17 Aug

As it opens Austin office, Transfinder makes Inc. 5000 list record 9 years

As it opens Austin office, Transfinder makes Inc. 5000 list record 9 years

It makes list of fastest-growing companies for ninth straight year 

Transfinder, the Schenectady-based transportation software company, is one of 15 privately held companies headquartered in the Capital Region that have made the 2015 Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing companies in the country. 

And while Fingerpaint, a Saratoga Springs marketing firm, topped the list of local companies with revenue growth of more than 350 percent, it is the ninth year in a row that Transfinder made it on the list. That's the longest such streak for any local company. Transfinder actually made the first Inc. 5000 in 2007, and the company has never been left off of it since. The list ranks private companies based on their three-year revenue growth. 

Only two other upstate companies have been on the Inc. 5000 as long as Transfinder. They are Sutherland Global Services of Pittsford in Monroe County and Liberty Pumps of Bergen, Genesee County. 

Transfinder CEO Antonio Civitella says being named to the list isn't easy. Companies must have strong revenue growth over an extended period of time — Transfinder was ranked 4,493 with 58 percent revenue growth to $10 million — and must submit financial data certified by an accountant. 

And it's not free; there is a $150 entry fee. 

"We're proud of our inclusion," Civitella said by phone from Austin, Texas, last week where he was helping the company open and staff a new office. Transfinder sells software that school districts use to schedule and route their school buses. 

Civitella said the biggest reason that he enters the Inc. 5000 every year is to bring recognition to the company's employees who he says are responsible for Transfinder's success. 

"I want them to know that they work for a successful company," Civitella said. 

Texas and New York are Transfinder's two largest markets, one of the reasons Civitella is opening the Austin office. 

He says that inclusion on the Inc. 5000 list is also gratifying because the transportation software business is becoming so much more competitive these days. Growth is no longer a given. 

"Every year is more challenging as the market is maturing," Civitella said. "You have to work hard to keep your clients."