E3 Named Inc. 5000 for Second Straight Year

Byron Elliott

August 12, 2015

Element Three team celebrating Inc. 5000 nomination

Element Three ranked 1,151 on the 2015 Inc. 5000 – marking our second straight year on the list of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. Last year, we ranked 1,433 on the business magazine’s annual listing. Considering only 23% of companies have ever made Inc’s list twice and even fewer have made in two years in a row – we’re pretty pumped!

“What an honor to be included in this prestigious list again. We’ve built an incredibly talented team. And, we have great clients that trust us – and empower us – to do awesome work,” said Element Three President Tiffany Sauder. “We have national B2C, local B2B and everything in between. But they all have one thing in common – they’re committed to growth, and they’re not afraid of taking a risk or two.”

This year, the Inc. 5000 companies are ranked by the percentage growth of their annual revenue (2011 through 2014) and also by industry, metro area, revenue and number of employees.

Element Three experienced three-year growth of 367% according to Inc.

We also grew from 7 to 40 employees over that period. A couple more new E3ers will join us before September. And, if you heard the news coming out of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation a couple weeks ago – we intend to add at least 37 more in the next nine years.

Part of our growth strategy has involved specializing in attitude, not industry. We work with clients across diverse industries who have one thing in common: aggressive growth goals.

“The story of this year’s Inc. 5000 is the story of great leadership. In an incredibly competitive business landscape, it takes something extraordinary to take your company to the top,” says Inc. President and Editor-In-Chief Eric Schurenberg. “You have to remember that the average company on the Inc. 5000 grew nearly six-fold since 2012. Business owners don’t achieve that kind of success by accident.”

Having taken home a National Silver American Advertising Award (ADDY) from Vegas in July for this disruptive direct mail piece, earned a spot again on the Indianapolis Business Journal’s Fast 25 list and announced plans to nearly double the talent in our marketing agency by 2024 – it’s a fun time to be an E3er or a part of our client roster.

But, you won’t see confetti on the floors for long around here. According to a fascinating stat from Launch Fishers’ Fail Fest last year, “93% of Inc 500 companies fail within 5 years. 3% are acquired. 4% survive.”

Our work has just begun. Maintaining this kind of growth trajectory is hard. Scaling any organization is difficult. Yet, it’s happening at Element Three!

We trust our internal team and our clients to demand the best from us and can’t wait to see what’s next!

Byron comes from a family of artists, and he definitely shares their talents. He first learned about interaction design right as he was starting his career out of school, and was blown away by the possibilities—which, for him, translated to work with major brands like the NCAA and Rolls-Royce. Now he works at building amazing end-to-end experiences for Element Three’s clients that mirror how users navigate and what they want at every stage of the buyer’s journey. He also runs a lifestyle brand with his wife, creating bimonthly t-shirt designs under the Blacksheep Collective name.