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Number one among this year's Inc. 5000 Kentucky companies is Louisville e-commerce business, GuardianBaseball. It is a digital retailer supplying baseball and softball gear and emphasizing price and service.

Begun in 2017, GuardianBaseball has a 3-year growth rate of 2,874%, placing it 180th on the Inc. 5000 List.

eBlu Solutions, a Louisville software platform that provides authorization and benefits verification for specialty medications, is no. 2 on the Kentucky list and no. 189 on the Inc. 5000 List. Its 3-year growth rate is 2,769%. Founded in 2012, eBlu Solutions leverages technology for better patient outcomes.

In third place is Lexington software firm Bitwerx, a data-driven company specializing in the veterinary and dental markets. Bitwerx leverages data ‘to improve the customer journey’. With a 1,993% 3-year growth rate, it is 274th on the Inc. 5000 List.

Congratulations to all Kentucky top ranked companies! The below screenshot shows the Louisville winners.

Winners and runners-up in the 2022 Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Companies

BlockFi, a Jersey City, NJ, financial services company ‘bridging the gap between traditional finance and cryptocurrency’, is (was?) the top dog this year with a 245,616% 3-year growth rate. A statement on the BlockFi website says it has filed voluntary cases under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Some say the industry is a Ponzi scheme.

In second place (now first?) is SnapNurse, a tech-enabled health care staffing platform ‘transforming the way nurses are recruited’. Located in Atlanta, Ga., it boasts a 146,319% 3-year growth rate. SnapNurse has “helped facilities across the country by placing thousands of on-demand nurses and allied professionals in as little as 24 hours.”

Third on the Inc. 5000 List is CDL 1000, which provides a ‘one-stop solution from port to door for B2B clients’. Located in Lyons Township (Cook County), Ill., CDL 1000 says that drayage is the most important part of the journey. Drayage is the transport of goods over a short distance in the shipping and logistics industries, often part of a longer overall move, such as from a ship to a warehouse. The company has a 56,135% 3-year growth rate.

Congratulations to all Inc 5000 winners. Visit the Inc.com site to discover the most successful companies in America and what they reveal about the future of business.

Finally! The big winner of the Inc 5000 annual list is an Advertising and Marketing company! Freestar of Phoenix, Az., “works with businesses to build brand awareness, establish marketing campaigns and increase revenue based upon content promotion.”

Their route to the top began with a printed wall calendar…

Not a buzzy new calendar app. Not a life-altering meeting request. A printed wall calendar. One of those relics with pictures of animals or landscapes that we all used to tack up in the kitchen.

This particular calendar—Tempe12—had, well, swimsuit models. Arizona State University co-eds in bikinis, to be exact. "All the girls had to have a minimum 3.0 GPA, so they had beauty and brains," explains Freestar co-founder David Freedman, without a trace of sheepishness. Freedman, who launched the calendar when he was a 22-year-old fifth-year senior at ASU back in 2004, has come a long way since then. But he draws a straight line from that fairly crude start to his current success.

Freestar, you see, sells solutions and services that help publishers make more money online by optimizing their advertising operations.

Read more.