Flash Sales Site Ideeli Ranked #1 Fastest-Growing Company of 2011
Inc. magazine just released their annual Inc. 500, a list of the country’s 500 fastest-growing private businesses. Proving that members-only flash sales business model are still sound, online retailer Ideeli scored the number one spot on the list with a three-year sales growth of 40,882% and revenue of $77.7 million.
The New York-based company launched in 2007 and specializes in limited-time sales with a variety of designers and was one of the first to adopt this type of business model in the U.S., shortly after Gilt Groupe. And we knew Ideeli was a major player in the online flash sale site game. These ecommerce sites were one of the only retail platforms to benefit from the recession–brands had excess inventory they needed to move and shoppers wanted deals. Paul Hurley, the founder of Ideeli, told Inc., “The day after Lehman failed, which was a spectacular day for us, you could fire a gun in Saks and not hit anybody.”
Still, we didn’t know it was this big. Currently, ideeli boasts over 4.5 million members and 1,000 brand partners. Here are 10 more interesting facts about this year’s fastest-growing company that you may not have known from Inc.‘s profile:

