Forbes Names Print Syndicate to 2015 List of America’s Most Promising Companies

Print Syndicate, a Rev1 Ventures client and portfolio company, was named by Forbes to the 2015 List of America’s Most Promising Companies.

There are lots of new faces among the 100 companies on Forbes’ list—but we think Print Syndicate is the coolest of them all (of course, we may be a bit biased). Ranked companies are all private with less than $300 MM in revenue.

A Columbus-based design, marketing, and technology company, Print Syndicate offers consumers unique, well-designed products based on the latest trends and topics. Their mission is to let the individual shine through by enabling “self expression through exceptional design.”

 

 “Each of these firms is doing something right, and in the end are all winners.”

Forbes

 

Print Syndicate distributes its high quality items through fun, quirky retail sites including LookHuman.com, ActivateApparel.com, and MericaMade.com, which have helped the company create a culture of humor and creativity.

Co-founders Tanisha Robinson and Michael Limes started the company in 2012. In October, Print Syndicate closed a $4.25 MM Series A funding round that included investment from Rev1 Ventures.

“Besides the art, there is a certain satisfaction in your own business that you can’t really get anywhere else,” Limes said.

 

“My favorite thing every day about working at Print Syndicate is seeing the work that comes out of our design team. It makes you laugh, and it’s really great stuff.”

Mike Limes

Print Syndicate was also a 2014 VentureNEXT Startup Award Winner.

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The rankings driver of the Forbes list is growth. Growth in revenue, for sure, but also growth in operating margins, capital raised, and the number of employees.

 

Certainly, with more than 100 employees and $12 MM in revenue in less than three years, Print Syndicate is a jobs and wealth creator for Columbus.

“There is nothing that can really prepare you in a startup for that moment of high growth. There is no leadership book that gets you ready for that,” Robinson said.

“We are really fortunate to have phenomenal access to top business leadership here in Columbus,” she said. “That’s really, really powerful for us. That’s really unique to Columbus in particular, that it is such a smart and open city.”

As you might expect, the other “C” geographies—by that we mean those on either coast—have the most startups on the Forbes list.

But there are also a bunch of names from the Midwest. That’s positive proof that all the things that we and the many other companies, investors, and institutions committed to innovation  in this region are doing is making a difference.

Stay tuned.