Inc. Magazine

Founded in 1979 and acquired in 2005 by Mansueto Ventures LLC, Inc. is the only major brand dedicated exclusively to owners and managers of growing private companies, with the aim to deliver real solutions for today’s innovative company builders.

A Window Onto America

Introduction to the Inc. 500 • What It Takes Gallup has identified 10 traits that best characterize entrepreneurs. In an exhaustive survey, Inc. and Gallup zeroed in on founders from this year’s Inc. 5000 who best embody them.

HOW THE 2018 INC. 500 COMPANIES WERE SELECTED

Inc. 500 2018’s All-Star Entrepreneurs

In the Field • International shipping lanes. Downtown parties. Rural radio towers. The Inc. 500 travels—and connects—the world.

HOW YOU GOT HERE AND WHERE YOU’RE GOING • Talent is everything. Venture capital isn’t. And now that Inc. 500 founders’ companies are skyrocketing into the stratosphere, what comes next and what most worries them?

HE REMADE HIS UGLY DUCKLING OF A COMPANY INTO A SWAN • Brad Hollister had an idea to revolutionize the excruciatingly complex world of shipping logistics. Then a call with his top customer made him realize he was going about it all wrong. Hollister had two kids and had already burned through his savings and retirement plan, and he had to scramble to find another idea for his business. What he came up with seems to be working out pretty well.

PUT A RING ON IT

The Illusion of Agreement • Your teams assume they’re talking about the same thing—until they realize they’re not.

FITNESS   WARRIORS • Annoyed by her lousy yoga class experience, Sarah Larson Levey created Y7 Studio. She’s part of the upward-facing boutique fitness movement.

THEIR FORMULA FOR SUCCESS? BEING WAY TOO AMBITIOUS • They met on a jet in 1998. He was an assistant professor in Oklahoma with a PhD in sociology. She had a PharmD and a job in big pharma. The chemistry between Eddilisa Martin and Marcus Martin was instant; they married a year later. Their entrepreneurial offspring is 2M Research, a health care–focused research and consulting firm.

SWEET DREAMS

Beware the Optimism Trap • Many young firms, including Tesla, struggle with deadlines. You have to get real about setting production schedules.

DISCOVERING THE BEAT OF A BUSINESS • Matt Fiedler was a product manager at a tech startup when he and his roommate, Tyler Barstow, had a very analog idea for a company: vinyl records. In 2013, they launched Vinyl Me, Please, now an e-commerce site that, for $29 a month, sends curated records to subscribers, from the vintage (Black Sabbath’s Paranoid) to the obscure (Watch Out! by 1970s Zimbabwean band Wells Fargo). But, in 2015, Fiedler made miscalculations that led him to an emotional breakdown—and the near-unraveling of his business.

POLITICS AND PRAGMATISM • We’re in a time of uniquely polarized politics. But the responses of Inc. 500 entrepreneurs to our questions about American politics and business show a preference for pragmatism over ideology—and a strong independent streak. (For starters: Check out which presidential candidates Inc. 500 all-stars said they would vote for in 2020.)

A SUPERFOOD GROWS PROSPERITY IN AFRICA

WIN THE BREAKUP HOW TO BUY OUT A PARTNER AND SAVE YOUR BUSINESS

A SHOT IN THE DARK

DIAGNOSIS: THE SCRUBS MARKET IS COMATOSE. THE CURE? ADD FASHION AND FUNCTION • Trina Spear first discovered the sleepy but lucrative scrubs market when she did a private equity deal for a large U.S. scrubs maker. Then a mutual friend introduced her to Heather Hasson, a fashion designer who was working on scrub designs that featured high-tech fabrics and trendy silhouettes. The two started Figs, the first e-commerce site to sell scrubs directly to consumers. They weren’t the only ones who saw a smart idea—early investors...