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El Clasificado Ranks Again as an Inner City 100 Fastest Growing Company

By May 30, 2013December 24th, 2014Company News

 

ICIC Inner City Logo and El Clasificado logo
For the 7th year El Clasificado has earned a place among the 100 fastest-growing inner city firms in the US

Los Angeles, CA May 31, 2013- For the past seven years and counting, El Clasificado has earned a place among the 100 fastest-growing inner city firms in the US, selected by the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC), which spotlights and supports growing companies in urban areas. Based on revenue growth and compiled by Fortune magazine and the ICIC, the company placed 86th on the list this year, an ongoing honor for its founders, Joe Badame and Martha de la Torre, who helm the leading Spanish-language multi-media company with the largest print and online presence serving U.S. Spanish speaking Latinos.   

“To us it means a lot to be in this list since it honors us for creating jobs in low income areas and strengthening the community”, said Joe Badame. “Companies like El Clasificado that are willing to risk capital and invest time and resources in inner cities create a positive ripple effect that impacts the community. Indirectly, the people we hire, shop in their communities and in turn they also create jobs and local financial growth.”

The firms represented on the list have shown substantial year-on-year growth rates. El Clasificado made it among the leaders in this distinguished group with a 2012 revenue of $20 million dollars and a 5-year growth rate of 12%.

“We are extremely proud of having made it to the list again. When times were hard and we almost gave up on El Clasificado, it was the employees from East LA that inspired us to keep the doors open.  They were so happy to have a job and we couldn’t let them down.  We kept at it until we found the right business model and profitability.  This all paid off and now many of our original employees, from humble backgrounds, who started working for us in their teens are now managers at El Clasificado, with college degrees, who own their own homes and in turn are reinvesting in their communities,”said Martha de la Torre, CEO of El Clasificado. At the awards ceremony, Martha was also part of a panel of speakers moderated by Loren Feldman, Small Business Editor for The New York Times. The ICIC event was hosted in Boston from May 20th to May 21st 2013.

The Awards marked the Inner City 100 program’s 15th year and launched a formal alumni network of Inner City 100 winners. Preceding the Awards celebration, winners attended a two-day small business Symposium featuring business management case studies presented by Harvard Business School professors and peer-to-peer learning sessions led by CEOs of fast-growing firms. Keynote speakers included Harvard Business School Professor Michael E. Porter (founder of the initiative), Tim Westergren, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Pandora Media, Tom Szaky, CEO of TerraCycle, and Hamdi Ulukaya, Founder, President and CEO of Chobani.

Watch a video premiered by the ICIC about the top 100 Fastest Growing Companies in the US.  

About El Clasificado
El Clasificado, an EC Hispanic Media company, is a multi-media publication and advertising solutions company with advertising platforms in print, online, and grassroots events. More than 1.5 million readers utilize the free Spanish language publication every week. El Clasificado, a verified publication with a weekly circulation of 510,000, is distributed in over 300 cities throughout Southern California, the Central Valley, and now Yuma, Arizona. EC Hispanic media also owns the monthly publication El Punto and special supplement Quinceanera.com and the websites, elclasificado.com, pacoslist.com, susociodenegocios.com, alborde.com y quinceanera.com.

About the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City
ICIC is a nonprofit research and strategy organization and the leading authority on U.S. inner city economies and the businesses that thrive there. Founded in 1994 by Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter, ICIC expands inner city economies by providing businesses, governments and investors with the most comprehensive and actionable information in the field about urban market opportunities. ICIC’s unique knowledge and expertise about inner city success factors and thriving companies is developed from specialized urban networks and path-breaking research. www.icic.org

Contact:
Alicia García | Director of Content and Communications | (323) 278-5310 | [email protected]