Startups

71 Baltimore-area companies made this year’s Inc. 5000

Hunt a Killer is number six on the list. Founded by Ryan Hogan and Derrick Smith, the Baltimore-based company ships murder mysteries straight to your home.

Baltimore's Hunt a Killer is #6 on the 2020 Inc. 5000 list. (Image via twitter.com/huntakillerinc; image has been cropped)

Inc. 5000 unveiled its 2020 list of the fastest-growing privately owned companies in the nation this week, and the Baltimore area is on the rise, as 71 local companies made the list compared to 57 last year.

Hunt a Killer is number six on the list. Founded by Ryan Hogan and Derrick Smith, the Baltimore-based company ships murder mysteries straight to your home. The founders attribute their secret sauce to the authenticity of the product.

“Instead of reading a book or going to the movie theater or watching a television show, this is immersive entertainment that you can touch, feel, and smell,” Hogan told Baltimore magazine in 2018. “People are having a lot of fun. … As long as we’re accomplishing that, everything else will fall into place.”

Last year it was Towson-based Confidio that topped the list among locals at #81. This year, the pharmacy consulting firm rings in at #452.

There were plenty of other familiar faces this time around. Locust Point’s Mindgrub Technologies (#3,813), for instance, is a repeat honoree; we recently covered how designers and developers from the team donated time to build the Maryland Business Relief Wizard helping businesses determine whether they’re eligible for COVID-19 relief programs. And local companies Edwards Performance Solutions (#4,624) and Audacious Inquiry (#4,931) have been showing growth and making Inc. 5000’s list for a decade.

In a press release, Audacious Inquiry CEO Chris Brandt thanked his team and “the importance of — and demand for — connected care” for the continued growth. In April, the Baltimore health IT company launched a new open source project to galvanize data sharing across the agencies seeking to treat and stop the spread of COVID-19.

Here are a few more familiar faces that made the list this year:

Donte Kirby is a 2020-2022 corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The Groundtruth Project that pairs young journalists with local newsrooms. This position is supported by the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation.
Companies: Mindgrub / Alderson Loop / Cadmium / Webmechanix / Motifworks / Inc Magazine / Inc.

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