Crowd Factory is honored to be listed about one of the “Hottest Companies in San Francisco”, by Lead411  Check out our review:

Crowd Factory
Crowd Factory is a complete Social Campaign Management Platform that helps marketers accelerate word-of-mouth marketing, grow their marketing database with unique social profiles and attract new customers. Hundreds of companies, including HP, Molson Coors, Sony Music, Jive Software, Marketo, Quickoffice and British Telecom use Crowd Factory’s social marketing software to drive real business results every day. Crowd Factory landed $6.5M in funding from Storm Ventures in January of 2011.

LOS ANGELES, Calif., – February 21, 2012 - In order to recognize the fastest growing technology companies in San Francisco and the East Bay, Lead411 is proud to announce the release of its “Hottest Companies in San Francisco” award.

Background
Each day, the Lead411 research team scours through 600+ press releases and business articles including venture capital fundings, company launches, new office openings, customer press releases, etc. This information has given insight to which are the fastest growing companies in the U.S. Their “Hottest Companies” awards have been created to recognize these fast growing companies in different geographic regions. This particular list originally started with over 2600 companies and it has been narrowed down to the top 80.
“This is our 3rd Annual San Francisco award. We are pleased with the recognition the Award has received over the past few years,” said Tom Blue, CEO of Lead411, “and we are very proud of the respected list of companies for the 2012 winners.”
How the Winners were Chosen
First, all companies must be in either the Software, Wireless, Internet, Hardware, or Media industry and be a privately held organization, and be within San Francisco. From there, each company must meet one or more of the following requirements;

•  100% increase in revenues over the past 2 years; OR
• Over $5M in funding in the past 2 year

Some of the other companies chosen include:

Metacafe, Inc
Metacafe is the first entertainment destination solely dedicated to showcasing the best videos from the world of Movies, Video Games, Sports, Music and TV. Metacafe is the trusted source that keeps millions of viewers plugged into their entertainment passions every day. The company connects marquee brand advertisers with their target consumers via close association with the most popular entertainment content on the Web. Metacafe attracts more than 15 million unique monthly U.S. viewers. Metacafe collected $5M in funding in June of 2010.

BrightRoll
With reach to 160 million monthly unique viewers globally, BrightRoll is the world’s largest and most trusted video ad network and the leading provider of digital video advertising services. The BrightRoll Network has access to billions of video impressions per month enabling advertisers to execute smart digital video campaigns across a massive pool of web and mobile video inventory. BrightRoll got a hold of $30M in financing from Trident Capital in November of 2011.

Twitter
Twitter is a real-time information network that connects you to the latest stories, ideas, opinions and news about what you find interesting. Simply find the accounts you find most compelling and follow the conversations. The company received $400M in financing in September of 2011.

Formspring
Formspring is a global social network, where members ask each other questions and learn more about one other through interesting, funny and personal responses. People use Formspring to get to know friends (and friends of friends), have conversations with favorite celebrities, and connect with others around common interests. One of the fastest growing social networks ever, Formspring has more than 4 billion responses posted. Formspring received $11.5M in financing from Redpoint Ventures in January of 2011.

BrightTALK Inc
BrightTALK provides webinars and videos for professionals and their communities. Every day thousands of thought leaders are actively sharing their insights, their ideas and their most up-to-date knowledge with professionals all over the globe through the webinar and video technologies that BrightTALK has created. BrightTALK received $20.5M in financing from North Bridge Growth Equity in September of 2011.

Idle Games
Idle Games® has built the Idle Engine, a massively distributed simulation platform designed to provide an unsharded game world with patent-pending synchronous and asynchronous social game mechanics. We’ve also created the worlds’ first polytheistic god game with exploding bunnies. The company received $10M in funding in October of 2011.

PowerReviews Inc
PowerReviews is the world’s largest social commerce network, with more than 35 million products and services across more than 5,500 websites. PowerReviews helps manufacturers, brands and retailers organize and manage consumer insights to drive sales, increase traffic, shape R&D and build brand loyalty. The company’s open network of more than 23 million consumer insights serves as the underlying engine for a new generation of commerce. PowerReviews has raised $6.1M in venture money led by Menlo Ventures in March of 2010.

