Clickstop Named One of CBJ’s Fastest Growing Companies for the 15th Time

How Culture-Driven Growth Earned Clickstop Its 15th Fastest-Growing Companies Recognition

We’re proud to share that Clickstop has once again been named one of the Corridor Business Journal’s Fastest Growing Companies! This marks Clickstop’s 15th appearance on the annual list, which honors companies making a meaningful impact on the strength and vitality of the local economy. This year, Clickstop ranked Number 14 among the Corridor’s Fastest Growing Companies. For us, this recognition is about more than growth on paper. It reflects the employee-owners, teams, leaders, and customers who continue to shape our story. Since our founding in 2005, Clickstop has grown from an entrepreneurial idea in a garage into a multi-brand, employee-owned company built around eCommerce, operational excellence, and a deeply intentional workplace culture.

From Startup To Multi-Brand Company: The Growth Journey Behind Recognition

While the award recognizes growth over the last two years, the foundation for that growth was built over two decades. Our growth story began with a simple but ambitious vision: capitalize on emerging opportunities in eCommerce while creating a better place to work. In our first year, we grew from $14,000 to $1 million in revenue, setting the tone for a business model centered on reinvestment, adaptability, and long-term thinking.

Over the years, that mindset has led us to continue expanding across brands, teams, facilities, and capabilities. We established our headquarters in Urbana, Iowa, expanded our campus to support connection and collaboration, opened a second distribution center in South Carolina, transitioned that facility into a larger space, and expanded our Urbana warehouse by nearly 33,000 square feet to better serve customers and support future growth.

This latest recognition adds to a long history of external validation for our growth and culture, including regional and national workplace awards, repeated recognition on fastest-growing company lists, and ongoing acknowledgment for the way we connect business performance with employee experience.

How Employee Fuels Long-Term Growth

Growth becomes more meaningful when the people helping create it have a personal stake in its success. One of the most meaningful parts of our story is our transition to employee ownership through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan. Becoming an ESOP company strengthened a culture that already expected people to take ownership of their work, contribute ideas, and understand how their decisions influence the health of the business.

At Clickstop, we do not view growth as something separate from people. Growth creates opportunity. It opens doors for new roles, new challenges, leadership development, cross-functional collaboration, and personal and professional advancement. Our mission is to create a business that is sustainable, enjoyable, and provides opportunity for those who seek it, and that mission continues to guide how we grow.

That people-first philosophy matters because it connects business success to individual impact. When employee-owners are empowered to think strategically, communicate openly, serve customers well, and improve the work around them, we build a stronger company and a stronger culture.

Why Workplace Culture Remains One of Clickstop’s Strongest Growth Drivers

Employee Ownership is only part of the equation. Sustained growth also depends on a culture that encourages people to contribute, collaborate and continuously improve. Our culture drives our ability to grow over time. Our core values shape how we communicate, solve problems, build trust, and pursue excellence together. Values like communicating openly with confidence and respect, promoting a winning team spirit, thinking big and making it happen, and expecting greatness in ourselves and inspiring it in others are not meant to live only on a wall. They are intended to show up in decisions, relationships, customer experiences, and daily work.

That alignment is part of what has helped us sustain momentum across changing markets and business needs. As an eCommerce company with a family of brands, we serve diverse customers and industries. While our products, channels, and strategies may evolve, our foundation remains consistent: engaged employee-owners, disciplined growth, and a commitment to getting customers what they want when they need it.

Recent recognition also reinforces that connection between culture and performance. Clickstop has been named a USA TODAY Top Workplace for five consecutive years and has ranked among the fastest-growing private companies in the Midwest through Inc. Regionals. These recognitions point to the same conclusion: sustainable business growth is strongest when it is built by people who are engaged, empowered, and aligned around a shared mission.

The People Behind Clickstop’s #14 Ranking

Ultimately, rankings and awards tell only part of the story. The real story is the people whose decisions, ideas, and committment make continued growth possible. Behind every milestone are people who take initiative, care about the customer experience, challenge themselves and one another, and continue building something that lasts. This recognition belongs to the employee-owners who make our growth possible every day.

As we look ahead, our focus remains clear: keep building a business that grows with purpose, creates opportunity, serves customers well, and proves that a strong culture can be one of the most powerful drivers of long-term success.

Interested in joining an employee-owned company where growth is driven by culture, ownership, and opportunity?

Explore current career opportunities at Clickstop