When it rains it pours.

Today, Deloitte announced their annual Technology Fast 500.

The Deloitte Technology Fast 500 is a ranking of the fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications and life sciences companies in North America based on percentage fiscal year revenue growth over five years (2002–2006).

Doba is listed at spot #6 in the 2007 rankings.

You can read more about this year’s companies and see the full list by reading this PDF: 2007 Deloitte Technology Fast 500

And I have a bad feeling that the upwelling of pride that Doba caused in Ricky Bobby yesterday is completely undone with this horrible showing. I’m sorry Ricky for coming in last place. We’ll do better next time.

Today is the very day we started Doba 5 years ago. October 22, 2002. So today was a good day to attend the Mountain West Capital Network (MWCN) Utah 100 event in Salt Lake City.

The main purpose of this event is learning the rankings of the top 100 fastest growing private and public companies in Utah. This morning, we found out that Doba was ranked the #1 fastest growing company in Utah based on percentage revenue increases from 2002 through 2006.

Here’s a photo of me and the Doba executive team with the event’s keynote, Utah Governor Huntsman. We even convinced the Governor to give us a big #1 sign.

When I posted about Doba ranking #23 on the 2007 Inc 500, I listed the people that deserve thanks for Doba’s receipt of recognition like this. Same list applies this time.

Finally, a good friend of mine (Ricky Bobby) lived his life by a simple motto: “If you’re not first, you’re last.” Well Ricky, today Doba made you proud. Shake and Bake.

I posted back in May about Doba’s growth from 2003 to 2006 of over 3,200%.

Last week, we found out that Doba has been recognized as the 23rd fastest-growing private company in the United States. The 2007 Inc. 500, as revealed in the September issue of Inc. magazine (on newsstands August 28 - October 2), also ranks Doba 2nd in the category of fastest growing software companies, and 5th in growth among companies intending to go public.

When I look back at the past almost 5 years, I always knew we were growing fast. But I didn’t realize how fast. Being ranked in the top 25 of the fastest growing private companies in the country, being the 2nd fastest growing software company in the country, I think it finally hit home for me. Doba literally exploded from 2003 to 2006.

The small part I’ve played in getting Doba to grow like this is tiny at best. So some thanks are in order to all of the other compatriots who have helped Doba fight the fight. First off, Doba’s other 2 co-founders, Dave Gray and Brandon Williams, don’t get the public recognition they should. They were there in the beginning, they’re there now, pushing and pulling Doba down the road we’re traveling. Next, Blaine Nielsen, Doba’s President and COO, needs to get a large amount of credit too. I firmly believe if Blaine hadn’t left Dell to come work for us in the spring of 2005, we would not exist as a company today. Over the years, we’ve had over 200 employees work for Doba. It goes without saying that without their efforts, Doba would have grown exactly 8.74645% (I figured this out scientifically, it’s Calculus, complex stuff). Doba’s employees are the best in the world! I’d be remiss if I didn’t also thank Doba’s customers. Without the support and business of our customers, our growth would have been exactly 0.0% (a less scientific calculation, but spot on nonetheless). Doba has also had some great partners over the years. Our partners form the foundation for our market position, give us credibility, and help us grow our business. Finally, for me personally, I need to thank my wife Amy. Without her support, I’d probably still be unemployed and dinking around doing nothing. Being the wife of an entrepreneur is definitely not easy. And I credit my Mom and Dad for teaching me to work hard.

All of these parties have that in common: we’ve worked hard (damn hard at times) to grow Doba. In the all-team meeting we had this morning, I told everyone that I’d bet them all that no one in the room (including myself) would ever work for a company that placed higher on the list than #23. I think that’s true, odds are that we all won’t.

I also told the Doba Team to pat ourselves on the back for a couple of minutes, then get back to work! Doba has a long way to go still in order to reach our full potential. The world ain’t seen nothing yet from Doba!!

That number represents Doba’s three year revenue growth percentage from 2003 to 2006. 3,206% It’s a big number. Actually, in terms of business growth, it’s a REALLY big number. What that means is that Doba has undergone extreme (one might even call it ridiculous) growth in the past 3 years.

This week Doba and I were featured in an article in Connect Magazine called The Dilemma of Growth.

The article also talked about fellow Utah entrepreneurs Lovesac (Shawn Nelson) and Omniture (Josh James) . Besides that it talks about Doba, you should read the article as is contains some hard learned lessons about managing growth. I’ve never met Shawn and Josh, but I ought to get together with them sometime to share stories about managing (and probably more often than not, mismanaging) growth.

The thing about growth is this: they don’t reference it as growing pains for nothing. And fundamentally, it’s Doba’s employees and customers that most often deal with these pains. Sure trying to lead a company through such extreme growth is difficult. But I’d wager that working for a company with this type of growth, or purchasing products from a company with this kind of growth, is were the true growing pains are.

So to Doba’s employees and customers: I’ve also heard it said that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Well, last I checked, Doba isn’t dead from these growing pains, so here’s to a stronger company for our employees and stronger products for our customers!! Thank you for your extremely hard work and dedication. And thank you for your business. Without both, we wouldn’t have any growth to worry about.