The GigaOM Network
GigaOM has grown into the leading provider of online media, events and research for global technology innovators. The company is one of the most credible and insightful voices at the intersection of business and technology, with an online audience of more than 4.5 million monthly unique visitors; industry-leading events, including Structure, Mobilize, GigaOM RoadMap, and Structure:Data; and a pioneering market research service and digital community, GigaOM Pro, which provides expert analysis and research on emerging technology markets. GigaOM landed $8M in financing in May of 2011.

Martini Media
Martini Media is the digital media and content platform for engaging the audience with the most money and influence online. With more than 1,000 publishers organized across multiple lifestyle and business verticals, Martini Media has helped the world’s leading brands reach over 90 million consumers across the globe that invest in their passions at work and play. Martini Media’s full-service marketing capabilities encompass display, video, mobile, social, and audience targeting to effectively engage the most valuable audience online at scale. Martini Media received $13M in venture funding from Granite Venturesin December of 2011.

Yammer Inc
Yammer (www.yammer.com) is the leader in enterprise social networking, providing a secure way for employees to communicate, collaborate, and share information. The basic version of Yammer is free, and customers can pay to upgrade their network to receive additional administrative and security controls, priority customer service and a designated customer success manager. Yammer received $17M in financing from Social Capital Partnership in September of 2011.

PlayFirst Inc
PlayFirst is dedicated to creating and publishing popular games that appeal to the mass market through multiple consumer platforms. PlayFirst is focused on a game portfolio that is accessible and entertaining for both new and seasoned online game players. PlayFirst received $9.2M in funding in October of 2010.

Cantaloupe Systems
Cantaloupe Systems is the pioneer and market leader in Cloud-based technologies for the $55 billion global vending industry. Cantaloupe Systems’ Seed Platform enables vending operators to deliver better customer service, reduce costs and generate larger margins. This solution provides an automated retail platform for scheduling, pre-kitting, merchandising, and cashless using hosted systems and wireless technologies. Cantaloupe Systems has raised $12.4M in financing from Foundation Capital in April of 2010.

mFoundry
Trusted by more than 500 banks and credit unions, mFoundry is a leading provider of mobile solutions for financial institutions and retailers. Our mobile banking and mobile payments solutions are based upon a market-proven platform that was designed to help our clients create deeper, more valuable relationships with their customers. mFoundry has raised $18M in venture money from MasterCard Incorporated in December of 2011.

Mashery, Inc
Mashery, the world’s leading provider of API technology and services, helps more than 100 top brands—including USA TODAY, Hoover’s, Klout, Associated Press, RDIO and Expedia—build digital distribution platforms that open new distribution channels, speed time-to-market, and spur innovation. Mashery takes a holistic approach to APIs—from crafting platform strategy and setting business objectives, to managing API delivery and facilitating relationships with a network of 130,000 developers. Mashery landed $11M in financing from OpenView Venture Partners in May of 2011.

Marin Software
Marin Software provides the world’s leading online advertising management platform for advertisers and agencies to manage their paid search, social media, display advertising, and mobile campaigns. Marin Software’s powerful bid management and ppc optimization tools will help you generate more conversions and save you time. Marin Software got a hold of $30M in financing from Temasek in February of 2012.

Practice Fusion
Practice Fusion provides a free, web-based Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system to physicians. With medical charting, scheduling, e-prescribing (eRx), lab integrations, referral letters, Meaningful Use certification, unlimited support and a Personal Health Record for patients, Practice Fusion’s EMR addresses the complex needs of today’s healthcare providers and disrupts the health IT status quo. The company received $31M in financing in the past two years.

ClearSlide
ClearSlide provides the leading cloud-based sales communication platform designed specifically to meet the communication needs of enterprise sales professionals to help them close more business. Headquartered in San Francisco, Calif., ClearSlide is funded by top Silicon Valley investors including Greylock Partners and Felicis Ventures. Expedia, Rackspace and Dow Jones count among ClearSlide’s customers. ClearSlide landed $11M in funding from Greylock Partners in September of 2011.

