Four Philadelphia ‘inner-city’ companies called nation’s fastest growing

Stroll’s company mission is nothing short of bold. They want to bring their customers products that are capable of “transforming” their lives.
And the audio-book Web retailer, which saw its revenue triple from 2004 to 2007 and ships mostly self-improvement merchandise, is doing it from 12th and Callowhill.
For that, Stroll is getting some congratulation. Along with three other Philadelphia companies, it was named to the 11th annual Inner City 100, a competitive ranking of the fastest-growing companies located in the “inner city” of a U.S. metropolis, last week. See what constitutes an inner-city here.
Only Denver and Boston, each of which had five companies headquartered there, were better represented. See the complete list here [PDF].
The list comes from the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, a national nonprofit organization founded in 1994 by a Harvard Business School professor. The organization’s mission is to promote economic prosperity in U.S. inner cities through private sector engagement leading to job, income and wealth creation for local residents.
Stroll, ranked 62nd, was accompanied by the following four companies: its Callowhill community neighbor Avencia, the geographic analysis and software development firm that was ranked 13th; East Frankford design collaborator and fabrication company Amuneal, ranked 51, and Perryman Building and Construction Services, which was ranked 94th and is based in West Philadelphia at 45th and Market (help me with what neighborhood that is in the comments below).
The Inner City 100 list has no industry specifications, but from Stroll’s Web base to Avencia’s software development and the high-end design and fabrication of Amuneal and growing sustainable requirements of construction for Perryman, all four of Philadelphia’s representatives could be considered members of our region’s creative economies.

Stroll’s neighbor Avencia, no stranger to Technically Philly, was the highest ranked Philadelphia firm, at 13th. Their five-year compound annual growth from 2003 to 2007 was 647 percent. No decimal point needed.
Philadelphia was better represented than each of the five cities with larger populations, see at right. No New Jersey or Delaware companies were listed.
Other cities represented by multiple businesses include Detroit, Miami, San Diego, Baltimore and Buffalo.
Pennsylvania was the third most decorated state with six company nominations; Philadelphia was helped out by two from Pittsburgh. California was by far the best represented state, with 15 companies, followed by Massachusetts with eight.
Collectively, the 2009 Inner City 100 grew at a compound annual growth rate of 40 percent and an average rate of 324 percent between 2003 and 2007. More than 5,000 nominations for the 2009 list were received. The top 100 have employed nearly 17,000 people and created nearly 10,000 new jobs over the past five years.
See additional facts about the annual list here.