Cincinnati Growth Radar

5 Growing Companies to Watch

Photo Courtesy of Skylar Ewing on Pexels

A few weeks ago I previewed the release of my Greater Cincinnati Career Opportunity Radar. Apologies for not releasing it sooner, as intended. It was a far greater undertaking than I anticipated, even with the luxury of powerful paid tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator and Crunchbase at my disposal. Like someone tediously searching the carpet for a lost contact lens, I combed through data and refined my searches to make sure I found something “interesting.”

Drumroll please! It’s revelation time! Today, I will share 5 companies that seem to be on a nice growth trajectory. I will also provide 13 others on my “Also Ran” list.

Recall, I am doing this merely because I want to help others discover companies that may have more job opportunities. I do not have inside information. I am not being paid by any of these companies. I do not contend that this list is perfect.

This is all an educated guess using publicly available information — some of it is hidden behind tech paywalls — to try to guess where we might strike gold. It’s similar to a gold miner using geology and topographical maps to make an educated guess for where a major band of ore is.

Methodology Reminder

Here’s a quick reminder on how I compiled it. I went beyond looking for the green #HIRING symbol on LinkedIn, assuming that the biggest companies — by default — are the ripest spots to look, and counting current job listings. You’ll find that major Cincinnati multinationals — P&G, Kroger, Cintas, etc. —, save one, don’t dominate the top 20.

I used one table stakes floor and five key factors to filter a market of approximately 100,000 companies down to 100. Here are the factors:

• Headcount Growth >5% - In the past 3 to 6 months, the company must have grown by 5%. This was also the table stakes. You aren’t growing, you don’t make the list.

• Hiring on LinkedIn - They have to have the green hiring symbol

• Leadership Changes - There has to have been turnover at the top or in key positions

• 25% Change in Job Openings - Not only do they have to be hiring, but also must show an notable change in job openings

• Funding or Expansion Signals - They have to have received investment tranches or have data suggesting that they are making expansion pushes

• Crunchbase Growth / Heat Score - Reputable prediction on growth from a corroborating source

I also excluded small businesses and startups, companies with less than $1M in revenue and less than 10 employees. These companies don’t normally become MAJOR job providers until they are larger. It could be an oversight, however, joining these companies is filled with a ton of risk, trust me.

The Top 5 Companies Are…

After running my filters, refining my Google Sheets formulas, and resting my head on my hand like Rodin’s “Thinking Man” statue, I “discovered” five companies of note.

Are there guaranteed opportunities? Who knows? Yet, they appear to be ripening apples sweetening by the week.

This does not mean they are good places to work! It just means they may have jobs!

• DOCS Dermatology - Midwestern HQ’d Health Care Company

• ProAmpac - A Cincinnati based flexible packaging manufacturer

• 80 Acres Farms - A Southwestern Ohio based indoor farming operation

• Superior Environmental Services - Midwest-based environmental services

• Community First Solutions - Hamilton, OH based Non-Profit

Each of these companies struck the six criteria gold: headcount growth >5%, hiring on LinkedIn, Leadership Changes, +25% in Job Opening Growth, funding or expansion signals, & Crunch Base growth.

DOCS Dermatology

Last year, my dermatologist left his practice to join DOCS. Who knew I’d be writing about them now?!

Quick Highlights:

• Healthcare company with 300+ employees

• Revenues between $100M - $1B — but probably slightly more than $100M — fueled by locations across the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, and Southern US

• Glass Door Score of 3.1

• 124 openings currently listed on the company website

• Penfund, a middle market focused investment company, invested $205M in DOCS this March to support the company’s growth.

ProAmpac

ProAmpac is a Cincinnati-based flexible packaging company focused on helping customers achieve their sustainability goals.

Quick Highlights:

• More than 2,000 employees

• Likely more than $1B in revenue

• Glass Door score of 3.1

• 6 month employee growth of 13%, 221 jobs currently listed on the company website

• December 2025, ProAmpac acquired TC Transcontinental Packaging for $1.5B to continue improvement of the company’s capabilities

80 Acres Farms

If you’ve shopped at Kroger lately, you’ve likely encountered 80 Acres, fresh, crisp, and no need to wash lettuce. My favorite is Butter Me Up, a delightfully sweet butter lettuce — the perfect topper for a summer cheeseburger. 80 Acres is an indoor farming company that uses 100% renewable electricity and avoids pesticides.

