Maryland companies make Inc.’s list of fast movers

That was the highest ranking for a Maryland company since 2003, when Baltimore sports apparel business Under Armour — which went public in 2005 — grabbed the second position. Bill Me Later had a growth rate of 8,651 percent from 2003 to 2006, to $53.6 million, according to Inc.

Bill Me Later allows customers of clients such as Wal-Mart and US Airways to shop online without using a credit card. The business pays merchants within a day or so, then bills consumers. The 100-employee company, founded in 2002, recently changed its name from I4 Commerce.

The rapid growth is attributed to focusing on ‘‘meeting consumer and merchant desire for the most simple, secure shopping experience,” Gary Marino, Bill Me Later CEO, said in a statement.

Many online shoppers are ‘‘skittish about entering credit card information online,” a factor that boosts the company’s popularity, Inc. says. Charging merchants 40 percent less than Visa and MasterCard has also fueled Bill Me Later’s growth, the magazine says.

There was some confusion over whether Bill Me Later ranked sixth or seventh, because the online rankings had a fourth-place tie. Some companies were added to the Inc. list too late for the September print edition, so they were listed online as ties with the businesses right below them in percentage growth, said Jim Melloan, manager of the Inc. list.

‘‘We did not wish to make the ranks online different from the ranks in the magazine, so that’s why we instituted the tie system,” Melloan said.

The New York publication also expanded its usual 500 list to 5,000 this year. Some 138 companies or nonprofits in Maryland made the enlarged list. That included Bethesda theater nonprofit Imagination Stage, which was ranked 3,779th with a 72 percent growth rate to $5 million.

To ensure revenue figures are as accurate as possible, Inc. conducts random checks of audited financial statements and tax returns. Company officials also sign statements attesting to the accuracy.

Hard to maintainrapid growth

Some companies dropped down quite a bit from last year. It’s difficult to maintain three-year growth rates greater than 1,000 percent when the revenue base gets bigger, said Stefan Lalos, CEO and co-founder of last year’s top Maryland company — Interactive Technology Solutions, or ITSolutions.

All 10 of the largest U.S. companies, according to total revenues on the 5,000 list, were ranked below 1,500th place. The largest Maryland company on the list — Baltimore construction business Structural Group — ranked 2,132nd with a growth rate of 168 percent to $319 million.

ITSolutions fell to 270th place this year after ranking 29th last year. The information technology business, which recently moved its headquarters from Gaithersburg to a larger office in Silver Spring following the purchase of another company there, recorded a revenue growth rate of 902.5 percent from 2003 to 2006.

Still, that was ‘‘only” about half its rate between 2002 and 2005.

‘‘We’ve had a big 2007 so far and expect to be ranked higher next year,” Lalos said. Last year’s revenue was almost $26 million, $4.5 million more than in 2005.

Other companies dropped off the list entirely due to going public, not being able to maintain the rapid growth or some other reason. That occurred to Visicu, a Baltimore company that remotely monitors intensive care units for hospitals.

Visicu, which went public last year, was Maryland’s second highest ranked company last year. Besides being privately held as of the end of 2006, qualifying businesses this year had to be independent, not subsidiaries or divisions, with at least $200,000 in revenue in 2003 and $2 million in 2006.

At least three Maryland companies that made this year’s list plan to go public or have gone public this year, according to Inc. Those were Business Integra of Greenbelt, the state’s fourth highest ranked company; First Madison Mortgage of Rockville, No. 16 in the state; and CodeRyte of Bethesda, No. 34 in Maryland.

Some companies move up list

Like last year, Maryland had three companies among the top 100 fastest growing in the nation.

Besides Bill Me Later, Lanham information technology company 1 Source Consulting and Mount Airy construction company Rollins Construction cracked the top 100. They both had growth rates of more than 2,000 percent.

1 Source moved up to 60th place from 171st last year, while Rollins, which was not on the list in 2006, was one spot behind this year.

President Barry Lake acquired Rollins in 2004 and shifted its focus from primarily a drywall subcontractor to a general contractor for ‘‘blue chip” clients such as banks, according to a company news release.