Ingram's Magazine July 2022

Corporate Report100

HomeRoom Living

1 st Year

EDZ Systems Gross Revenue: 2021: $6,014,420 2018: $769,154 Growth: 681.953% Average Annual Growth Rate: 227.32% Full-time employees: 8 Law firms, corporate legal departments, government agencies and com mercial businesses turn to EDZ Systems to streamline their operations, maxi mize resources and improve strategic decision-making, leading to increased profitability and productivity. That model earned the company CR100 status in 2020, heading into a pandemic and a reset year. But Elizabeth DeZeeuw has EDZ back in super-charged growth mode, and assisted in 2021 with a project to provide IT and business staffing for the merger of two large communication companies, balancing that with its ongoing support for IT professionals and consultants to public and private companies. EDZ’s client list primarily hails from the transportation, financial services, legal, health care, and state/public-sector sectors. The company is a prime example of the way tech development is changing the nature of the workforce, as it seeks out new hires for software development, cybersecurity engineering and analysis, and, yes, scrum masters. In addition, the company offers consulting services, including financial systems implementations and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance enactment for private companies preparing to become public companies. It’s not easy to ride the fast-growth stallion to three consecutive Top 10 finishes in the Corporate Report 100, but Randy Klindt has the reins firmly in his grasp and is applying the spurs yet again at Conexon. With its special focus on telecom services in rural areas, this Kansas City company offers a broad array of fiber broadband services, including network construction management, fiber splic ing and distribution design, turnkey marketing services, network operations, and call-center customer support. Clients are primarily members of rural electric cooperatives. The Conexon Connect sub sidiary, founded in 2021, operates the network as an Internet service provider to bring multi-gig fiber broadband to those outlying areas. Relying on new products and services, the company has assisted dozens of electric cooperatives with the construction and operation of fiber networks. Conexon Connect, in particular, has created new growth possibilities as Conexon pushed forward with plans to pro vide service in at least 10 states. This shared economy thing still has legs, as Johnny Wolff is dem onstrating with HomeRoom Living—giving property owners a plat form to connect property owners with people looking to rent spaces as compact as a single room. In that way, Wolff says, “Homeroom helps investors provide affordable housing at scale throughout the country.” The company took wing in 2018 and has grown to support more than 1,000 tenants, helping them save a combined $5 million on their rent. Currently in 31 cities, HomeRoom houses more than 700 tenants, and year-over-year growth is running at 300 percent, he says. “On the tenant side, we have used several tactics, such as online classifieds (Craigslist, Facebook, etc.), physical advertisements such as billboards or fliers, technology and automation, and paid ads on Facebook and SEO,” applying some of those tools, along with affiliate and channel partnerships, on the investor side. “We also expanded across geography to add opportunities for both sides of the market place to grow,” Wolff says. Conexon Gross Revenue: 3 rd Year 2021: $72,194,790 2018: $6,141,297 Growth: 1,075.563% Average Annual Growth Rate: 358.52% Full-time employees: 371 Gross Revenue: 2018: $212,774 Growth: 1,533.125% Average Annual Growth Rate: 511.04% Full-time employees: 47 2021: $3,474,866 1 st Year

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(l-r): Johnny Wolff, CEO; Thomas Hornbeck, Chief Technology Officer; Mike Tich, VP-Marketing.

(l-r): Front row: Jeff Fincannon, SVP OSP Construction; Abby Carere, SVP Sales, Marketing & Account Management; Michael Byrne, SVP Information Systems. Back row: Randy Klindt, Partner; Andy Burger, SVP Operations; Jonathan Chambers, Partner; Terie Hannay, SVP Telecommunications Services. Not pictured: Matthew Blain, CFO; Carol Meyerhoefer, SVP-Business Development.

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(l-r): Jerry Davison, Director of IT; Jon Sitter, Chief Technology Officer; Paula DeZeeuw, Market Research Analyst; Elizabeth DeZeeuw, founder/CEO; Orlando Gutierrez, VP-Business Development; Brenda Davis, Executive Administrative Assistant; Daryl Hubbard, CFO.

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I n g r a m ’ s

July 2022

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