Quick Highlights:

• >200 employees listed on LinkedIn

• Estimated revenue over $100M

• Glass Door rating of 3.5

• >10% headcount growth and 38% growth in Job Openings the past 3 months, 26 jobs currently listed on the company’s website

• Focused on expansion outside of Cincinnati into markets like Texas and Colorado based on $115M in funding within the past 18 months

Superior Environmental Services

Provides environmental and industrial services to chemical, refining, energy, mining and other industries. Other than passing the company’s trucks on Cincinnati’s interstates, I don’t know much about the company.

Quick Highlights:

• >200 employees listed on LinkedIn

• Estimated revenue over $100M

• Glass Door rating of 2.9

• >10% headcount growth and 34% growth in Job Openings the past 3 months, 55 jobs listed on the company website

• Focused on growth through acquisition funded by Palladium Equity Partners

Community First Solutions

Community First is a non-profit focused on health and wellness services. They are located just north of Cincinnati in Butler County, OH. They are a group of non-profits pool resources to make an impact across a variety of sectors including older adult housing, behavioral health, early childhood ed, and more.

Quick Highlights:

• >200 employees listed on LinkedIn

• Estimated revenue between $50 and $100M

• Glass Door rating of 3.2

• >10% headcount growth and 27% growth in Job Openings the past 3 months, 48 jobs currently listed on the company website

• Growing through acquisition of Sr. Living facilities and partnered with Kettering Health in late 2023 for a long-term strategic partnership

Insights from the 5

• Companies aren’t startups or bigcos - All the companies have more than 200 employees but less than 5,000.

• 80% of the Companies had Crunch Base Growth Scores of approximately 80 out of 100 or more, signaling strong growth prospects

• Range of Industries Represented - Health Care to Manufacturing to Waste Management to Farming

The “Also Rans”

This isn’t an exact science. It’s strategic guessing. Of my list of 100, 18 companies had at least 4 out of 5 change signals.

Here’s a list of the 13 that hit the second tier — some combination of 4 of 5 change signals:

• GE Aerospace (Manufacturing; >$10B Revenue)

• Messer Construction (Construction; $100M - $1B Revenue)

• Taft, Stettinius, & Hollister (Legal; $100M - $1B Revenue)

• Dinsmore & Shohl (Legal; $100M - $1B Revenue)

• Standex Electronics (Appliances; $100M - $1B Revenue)

• DuBois Chemicals (Chemicals; $100M - $1B Revenue)

• Ultimus Fund Solutions (Financial Services; $100M - $1B Revenue)

• Empire Marketing Strategies (Food & Bev Services; $100M - $1B Revenue)

• University of Cincinnati Foundation (Fundraising; $100M - $1B Revenue)

• Silco Fire & Safety (Facilities Services; $10 - $100M Revenue)

• Jones Lake Management (Environmental Services; $10 - $100M Revenue)

• Baxters North America (Food & Beverage Services; $100M - $1B Revenue)

There’s some big fish in this pond. GE Aerospace just missed out on the top 5 because its job openings growth was 10% just below my arbitrary >25% cut off. Taft, a Cincinnati based law firm hasn’t had high job opening growth, but has had a key expansion signals via a number of strategic M&A deals. Jones Lake Management, a company that keeps aquatic environments healthy, has a 167% growth in job openings in the past 3 months — which I’m sure is significantly driven by seasonality — but is nothing to sneeze at.

Going Forward

I’m focused on refining my approach and speed. Methodology tweaks will need to be made. I’ll likely need to figure out how to build an AI agent to do this faster at scale.

I’ll continue to refine my sources. I leaned heavily upon LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Crunch Base, and various web / ChatGPT searches for revenue information (which normally referenced ZoomInfo, Growjo, Rocket Reach, or Prospeo)

Last, I’m planning to expand the list to other markets too. Would love to know which markets for a follow on focus are of most interest to you:

Special Reference Shoutout

I didn’t magically manifest the idea of signals of change / change signals. A gentleman named Chris Gibbons, the Founder of the National Center for Economic Gardening®, introduced me to the idea in helping Second Stage Companies (i.e. > Revenues between $1 - $50M; Employee Headcount between 10 - 100).

At the NCEG, signals of change are used to identify when prospective customers are modified to buy. The key is to reach them when they are motivated. They can show their motivation in many ways, many of which can be seen in the light of day. The same idea can apply to identifying career opportunities.

Thanks for reading!

Paul G. Fisher