By Will Anderson Digital Editor, Austin Business Journal
Austin is known as a haven for entrepreneurs. That was definitely on display when a national magazine highlighted the companies that best exemplify the attributes needed to succeed.
Entrepreneur magazine on Tuesday unveiled its annual list of the most entrepreneurial companies in the country and the Texas capital made a strong showing with 11 winners. That was the most of any single city in Texas, although the Dallas-Fort Worth region had a total of 14 honorees. Houston had five, San Antonio had one and Waco had one.
In choosing the winners, Entrepreneur said it looked for companies that “excel in expertly balancing impact, innovation, growth and leadership by way of grit, perseverance and passion.”
The 11 Austin companies named to the list:
- Freight Motion Inc., a logistics company
- eRelevance Corp., which has developed a software platform to help small businesses with marketing
- MeetEdgar, maker of a social media scheduling tool
- Mighty, a digital product agency
- SparkCognition Inc., a rapidly growing artificial intelligence company that uses machine learning to predict when and where cyberattacks will occur
- Nulo Pet Food Inc., which makes low-carb, grain-free dog and cat food and is one of Austin’s fastest-growing companies
- MKS2 LLC, a consultancy advising the federal government on cybersecurity and other issues — and a Fast 50 winner this year
- Fons PR, a public relations firm that represents many clients in creative field such as music, film, television, food and video games
- Telestax Inc., a maker of software for internal communication at at telecommunications companies
- TurnKey Vacation Rentals Inc., which operates a short-term home rental platform
- FlashParking, which makes parking payment machines.
Entrepreneur magazine said it only considered privately owned U.S. businesses with at least one founder still involved in operations.
