Chattanooga’s Text Request ranked #62 on “The America’s Fastest-Growing Companies”
For the second day in a row, we are spotlighting an accomplishment by a fairly new Chattanooga company. Yesterday, it was Skuid and its growth as well as new product offerings. Today, it is Text Request, founded in 2014 and, as its name implies, focused on helping businesses use text messaging to “ignite customer engagement.”
The company has just been ranked by Financial Times as #62 on the newspaper’s third annual list of “The America’s Fastest-Growing Companies.” The ranking, compiled by Statista, is based on a company’s compound annual growth rate between 2017 and 2020. More important, it marks the third recognition of the company in the past year. Text Request placed #335 on the most recent “Inc. 5000” list and #108 on the latest Deloitte Fast 500 list.
We asked Brian Elrod (pictured right), Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, about the importance of the recognition. “We’re pleased to be listed. It gives current employees a sense of accomplishment,” he told us, adding that there are also benefits as Text Request recruits future employees.
In that vein, we asked Elrod about employee recruitment in the era of the “Great Resignation” and the virtual world in which many tech companies now operate as a result of COVID-19. “Our employees were mostly here before the pandemic, and they still are,” he said, but acknowledged that the competition for some positions is now global.
“We seem to always find the people we need,” Elrod added. “Chattanooga is a good base and a desirable place to live.”
In terms of the future, he described himself as a “one-year guy. I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the future (beyond 12 months).” Instead, Elrod says he’s focused on being profitable, sustainable, and a desirable company to work for.”
