Strikingly Effective

Note: I heard Sarah Evans, Sevans Strategy (#4) recently at the Free State Social in Lawrence. She is contagious. Her savvy in all things PR and her focus on new media has earned her a spot on Entrepreneur's 10 Hot Startups. Congrats @prsarahevans! -Jill

10 Hot Startups

Why these independents made us say 'Wow!' Learn how yours can, too.
Entrepreneur's StartUps - June 2010


A "hot" startup company isn't the entrepreneurial equivalent of a winning lottery ticket. Probe a bit beneath the surface, and what you'll find is a combination of creativity, determination, hard work, great products and services--not to mention a strategy that produces rapid growth. They are the companies that capture the hearts and minds of their potential customers and, with them, that indispensable thing called market share. They're invariably run by men or women with an eye for sustainability--and expansion. The list runs the gamut of sectors. Some have venture capital money behind them; most were bootstrapped. Some are service companies. A few are manufacturers. Others are retailers. And while we routinely receive news of hot startups, and it's usually impossible to compare apples to oranges--or in the case of this list, apps to beer--these 10 independents, with their fast-paced success and future potential, are the ones that made even our seasoned staff and contributors say, "Wow!"


1. Cigar City Brewery
Tampa, Fla.
Founded: 2007
Self-described "beer geek and home brewer" Joey Redner had been around craft breweries for years. He had worked for both a craft beer brewery and an importer. He wrote a column about craft beer for the St. Petersburg Times. And, all the while, he thought about what it would be like to run his own enterprise. In a city the size of Tampa, it was only a matter of time before someone opened up a local craft brewery--and in 2007, he decided to be the one to do so. Using local flavors like guava and high-end ingredients, Cigar City Brewery's brews are more expensive, but have caught on far beyond the Tampa city limits. "We have a great demand in the northeast. People from Philadelphia were calling their relatives in Tampa and asking them to get our beer," says Redner. Launching a beer company is no easy task, but those thirsty customers have driven up brewing volume tremendously: The company sold about 1,000 barrels in 2009. By the end of the first quarter of 2010, it had already exceeded that threshold and was on pace to sell more than that per quarter throughout the year, marking more than a 400 percent growth in 12 months.


2. VeryMeri
Encino, Calif.
Founded 2006
Whenever first-grade teacher Meri Zeiff saw one of her students wearing a shirt that said, "Spoiled Brat" or something similarly negative, it bothered her. After years of listening to her daughter gripe about the same pet peeve--and her desire to start her own company with positive T-shirts for kids--her mother handed over $2,500 and told her to do something about it. That something was the launch of her T-shirt company, VeryMeri. In addition to creating kid-power T-shirts--sentiments include "Peace, Dude," "I'm a lucky ducky," and "Imagine"--she also donates a percentage of her profits to charity. Now, the company takes submissions for T-shirt designs to be voted on by the public. Each winning designer has his or her T-shirt produced and 3 percent of profits from the sales of those shirts go to a designer-chosen nonprofit. More than $50,000 has been donated to various charities so far.  Do the math.


3. Smule
Palo Alto, Calif.
Founded: 2008
As the app world explodes, one of its perennial hit-makers is Smule (aka Sonic Mule), the iPhone application developer responsible for popular mobile phone apps like "I am T-Pain." "Ocarina," and "Magic Piano." Founders Jeff Smith and Ge Wang, both tech company veterans, have grown the company fast, landing nearly $12 million in hard-to-get venture capital in two rounds over the past year, allowing them to invest in more people, more infrastructure and more app development. Smith says Smule has "three gigantic things in the hopper now," presumably apps, although he declines to specify. The company is also building the "Sonic Network," a cloud network of its application users, which allows users to connect with each other through the network. Smith suspects it will ultimately be a building block for the company, uniting users.


4. Sevans Strategy
Elgin, Ill.
Founded: 2009
When Vanity Fair magazine calls and wants to feature you as a leader in your field of expertise, it's a good day. That's what happened to Sarah Evans, founder of Sevans Strategy, a new media and public relations consultancy. In the six months since she founded her business, Sarah has landed a beefy six-figure client roster that includes Fox News Chicago, Fox Corporate, Qmobius and Radio Shack. Evans is a highly prolific tweeter and Facebook participant, using social media and public relations as part of the counsel she provides to her clients. In addition, she's become a prolific speaker on social media topics, boosting her notoriety and spurring her projected 120 percent growth in 2010 alone, including the hire of three full-time employees.

Go to full article for rest of list http://www.entrepreneur.com/magazine/entrepreneursstartupsmagazine/2010/june/207004.html