Growth lands two Chattanooga businesses high on Inc. 5000 list

Two homegrown companies rooted in technology have claimed spots near the top of the Inc. 5000 list of the country's fastest-growing, privately owned businesses.

FreightWaves, a provider of supply chain and logistics data, news and information, debuted on the list at No. 85. Text Request, which builds text messaging software for small businesses, is also on the list for the first time at No. 335.

The 2021 list includes 13 companies in the Chattanooga area - the highest number ever on the annual Inc. list of the fastest growing businesses in America. Seven of the local businesses on this year's list are logistics companies, while six are technology firms.

"We happen to fit in both buckets," said Craig Fuller, founder and CEO of FreightWaves.

FreightWaves also topped the list as the fastest-growing Tennessee-based company, in a year when the pandemic put the supply chain front-and-center across the globe.

"It's so critical to the success of our economy, and since World War II we've never seen this level of disruption," Fuller said. "Our job is to help monitor those things and help companies that are managing and moving freight to better interpret these events with real-time market information."

Staff photo by Tim Barber/ Freightwaves CEO Craig Fuller stands in Freight Alley, the downstairs portion of the 405 Chestnut Street headquarters, in 2019. The business is ranked No. 85 on the Inc. 5000 for 2021.

Founded in 2016, FreightWaves has gone almost fully remote in the last year, with a core team of about 20 people who produce a daily newscast in the downtown Chattanooga office and another 150 employees in Chattanooga and beyond.

"We don't have enough space if we were to go back in the office," Fuller said.

Fuller grew up in the logistics business, and worked for a time at U.S. Xpress, the company founded by his father, Max.

"I knew there was need for information, that the market is pretty opaque," he said. "If you work in the industry, you understand how many interconnected parties and failure points along the supply chain take place every single day."

FreightWaves plans an initial public offering in the next two years, he said.

Text Request, founded in 2014, recently launched a new HIPAA-compliant text messaging service for medical providers. Demand for texting services exploded across industries as the pandemic took hold, said Kenneth Burke, a vice president of marketing for Text Request.

"Text messaging as a business communication channel had been growing anyway, Text Request had been doing the right things and growing anyway, so we were well positioned when all this happened," he said. "Then everyone went remote and companies had to figure out a few things."

Staff photo by Tim Barber/ Text Request founders Brian Elrod and Jamey Elrod, left, with Rob Reagan, chief technology officer, in 2020. The business is ranked No. 335 on the Inc. 5000 for 2021.

The company, which has 24 employees, recently moved into a new downtown headquarters in Jack's Alley on Market Street. The idea for Text Request came in 2011, when spouses and serial entrepreneurs Brian and Jamey Elrod were trying to flag down a busy server in a restaurant so they could leave with their fussy toddler.

"To be recognized as one of the fastest-growing companies in the country is something to celebrate," Brian Elrod said. "But to finish in the top 10 percent is absolutely remarkable."

Contact Mary Fortune at mfortune@timesfreepress.com. Follow her on Twitter at @maryfortune.