Oak Park Company Ranks Among Fastest Growing in U.S.

Oak Park-based Siren Interactive is one of the fastest growing companies in the country, according to The Inc. 5000 list of 2013. 

The Inc. 5000 list of 2013's fastest growing companies includes 261 Illinois businesses employing more than 93,000 people. An eclectic array of industries made the list, from a media company for photographer moms and a suburban restaurant and winery chain to traditional insurance companies and construction firms.

Siren Interactive ranks No. 4,939 on the list, with 28 employees and $3.8 million in 2012 revenue, up from $1.8 million in 2009. The company, founded in 1999, provides marketing services focused exclusively on rare disorders, according to Inc. 

"Its services are designed to allow biopharmaceutical clients to use the Internet to establish credible, relationships with patients, caregivers and healthcare professionals through education, support and service." 

Learn more at the Siren Interactive website. 

One might think that Chicago-based firms would dominate the list — and 91 of the businesses call the city of broad shoulders home — but more than half are in the suburbs, with 19 in towns far downstate or well outside the metro area. The suburb with the most firms on the Inc. 5000 list is Schaumburg, with 13, followed by Oak Brook with 10 and Naperville with eight.

In the last three years, 22 of the companies experienced a growth rate over 1,000 percent.

Writes Inc. magazine:

Management author Hermann Simon calls companies like these hidden champions, because they deliver outstanding performance while operating "in the 'hinterland' of the value chain, supplying machinery, components, or processes that are no longer discernible in the final product or service." As such, they are the sinews of our economic physiology. But jobs are also created by the thousands of organizations that constitute the Inc. 5000's customers. ...

The National Center for the Middle Market describes companies such as those on the Inc. 5000 as "model links" in corporate supply chains. ... These businesses make and keep American companies competitive: Within their niches, they are as innovative and service oriented as the most beloved household names. But rather than strategize to build brands, they earn reputations simply by virtue of how well they do what they do. They grow reference by reference until every customer in their markets knows whom to call."