It is with great pleasure that I introduce the inaugural issue of the OBJ's new special feature, Ottawa's Fastest Growing Companies.

It was our intention to seek out and profile local companies that can demonstrate strong growth while remaining cash flow positive. After consulting with local chartered accountants, we decided to impose somewhat stringent criteria that did provoke some criticism from younger companies that simply had not yet grown sufficiently to make the cut. In some cases we also disqualified some large, well-established companies because their chartered accountant told us they had not been cash-flow positive in every year of the qualifying period.

In the end it came down to the simple fact that, for Fastest Growing Companies to be viewed as a credible, fair and objective annual feature by the business community, it was imperative to stick with the criteria we had established. Now that we have tested the waters and made the community aware of this new program, it is my expectation that Fastest Growing Companies will become a popular annual feature comparable to Forty under 40 and CEO of Year.

We began the process uncertain how many qualifying companies would submit themselves for consideration. Initially we cast a wide net for either privately-held or publicly traded firms. In the end we received sufficient entries to focus exclusively on private companies.

Though it came as no surprise that the majority of our applicants would be high tech firms, I was happy to see a homegrown restaurant chain and locally owned and operated real estate franchise make the cut.

While we agreed not to publish specific financial figures, since such information is confidential for a privately held company, I can say that most of the companies on the list enjoy annual sales in the millions, even tens of millions in a few cases.

To qualify, companies had to be headquartered in the National Capital Region and have completed three fiscal years with financials that had been verified by a third-party accountant. Provided these criteria were met, we were open to any private company in any industry. Each company was evaluated and ranked based on its percentage revenue growth between the first year and the third year of its most recently completed three-year fiscal period. The company also had to have been cash-flow positive in all three years. To ensure we were attracting established companies of substance, we also imposed minimum revenue requirements. In year one the company had to have had revenues of at least $100,000 and in year three of at least $750,000.

See this week's edition for a Q&A with the chief executives of the three fastest growing companies, as well as profiles of each of the 10 companies. Read, enjoy, and learn what has allowed these companies to achieve strong and sustainable growth.

THE LIST

(Companies ranked by percentage

revenue growth over three-year period)

1) Lumenera Corp. 721%

2) The Works Gourmet Burger Bistro 367%

3) Macadamian Technologies Inc. 205%

4) Bridgewater Systems Corp. 122%

5) VeriChip Corp. (Instantel Inc.) 116%

6) Fidus Systems Inc. 75.2%

7) Chipworks Inc. 74%

8) Keller Williams Ottawa Realty 71.8%

9) Protus IP Solutions Inc. 46%

10) TRM Technologies Inc. 30%

NOTE:A Q&A with the top three firms, as well as profiles of all 10 of our Fastest Growing Companies, will be published online by Wednesday afternoon.