From Deseret News archives:
Provo No. 1 in ideas
Magazine ranks city at top for flourishing private companies
The magazine lists its "Inc. 500" — the nation's fastest-growing private businesses — and includes a story about Provo, which by Inc.'s reckoning has the most such companies per capita.
"Provo is an entrepreneurial hotbed," said Rod Kurtz, a reporter at Inc. magazine. "For the size that it is, it's got more entrepreneurs than most areas."
The Provo area averages 18.4 such companies per million residents. Trenton, N.J., is a distant second with 11.3 companies per million residents.
Why so many successful companies in the Provo area? Experts say it's all because of Brigham Young University.
"Cities with a lot of college students in the area are always trying to retain the talent pool," Kurtz said. "You've got young, energetic, often bright college kids who eventually graduate. The question is, 'Where do they go after graduation?'
"In cities like Philadelphia and Boston, there is a fear on the part of city officials that the talented young minds are going to get up and leave. In Provo it doesn't seem to be as much of the case."
Provo-based United Underwriters Insurance was ranked No. 18 overall on the Inc. 500 list. The company experienced 5,657 percent sales growth in the past five years. Chuck Westover, the company's vice president, said United Underwriters has at least doubled its revenues each year since it opened five years ago.
The high ranking in a national magazine helps solidify United Underwriters' position, Westover said. Provo has been a good city to work with, he said.
"I think it is a good place to do business. It's a college town, it's easy to find, and there's a good-quality educated workforce because we draw from a lot of the BYU students," he said.
Bright young minds are numerous in Provo, with 60 percent of the population between the ages of 15 and 34. But Provo Mayor Lewis Billings said the city doesn't deserve any of the credit for the high ranking.
"The real credit goes to BYU," Billings said. "We're fortunate to have a very outstanding university that's a part of our community. This is just another great example of the value of BYU in the Provo community."
To be eligible for the Inc. 500 list, a company must be an independent, privately held corporation, have had sales of at least $200,000 in 1998 and at least six months in operation, and have had an increase in 2002 sales over 2001 sales.
Other Provo-area companies listed in the Inc. 500 list include SafeHome Security at No. 162; MyFamily.com at No. 163, Wolf Electronix at No. 164, Cafe Rio at No. 172 and Omniture at No. 185.
"I'm high on this community, but it's great to have someone else see it and recognize it," Billings said. "The real key is not necessarily what people say, but what is real. And the real fact is we do have very creative and very entrepreneurial kinds of people in fairly significant abundance here."
Other Utah companies on the listing include 4 Life Research of Sandy at No. 15, Ikano Communications of Salt Lake City at No. 40, Skate Center Locating of Salt Lake City at No. 141, and Back to Basics Products of Bluffdale at No. 232.
E-mail: ldethman@desnews.com
