1. ORABRUSH
Founded 2009 City Provo Employees 15 Industry Dental hygiene Website www.orabrush.com Founder Dr. Bob Wagstaff, 75
What It Is A creator of a tongue-cleaning device designed to extinguish bad breath.
Why It’s Watch-Worthy The real question is, what isn’t watch-worthy about Orabrush? With more than 35 million views on YouTube and more than 270,000 Facebook fans, Orabrush has taken its social media success and created a tangible, multimillion-dollar breath of fresh air.
The Big Break “Our first YouTube video — we had no idea it would lead to where we are today.”
The High Point “We’ve sold more than a million Orabrushes now, and I just get a kick out of knowing we’re helping people and educating them on bad breath.”
The Low Point“Knowing we had a great product but not being able to get it to market.”
Best Bootstrapping Moment “In the beginning, my wife and I did everything — mailing, packaging, customer service calls — all right from our home and garage. It was overwhelming.”
The Advice“If you really believe in your product and have good reason to believe it’s going to be a success, stick with it. You’ll find a way to make it work.”
In 2015 “A recognized leader in our industry.”
2. FOUR FOODS GROUP
Founded 2008 City Highland Employees 221 Industry Food/Retail Website www.fourfoodsgroup.com Founder Andrew K. Smith, 35
What It Is A restaurant management and investment company specializing primarily in the fast casual dining industry.
Why It’s Watch-WorthyAfter the success Four Foods Group has had with the Kneaders brand (our No. 27 Fastest-Growing Company this year), restaurants wanting to expand will be aligning themselves with this expertly led company.
The Big Break “Having a fantastic 2010 in sales, making 2011 look even better for new growth!”
The High Point “Being able to find a supportive financing arm with Bank of American Fork, as well as having extremely benevolent and excited investors to continue our growth curve year over year.”
The Low Point “The amount of mental, emotional, office and manual labor required to get the company to this point so far. It has been rough … but that is what it takes to make any business succeed right now.”
Best Bootstrapping Moment “Multiple employees working from my home office for the past two years while preserving the company money to reinvest into the future. Working around the family is rewarding … but hard. We finally moved into our new offices in February! We are so excited.”
The Advice “Stick to one thing, and give it all you got — even when you want to quit. Focus. Execute. And be passionate about what you’re doing.”
In 2015“Twenty-six Kneaders Bakery & Café restaurants operating in the western United States, grossing more than $55 million in sales a year.”
3. STUBTOPIA.COM
Founded 2008 City Spanish Fork Employees 5 Industry Live event ticketing Website www.stubtopia.com Founder Dallen Allred, 23
What It Is A secondary-market ticketing website.
Why It’s Watch-Worthy A winner of a number of business competitions, Stubtopia.com has lived up to its winning name by becoming a million-dollar business and a go-to site for ticket takers.
The Big Break“We’re still hoping for that.”
The High Point “Being chosen as the No. 1 Student-run business in Utah for 2010.”
The Low Point “A couple weeks every mid-December and mid-April (finals week).”
Best Bootstrapping Moment “A roommate and I ran Stubtopia from our shared bedroom at our BYU apartment for the first year and a half. We would have customers from the East Coast begin calling at 5 a.m., which would drive all our other roommates nuts. We had a good time closing out thousand dollar orders in our pajamas.”
The Advice “Find a mentor, and don’t be afraid to ask questions about stuff you don’t know. (Everything.)”
In 2015 “It’s hard to say. There is so much opportunity in our industry and so much disruption.”
4. CREXENDO
Founded 2009 City Orem Industry Online marketing Website www.crexendo.com Founders David McCoy; Clint Sanderson
What It Is A Web marketing services company.
Why It’s Watch-Worthy Armed with experienced, solid leadership, stellar products and free public training, Crexendo has made a big splash in a small timeframe.
5. GROSOCIAL
Founded 2009 City Provo Employees 7 Industry Social media/Marketing Website www.grosocial.com Founders Zach Mangum, 27; Kevin Kirkland, 29; Chris Wright, 35
What It Is A developer of three Web-based social media marketing applications that help businesses acquire new customers.
Why It’s Watch-WorthyIts social media apps (SuggestThis, Swap and Customizer) are gaining excellent traction with more than 2,000 businesses worldwide using them (including Diapers.com and Energizer). What’s more, the company is striking while the social media iron is hot.
The Big Break “Closing our initial round of seed capital from an awesome investor.”
The High Point “Watching our flagship product grow by 258 percent in Q4 2010.”
Best Bootstrapping Moment “Meeting a potential partner for lunch and having to tell him we were doing a ‘cleanse’ and wouldn’t be eating, when the real reason was because the debit card’s balance was too low. This doubles as our ‘low point!’”
The Advice “If you wouldn’t use and pay for your product or service, don’t assume anyone else will.”
In 2015 “A leading provider of enterprise-level social media marketing software.”
6. PROPERTY23
Founded 2008 City Orem Employees 70 Industry Real estate Website www.property23.com Founder Sean Whalen, 32
What It Is A turn-key property investment company.