Dropbox
The mission of Dropbox is to simplify life for people around the world. Dropbox lets people bring their docs, photos and videos everywhere and share them easily. The service has more than 45 million users in 175 countries saving one billion files every three days. Dropbox was founded in San Francisco in 2007 by Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi. The company received $250M in funding led by Index Ventures in October of 2011.

Stripe
Stripe is a simple, developer-friendly way to accept payments online. We believe that enabling transactions on the web is a problem rooted in code, not finance, and we want to help put more websites in business. Stripe got a hold of $18M in financing from Sequoia Capital in February of 2012.

Zinio LLC
Zinio is where the world reads, explores and interacts with the largest selection of magazines across today’s most popular devices. The company is the leader in digital and mobile content consumption, connection, and distribution. Zinio users can easily search stories and topics that they are passionate about, share with friends, save and curate content, shop for products, and store all of their favorite magazines in Zinio across all of their favorite devices. Zinio received $20M in funding in November of 2011.

Grockit Inc
Most people know Grockit as the most fun, social and engaging way to learn new things. Smart business types know Grockit is a global leader in the huge market for learning platforms and services. Over 1M people worldwide have used Grockit to successfully prepare for tests. Grockit gives you social, collaborative and personal learning, fueled by adaptive learning algorithms and up-front analysis that identifies and compensates for your learning strengths and weaknesses. The company received $7M in funding from Atlas Venture in October of 2011.

GoodData
GoodData is a disruptive, cloud-based enterprise platform for business intelligence. The GoodData technology is intuitive, secure and fast. It helps convert big data into profitable insights and strategies for business executives. GoodData is trusted by companies like Enterasys, Capgemini, and Software AG, and embedded into offerings from cloud innovators like Zendesk, Get Satisfaction and Pardot. Headquartered in San Francisco, GoodData collected $15M in funding led by Andreessen Horowitz in August of 2011.

List of Company Names:
3VR Security, Inc, 99designs, Affine Systems, Anaplan Inc, AppDynamics, Bleacher Report, Bricsnet US, LLC, BrightRoll, BrightTALK Inc, Cantaloupe Systems, ClearSlide, CloudFlare, CollabNet Inc, Crowd Factory, Crowdcast , CrowdFlower , Demandbase, Inc, Dropbox, eCert Inc., Eventbrite, Inc., Evolv On-Demand, Expensify Inc, Extole, Flingo, Flite, Inc, Flurry, Inc., Formspring, Framehawk, Get Satisfaction, Inc., GoodData, Grockit Inc, Hotel Tonight Inc. , Huddle US, Idle Games, InsideView, Jaspersoft, Jawbone, Joyent Inc, KIXEYE, Kontagent, KXEN Inc, Lumosity, Marin Software, Martini Media, Mashery, Inc, Metacafe, Inc, mFoundry, mobeam inc, New Relic, PlayFirst Inc, PowerReviews Inc, Practice Fusion, Prosper Marketplace, Inc, Quid Inc, RadiumOne, Rocket Ninja Inc, Scality, Scribd, Servicemax Inc, Socialcast, Spigit, StackMob, Steelwedge Inc., Stitcher, Stripe, StumbleUpon, Sugar Inc, Tapjoy, Taulia Inc., The GigaOM Network, Ticketfly, TokBox Inc, Twelvefold Media, Twitter, VirtuOz Inc, Xobni Corporation, Xoom Corporation, Yammer Inc, Zimride, Inc, Zinio LLC,

About Lead411
Lead411 provides information, news, and research about U.S. companies and their executives. Founded in 2001, its goal has been to focus on quality corporate data that is valid and useful rather than producing as many company records as possible. In addition, Lead411 tracks company news in order to alert its customers about venture financing, new hires, hiring plans, etc. Customers include Gartner, Administaff and ADP.