Growing Companies

FranNet of Greater Tampa Bay matches potential business owners with franchises. FranNet works with people who want to be business owners, assessing their skills, and if the right fit, matching them with a franchise opportunity. FranNet works with a variety of franchises in West Central Florida from Citrus County to Polk County to Collier County, including the entire Tampa Bay region. 

Since opening in the Spring of 2008, Solamatrix, Inc. of St. Petersburg, has experienced tremendous growth. The developer and manufacturer of window films for cars, homes and commercial buildings creates innovative products such as the company SUN-GARD and GLASS-GARD. SUN-GARD is an automotive solar film used to block UV rays from damaging interior leather and vinyl. GLASS-GARD is a safety and security film used for both commercial and residential properties, and is designed to help hold a broken pane of glass together preventing shards of glass from flying upon impact. As of the end of 2010, the company employed 66. A merger with another film manufacturing company, Madico, Inc., however, means the company plans to employ 115 by the end of 2011. 

Senior Management Advisors Inc. (SMA) operates 12 full service independent living, assisted living and Alzheimer's care residential communities in Florida and Georgia. The company was founded in 1985. SMA employs 25 people at its corporate office in Clearwater, and an average of 40 people at each senior living community. The company specializes in rejuvenating and stabilizing senior living communities for owners, financial institutions, private investors and government agencies. They offer services including consultation, management, development and renovation of residential communities.

Hiregy, a professional staffing and recruiting firm in Tampa, specializes in finding skilled workers to match with administrative, accounting, legal, customer service, HR and IT jobs. Founded in 2004, Hiregy helps companies with open positions to connect with job seekers. 

IPitomy Communications, a Sarasota-based company, offers telecommunication solutions, including products and support. IPitomy was founded by NIck Branica in 2004. Prior to founding IPitomy, Branica served as president and CEO of Comdial Corp. IPitomy's product, Pure IP PBX, received a 2009 Product of the Year Award from Technology Marketing Corporation's (TMC®) Customer Interaction Solutions magazine.

Prudential Lakewood Ranch Realty, ranked as the top realty group (2010) by Trendgraphix, is one of the nation's leading providers of MLS-based real estate reports. The group was recognized as the top performer in several categories, including total sales, percentage of listing, percentage of buyers, listing sales and buyer sales.

Hire Velocity, a recruitment process outsourcing company, serves its clients by providing HR services such as recruiting and benefits enrollment. CEO Valeri Marks has been running Hire Velocity since May 2009. In December 2010, Hire Velocity acquired TSC Services, and the combined entity employs approximately 84 people.

Plasma-Therm manufactures equipment for the production of electronic chips for current and futuristic applications. A growing bright spot of high-value-added industry serving global markets, Plasma-Therm increasingly attracts technical and engineering talent to Tampa Bay even in today's rocky economy. About 75 percent of Plasma-Therm employees are college-educated and about 25 percent have post-graduate degrees, typically in materials or electrical engineering.

Sarasota Precision Engineering (SPE), located in Sarasota, began as an automotive and aerospace manufacturing company, and has opened a medical manufacturing division. The medical division offers customers medical device solutions, specializing in medical molding.