I'm looking to learn from companies that were started in the last 2 - 3 years that are making at least $1 million a year but didn't take any outside funding.
I think that the common thread for many businesses that have bootstrapped to high-profit profitability in very short order, with little startup capital is enterprise software that the founding team has either A) created and has a very good unique value proposition or B) services very well and in either case, has dedicated sales staff.
Most other businesses take a fair amount of money for either equipment or marketing. Logik talks instead about how it's first sale was around $45,000.
It's not exactly what you want, as these companies will have been in business a little longer, but you can filter the list by earnings and number of employees to see some higher-earning small businesses from recent years.
For example, there's Logik, discussed here a couple of days ago:
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Most other businesses take a fair amount of money for either equipment or marketing. Logik talks instead about how it's first sale was around $45,000.
How about Threadless? Though I can't seem to find anything that says when they were founded, I'd guess it's about 3 years, but could be more.
37 Signals didn't taking funding until after they were already successful, and of course they've been around for more than 3 years.
37signals is about the same (time period and what not)
http://www.inc.com/inc5000/2009/the-full-list.html
It's not exactly what you want, as these companies will have been in business a little longer, but you can filter the list by earnings and number of employees to see some higher-earning small businesses from recent years.
For example, there's Logik, discussed here a couple of days ago:
http://www.inc.com/inc5000/2009/company-profile.html?id=2009...
You might also try Mixergy, which has a bunch of profiles.