Ruckus Named to the Inc. 5000

A note from Anish Shah, Founder & CEO of Ruckus.

I know we’ve all been bombarded with folks throwing up these awards over the past 48 hours. And I generally think most awards are pay-for-play horseshit, but this one is kind of special.

I remember 3ish years ago, I was plotting ways to backdoor our way into getting onto an Inc list. Getting onto the list shows we’re a legit operation deserving of a real reputation with the financials to back it up. Not something rag-tag and scraped together, which is what most founders actually think their business is.

I had all these ridiculous ideas of new business lines with pass-through revenue, just to fluff up our topline. Looking back on it – trying to scheme the most illegitimate ideas to show we’re legit, is kind of hilarious.

Luckily, I wasn’t distracted by the fluff for long and instead focused on building a real, lasting business with an exceptional team. Three years later, we’ve grown fast enough to be the 71st fastest growing company in New York.

We put looking legit on the back burner. And Ruckus became, actually, legit.