Why It’s Watch-Worthy When you’re making more than $20 million in sales after just two years of business, you’re watch-worthy. And doing it in a real estate market that’s less than ideal? We’ve got our eyes peeled.
The Big Break “Turning the management over to my partner, Jon Day. One of the hardest things I’ve ever done in business, but the best decision I have ever made — and one of the main reasons we’ve grown.”
The High Point“Hearing from employees how much they love working with our company.”
The Low Point “Being around people who have no vision and no loyalty.”
Best Bootstrapping Moment“We travel a lot. When Jon has any input with travel arrangements, he chooses the smallest and least-expensive car. Have you seen how hard it is to fit four sets of golf clubs, four suitcases and four, six-foot-and-taller guys into a Ford Focus? Needless to say, Jon is no longer allowed to book rental cars.”
The Advice “Never ever get offended when you ask a question and get an answer you don’t like. If you ask, be prepared to learn.”
In 2015 “I see P23 buying and selling more residential investment property than any other company in America. I also see more golf in 2015.”
7. FROGHAIR
Founded 2008 City Provo Employees 6 Industry Ad-specialty/premium incentives Website www.froghair.com Founders Curtis Blair, 43; Richard Christiansen, 46
What It IsA provider of corporate awards and gifts.
Why It’s Watch-Worthy With impeccable leadership at its helm (the founders have started upwards of 30 businesses — many of them multimillion dollar operations), Froghair, which already represents more than 150 well-known American brand-name products, will become a leader of its industry thanks to an emphasis on “meaningful and motivating” corporate gifts.
The Big Break “When the first zig zag zig (three progression steps for the business) were mapped out on a dinner napkin.”
The High Point“When the team was assembled and everyone jumped into Froghair full-time.”
The Low Point “Managing cash flow associated with growth.”
Best Bootstrapping Moment “When we came up with $240,000 in 24 hours.” (Editor’s Note: OK. Wow.)
The Advice“Fail efficiently.”
In 2015“Working on the business not in the business — diversified into three revenue streams.”
8. MALAWI’S PIZZA
Founded 2010 City Provo Employees 43 Industry Dining Founders Blake Roney, 52; Kent Anderson, 42
What It Is A pizza restaurant with a philanthropic cause — for every meal sold the restaurant donates a dollar to the country of Malawi.
Why It’s Watch-Worthy Combine delicious pizza with a charitable mission, and you may just have the greatest thing since sliced pizza.
9. NETHOSTING
Founded 2009 City Orem Employees 4 Industry Web hosting Website www.nethosting.com Founders Lane Livingston, 38; J. Lee Livingston, 41
What It IsA provider of Cloud hosting and storage options.
Why It’s Watch-WorthyAs a sister company to Fibernet Corp., this business has all the right leadership, all the right tools, all the right customers (including Cisco, Dell, HP and Intel) and all the right gumption to go very, very far.
The Big Break“We could not have done it without Fibernet Corp.”
The High Point “Launching the new site and having customers sign up for hosting with almost no effort.”
The
Low
Point“Several months after the launch of the new website, we discovered 99 percent of all the hosting accounts that had been setup were paid for with stolen credit cards.”
Best
Bootstrapping
Moment “We launched the new company without any debt or equity financing.”
The
Advice “A good business will not succeed long term without principles, fiscal restraint and good people.”
In
2015“We’ll be one of the top three Cloud hosting providers — NetHosting.com, Amaz
10. LUMOS, INC.
Founded 2008
City Orem Employees 10
Industry Sports medicine Website www.kttape.com Founders Reed Quinn, 30; Ryan Dewey, 35; John Mackay, 52; Jim Jenson, 39
What
It
Is A designer, developer and distributor of sports medicine products.
Why
It’s
Watch-WorthyWith its flagship product, KT Tape, sticking with top athletes like Kerri Walsh, Mike Bridges and the TeamUSA WaterPolo team, and with a presence in more than 3,000 retails locations in the United States, we have no doubt Lumos, Inc. will be glued to athletes for years to come.
The
High
Point “Interacting with our customers. Our product really enables people who are sitting on the sidelines because of injuries to get back to doing what they love. We love to read and listen to the success stories from our fans.”
The
Low
Point“Making trade-offs because of budget constraints.”
Best
Bootstrapping
Moment “Our first office was a 600-square-foot retail space between the UPS Store and Pier 49 on University Avenue in Provo. We could only fit a couple pallets of product in the space, and that was if we stacked product around, on top of and beneath our desks. At one point we had product taking up every usable space except for a two-foot aisle. When we shipped out product we would label cartons and build pallets on the sidewalk in front of Pier 49 Pizza where they would sit until a truck came to pick them up. Ultimately, a visit from the fire marshal convinced us we needed a new office.”
The
Advice “Don’t wait until everything is perfect before you get your product out in the market. And don’t be afraid to commit before you know exactly how you are going to make it happen.”
In
2015“TOTAL WORLD DOMINATION! Or, maybe just KT Tape recognized as an essential piece of athletic equipment.”
The Startups to Watch list was selected from a pool of applicants that have less than three years of operating history. The winners were determined by BusinessQ’s editorial board.