover 50 applications were kept confidential. Five Elms Capital declined to disclose the number of entries for the contest. 

Appcore, which was founded in 2008, has grown from five employees last year to 35 today, and Appcore CFO Jeff Tegethoff said the company expects to have 50 people on board by year’s end. “We’ll continue to invest and expand in Des Moines,” Tegethoff said today in a phone interview.

Tegethoff said Appcore’s spot atop the Flyover 50 serves as welcome recognition of the company’s recent accomplishments and provides valuable exposure for attracting investment and talent. “One, it’s obviously validation of what we’ve been working so hard on since January 2008, when Brian Donaghy, our CEO, founded the company,” Tegethoff (left) said.

“I really feel like the difference between wealth and wreckage here is our ability to access capital, and … we feel a lot of the value we create is in our talent that we have,” he added. “So the ability to further recruit and retain great talent, but then the increased visibility as it relates to raising capital and creating valuation, is what we see as the most important.”

The inaugural Flyover 50 honorees will be recognized at an awards ceremony at the Association for Corporate Growth’s Mid-America Corporate Growth Conference on Thursday in Kansas City, Mo.

The complete Flyover 50 is listed below. Companies based in SPN’s coverage region appear in bold with links to their websites. 

  1. Appcore – Des Moines
  2. Motivity Solutions – Denver, Colo.
  3. Brightbox – Houston
  4. InQuicker – Nashville, Tenn.
  5. VeteranCorps – O’Fallon, Ill.
  6. Mill Haven Foods – New Lisbon, Wis.
  7. Kutenda – Denver
  8. Twentyseven Global – Overland Park, Kan.
  9. Dancin’ Dogg Golf – Traverse City, Mich.
  10. C&J Energy Services – Houston
  11. Onsite Occupational Health & Safety – Princeton, Ind.
  12. Marketplace Homes – Livonia, Mich.
  13. BidPal – Indianapolis, Ind.
  14. MentorMate – Minneapolis
  15. ebQuickstart – Austin, Texas
  16. TEKPROS – Plano, Texas
  17. Catapult International – Lenexa, Kan.
  18. Tarsus CFO Services – Kansas City, Mo.
  19. Gorilla Commerce – Chicago
  20. Abstrakt Marketing Group – St. Louis
  21. Rise Interactive – Chicago
  22. Great Northern Building Products – Louisville, Ky.
  23. Red Arrow Labs – Milwaukee
  24. Sun King Brewing Company – Indianapolis
  25. Aspen Contracting – Lee’s Summit, Mo.
  26. Justin’s – Boulder, Colo.
  27. LeanDog – Cleveland, Ohio
  28. Viverae – Dallas
  29. Eating Recovery Center – Denver
  30. Enviro Clean Products & Services – Yukon, Okla.
  31. The Grand River – Ann Arbor, Mich.
  32. AXYS Industrial Solutions – Houston
  33. Velociti – Kansas City, Kan.
  34. The Whitestone Group – Columbus, Ohio
  35. Bill Bartmann Enterprises – Tulsa, Okla.
  36. The Nerdery – Minneapolis
  37. MobileDemand – Hiawatha, Iowa
  38. Structura – Austin, Texas
  39. MMY Consulting – Indianapolis
  40. FTS International – Fort Worth, Texas
  41. mPay Gateway – Minneapolis
  42. Sonic Equipment Company – Iola, Kan.
  43. ITWC – Malcom, IA
  44. Innovative-IDM – Carrollton, Texas
  45. Pallas Partners – Louisville, Ky.
  46. Genova Technologies – Cedar Rapids, Iowa
  47. Kinnser Software – Austin, Texas
  48. Proforma Promotionally Yours – Kansas City, Kan.
  49. Search Influence – New Orleans
  50. Sightline Health – Bellaire, Texas
For more on the Flyover 50, see our March story introducing the contest: “Five Elms Capital seeks fastest-growing companies for Flyover 50“.
 

Credits: Photo of Tegethoff from appcore.com

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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