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1.ElevateHome
A former furniture designer for Pottery Barn, Edgar Blazona, 35, is owner and CEO of a children’s-furniture firm called ElevateHome. Blazona depends on two factories - one in Thailand and one in India - for all of ElevateHome’s wares.
2.South West Trading
Jonelle Raffino’s family-owned startup, South West Trading (soysilk.com), had stirred up demand for its line of yarns made from bamboo, corn and soy fibers, but Raffino couldn’t supply it fast enough.
3.YakPak
Stephen Holt founded YakPak - a company that makes messenger bags, backpacks, and totes - in 1988, but despite a growing client base of hip urbanites, his firm was not living up to its potential.
4.Bulbs.com
A Worcester, Mass., online retailer of light bulbs and fixtures, has seen its revenue grow by 50 percent annually for the past three years.
5.Efficient Forms
David Kenney won the sale for his small company, Efficient Forms, whose software automates the process of filling out forms for companies such as big insurers.
6.China Manufacturing Network
China Manufacturing Network (sourceglobally.com), a ten-employee firm in Irvine, Calif., draws on 90 factories in China, Malaysia and Singapore to produce such esoteric devices as the lens housings of industrial lasers.
7.Carlisle Wide Plank Floors
When Carlisle Wide Plank Floors launched its new Web site last spring, the phone stopped ringing. Normally that would be a bad sign. For 40 years, Carlisle had relied primarily on print advertisements to generate calls to its toll-free number. It hadn’t been a particularly efficient practice in recent years; the wood-flooring company, based in Stoddard, N.H., kept increasing its ad budget just to maintain the same number of leads.
8.Carrot Ink
For years Carrot Ink, a Dallas-based online retailer of printer cartridges, treated its Web site design like a guessing game
