We are proud to share that we have been named to the Inc. 5000 for the third time, ranking No. 3,424 on the 2026 list of the fastest-growing private companies in America.
Inc. ranks companies by revenue growth across a three-year period. Ours grew 84% between 2022 and 2025. Past honorees include Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, Chobani, and Patagonia.
We first made the list in 2019 at No. 4,841, then again in 2024 at No. 3,921. Moving up with each appearance means a lot to us, and it tells us the work we have put in is paying off.
BizStream started in 2001 as Schmidt Technologies. This October marks 25 years in business, which makes this recognition especially rewarding.
Our growth has come from projects that turn into long-lasting partnerships, and deep experience in the platforms our clients run on.
None of that came quickly. In the beginning, the whole company was two computers on a single folding table. We worked out of borrowed space at another tech firm, and some days an apartment in Grand Rapids. Our first major client, a leading manufacturer of audience seating, needed a custom intranet portal to manage internal information and communications. It was a big problem for a shop our size, and taking it on shaped what we became good at.
Getting from there to here took a while. Portals turned into complex websites. We built a couple of products of our own, including YouthCenter in 2009, a juvenile case management system that grew straight out of that first intranet project. A year later we became a Kentico Gold Partner, which pulled us further into enterprise CMS work and later into Kontent.ai. We brought design in-house, and more recently we acquired Refactored, which added strategy and Storyblok expertise to the mix. See the full timeline.
We’re still at our best turning complex problems into easy solutions. What has widened is the range of what we bring to that work, with strategy, discovery, content, and design alongside development.
AI is the change we are most excited about right now, as our own work shifts toward helping clients figure out where it is useful, where it is not, and what it takes to put it to work.
We're 25 years old, and we still work like a nimble startup, just with the structure of a mature company behind it. Some of our clients have been with us for most of those 25 years because we treat them like partners, not accounts. And our team solves whatever gets thrown at it. You don't hear people around here saying "we can't do that." We thrive on change, and there's a lot of it in our industry right now with AI. A lot of businesses are scared of it or unsure what to do with it. Not BizStream. We're jumping in, and we're leading on how to use AI, not just for ourselves but with our clients. Twenty-five years in, I still look forward to coming to work every day, and that comes down to this team. We're not done climbing.
Twenty-five years covers a financial crisis, a pandemic, the shift to mobile, the move to the cloud, and now AI. We have made it through all of it on determination and a willingness to adapt, sometimes by choice and sometimes because we had to, and most of all because of the people who stuck around.
Thank you to the clients who keep trusting us with their projects, the partners who make us better at what we do, and the team that has built every bit of it.
Companies on the 2026 Inc. 5000 are ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2022 to 2025. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2022. They must be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, and independent, not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies, as of December 31, 2025. (Since then, some on the list may have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2022 is $100,000; the minimum for 2025 is $2 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons.
Inc. is the leading media brand and playbook for the entrepreneurs and business leaders shaping our future. Through its journalism, Inc. aims to inform, educate, and elevate the profile of its community: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters who are creating the future of business. Inc. is published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, along with fellow leading business publication Fast Company. For more information, visit inc.com.
BizStream is a digital agency focused on brands, websites, and products. We specialize in strategy, custom design, and complex implementations that deliver results and make our customers long-term raving fans. We have extensive experience with a wide range of online tools and technologies, and we’re one of the most respected CMS partners in the world. bizstream.com
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