Charles Gottlinger of Georgia was searching for a shopping cart solution for his online automotive tool business. With help from Orem-based Bright Builders' electronic payment catalog tool and other Web building technology, his business, Handsontools.com, gained a substantial Internet presence and eventually an online storefront on Amazon.com.

Gottlinger is one of Bright Builder's 12,000 home-based business customers that achieved nearly 1,000 percent sales growth since 2001 with its Web development technology, said Jen Cano, the company's director of public relations.

Small wonder the company was one of 22 Utah County businesses that made the coveted Utah 100, MountainWest Venture Group's list of fastest-growing companies in the state.

Bright Builders ranked third after LoveSac and Innovative Staffing with a 9,439 percent jump in revenues to $5.6 million over a five-year period from 2000,

Founded in 1997, the 60-worker company also offers e-commerce education and technical support to its small business customers through Bright Business Center, a group of Internet business coaches, and HammerTap, a group of eBay research software engineers.

Statewide, the top five revenue generating companies include Questar Corp., SkyWest Airlines, Zions Bancorp., Headwaters Inc. and Overstock.com. Nu Skin Enterprises of Provo ranked eighth on the group's list of Top 15 Revenue Growth companies. Other Utah County winners on that list, which is based on the dollar value of revenue growth over a five-year period, include Altiris Inc., A-Plus Benefits Inc., and Brent Brown Automotive Group.

To be eligible, companies have to be Utah-based, U.S. organizations that have been in business for at least five years with a minimum of $50,000 in sales in 2000. The Utah 100 list, which began in 1995, is based on sales growth percentages over a five year period from 2000 through 2004.

LoveSac, a Salt Lake City-based furniture chain that gained notoriety on "The Rebel Billionaire" reality show, topped the list with an impressive 31,000 percent growth in revenues over a five year period.

"The company hadn't even opened its first store in 2000. But by the end of 2004, it had 60 stores opened," said Devin Thorpe, chairman of the MountainWest Capital. Much of its revenue growth is driven by that tremendous growth in store openings, and the leadership of Rebel Billionaire winner and LoveSac CEO Shawn Nelson, he said.

Questar was another Utah company that topped the list in terms of revenue growth, with a 106 percent jump over a five year period to more than $1.9 billion, driven primarily by skyrocketing energy prices and an increase in unregulated drilling and exploration.

"The award is a recognition that our cash registers are burning up. But that's purely a function of high energy prices on the open market, and not because of the higher rates customers are paying," said Chad Jones, the utility's spokesman.

MountainWest also released a list of the state's 15 Emerging Elite companies, of which eight are from Utah County. These companies were recognized for their revenue and employee growth, investment capital generation and peer recognition. They include: Agilix Labs Inc., Costume Craze LC, DOBA LLC, LogoWorks, Prudential Utah Real Estate, Veevix Inc., Vintela Inc. and XanGo LLC.

"The proportion of Emerging Elite companies from Utah County is growing because the venture or business community there is maturing and expanding. It's an indication that Utah is getting better at nurturing quality businesses through having better management teams and quality sources of capital," Thorpe said. "For instance, LogoWorks figured out the model for delivering customized logos and graphic designs for small businesses and recently raised more than $10 million in venture funding for its expansion. XanGo is duplicating a lot of the success of Tahitian Noni in terms of rapid revenue growth."

Thorpe said the award helps raise the profile and credibility of its winners among venture capitalists and investment firms, which is critical since there's "10 times more capital available now than five years ago" after the dot-com sector collapse in 2000.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D6.