Frisco-based MTX Group, a global tech consulting firm powered by artificial intelligence, has been named the region’s fastest-growing entrepreneurial company in the annual SMU Cox Dallas 100 ranking. 

Ranked No. 1, the fast-growing company exceeded 2,000% growth over the last 3 years.

MTX Group exceeded 2,000% growth over the last 3 years.

“That accomplishment would be impressive any time, but in the years that included COVID-19, it’s phenomenal,” said Simon Mak, who leads the Caruth Institute for Entrepreneurship. “Even more impressive, the combined sales of all the top 10 companies in this year’s 100 grew just over 400 percent over three years.”

MTX Group partners with government agencies and businesses to modernize technology and boost decision-making through data. It aims to help organizations transform with a long-term strategy that advances positive outcomes around the happiness, health, and economics of communities worldwide.

The Dallas 100 ranking comes on the heels of another prestigious award for the company: Last week, co-founders Das Nobel and Nipa Nobel were named EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2021 national award winners.

“We had a choice to either react or to respond.”

MTX Group—which offers solutions for health monitoring, disease surveillance, unemployment insurance claims, emergency childcare, isolation services for higher education, and vaccination management—provided emergency response management solutions during the pandemic.

“How you choose to respond to adversity defines your story,” Nobel said during his acceptance speech. “We had a choice to either react or to respond. MPX responded with innovation and resiliency, and we have added 1200 jobs in organizations.”

MTX Group’s Das Nobel gives his acceptance speech at the Dallas 100.

Nobel said it’s easy to be proud of milestones, but “that’s not the story that defines us” at MTX. “What defines MTX is how we treat our people within our organization,” he said. “MTX is all about people and people and people. We call ourselves family members.”

The company has a one-to-one ratio of men to women on its leadership team. That’s intentional, Nobel says.”We created that at the end of last year, and I’m extremely proud of that.”  The company also offers one year of paid maternity leave, he said.

The entrepreneur is often asked why he cares so much about equal access. Nobel says his mom was discriminated against in a remote village in Bangladesh in 1981. “She was pregnant with me,” he said. “You bet I’m going to fight the good fight.”

The entrepreneur closed with a ‘call to action’ for equality and equitable distribution of opportunity access. “What will you do as you move into the next chapter of your journey in your organizations?” Nobel asked. “How will you inspire the current and future generations to create equal access to opportunities for all?” 

Ranking the fastest-growing entrepreneurial companies in DFW

For the past 31 years, the Dallas 100 ranking by Southern Methodist University’s Caruth Institute for Entrepreneurship celebrates the fastest-growing companies in Dallas-Fort Worth. 

Earlier this year, SMU Cox Dallas 100 hosted a first-of-its-kind draft event that charged the city with a challenge seeking the best companies the region has to offer. The Dallas 100 awards show is “the championship round,” of that effort recognizing 100 of the “greatest champions for agents for change, problem solvers, builders, and job creators” in Dallas-Fort Worth.

Collectively, all 100 companies generated more than $8.5 billion in revenue over the past three years, and created over 10,000 jobs in the same time period.DFW “growth engines” contributed $8.5 billion and 10,000 jobs

“Let me repeat, we have created—not furloughed, not laid off. We have created over 10,000 jobs,” Mak said at the event. ‘You are all COVID busting companies.”

Simon Mak is the Linda A. and Kenneth R. Morris Endowed Director of the Caruth Institute for Entrepreneurship at SMU.

“We have created over 10,000 jobs. You are all COVID-busting companies,” says Simon Mak.

The companies create thousands of jobs and pump “hundreds of millions of dollars into our economy year after year,” Mak said last year. It’s why SMU Cox started the event: to call attention to the critical impact the entrepreneurial spirit makes on the Dallas economy.

The winners represent a broad spectrum of area businesses. Companies are ranked by the Caruth Institute for Entrepreneurship on percentage growth and absolute dollar growth over the previous three years, with an emphasis on economic contributions to the Dallas-area economy. 

This year, the area’s top entrepreneurial companies were revealed in rank order from 100 to one at a ceremony held at the Omni Dallas Hotel on Thursday, Feb. 18. The event, which can be viewed online, was facilitated by business-to-business media provider MarketScale.   

Top 10 winners in the 2021 Dallas 100

The top 10 companies, which together represent $1.5 billion in sales over the last three years, were given special recognition at the event:

1. MTX Group Inc.— The Frisco-based global tech consulting firm is powered by an AI platform with ‘innovation at its core.” Founder and CEO Das Nobel is on a mission to build “the number one culture-focused company in which all employees are considered family members.”
2. Highland Residential Mortgage—Founded in 2010, the Dallas-based residential lending company has a focus on providing a higher standard of lending to clients—and employees.
3. Gordon Highlander,—The Dallas-based general contraction and commercial construction firm serving the industrial, office, and medical markets was founded in 2007 with a vision of a “different type” of a firm that’s focused on people.
4. Glorious LLC —The Dallas-based PC gamer and enthusiast store was launched in 2014 with a “modest budget of about $1,000” to offer high-quality gear at fair prices.
5. Solo Stove—Founded in 2011 by two brothers who wanted to bring families together in the outdoors, the Southlake-based direct-to-consumer platform operates four outdoor lifestyle brands.
6. Aligned—The Plano-based infrastructure technology company offers adaptable colocation and solutions to cloud enterprise and managed service providers that can reduce the energy, water, and space needed to operate data center solutions.
7. The Crowther Group—The Dallas-based African American-owned general commercial contractor is focused on retail, education, restaurants, and the healthcare sector.
8. SMC Squared—Just four years old, the woman-owned Dallas-based IT outsourcing company optimizes global talent by leveraging technology.
9. Scout & Cellar—Founded in 2017, the Farmers Branch-based clean-crafted wine brand has an entire collection of brands and an internal infrastructure overseeing more than 20,000 independent consultants to help change the way people experience wine. Founder Sarah Shadonix is known for blazing a trail with the idea that “wine doesn’t need to be stuffed with chemicals and additives.”
10. Portable Solar LLC —The Parker-based solar and energy storage tech firm, which was founded in 2013 by local veterans and security-minded power engineers, does business as Sol-Ark. The founders were motivated to protect their own families and businesses from utility outages. 

2021 Dallas 100 winners, ranked

This year’s winners represent Dallas and 18 area cities. Here’s the complete list of SMU Cox Dallas 100 companies for 2021, listed from one to 100:

This year, The Caruth Institute worked with accounting firm BKD to examine sales from hundreds of companies for 2018 to 2020, which was the last year for available complete data. Company sponsors of the Dallas 100 program include BKD, Bluecrest Financial Alliances, Dallas Business Journal, Executive Press, JLL, KRLD NewsRadio 1080, MarketScale, Texas Capital Bank and USI.

Applications for the 2022 Dallas 100 will open in the spring.

For last year’s Dallas 100 rankings, go here.

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