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No. 1
Revenue growth FY 2021 to 2023: 699.1%
2023 revenue: $32 million
If growth in revenue is any indication, the word is out about Inherent Commercial. The 5-year-old construction management company is atop this year’s list of the fastest-growing companies. Its 20-employee headcount is only about a handful higher than it was two years ago. But within that team is a singular focus on getting the job done right, owner Greg Looney says, and sometimes that means not bidding on a job at all. “We definitely pride ourselves [on] not being maybe the lowest contractor on our pricing, but we try to be and strive to be the most complete,” he says. “And I think that is a key differentiator.”
The dreaded change order: Inherent Commercial wants to be involved with the owner and architect early in the design process, Looney says, estimating construction costs in real time each stage of the way. “Anybody can take a set of plans and throw some numbers to it that aren’t necessarily going to cover everything that the owner needs,” he says. “And so we try to fill those gaps in at the front instead of having to come back and tell them that, ‘Hey, you need to spend more money on this.’” That approach avoids surprises. “Nobody likes change orders. You know, in our world, that’s just such a taboo.”
Leaning into ingenuity: Rising material costs. High interest rates. Reluctant lenders. Equity partners who change their minds and pull out of a deal. The factors contributing to the headwinds in the construction industry are many. Such stressors breed ingenuity, though, Looney says. “We position ourselves with a lot of clients that are small to medium-sized, and they’re in the same boat that we are,” he says. “They are putting food on the table for their families. And so [they’ve] got to get really creative to figure out how to make these deals happen.”
Where opportunity lies: Looney says Inherent Commercial does a lot of work in the multifamily, senior living and hospitality sectors. Office space is “definitely not what it was,” he says. Multifamily, in particular, holds a lot of promise. As Indiana keeps luring major employers to the state, he notes, their employees will need places to live.
And then there you are: When you set out to grow a business, Looney says, you anticipate a steady growth curve. The reality, however, is the inevitability of setbacks and the self-doubt that creeps in. “But at the end of the day, when you look back … all of a sudden, you look at that line and you’re like, ‘Oh, in the aggregate, it really is accelerating.’”•
Check out more of IBJ’s ranking of Indy’s fastest-growing companies.
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