16. Gonzalez Companies
16. Gonzalez Companies
2010 Revenues: $5.5 million
5-year Annual Growth Rate: 59%

CEO:
Anthony Gonzalez-Angel
Location: St. Louis, MO

About the business:
The Gonzalez Companies is a civil engineering and construction management firm that works with city governments and quasi-public agencies like waterworks companies. Founder and CEO Tony Gonzalez, the son of Cuban immigrants, started his company while at college in Chicago and focused on apartment repair and cleaning. After college, the entrepreneur nurtured his fledgling firm (funded with personal savings) while working a day job. Gonzalez still abides by old-fashioned business practices: his firm is not leveraged and is careful to spend only within its means. And every year, the company pays its staff to spend two working days on a joint community project.


The Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) defines inner cities as core urban areas with higher unemployment and poverty rates and lower median incomes than their surrounding metropolitan statistical areas. For the 2012 list, ICIC received more than 2,000 solicited nominations using its database of small businesses and through the support of its nominating partners, including the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Staples, New York City Department of Small Business Services, and the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Companies were ranked by compound annual growth rate (CAGR) based on their revenue over the five-year period between 2006 and 2010, the last year for which complete data was available. This list was audited by the independent accounting firm of Rucci Bardaro and Barrett, PC.
@FortuneMagazine - Last updated May 11 2012: 10:59 AM ET
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