5. Lead Bank
6th Year
Growth: 652.728%
Average Annual Growth Rate: 217.58%
Gross Revenue 2021: $146,368,000
2018: $19,445,000
Full-time employees: 119
From No. 45 to No. 20, to No. 8, and now to the fifth spot on Corporate Report 100, Lead Bank continues to show the power of pivoting. From its roots as a community bank, it shifted gears to become a champion of small business lending, dramatically building its portfolio with an intense focus on emerging companies that, like the bank itself, have the potential to become something much bigger. Revenues have soared as the bank boostered its assets by nearly 58 percent between 2018 and 2021—an impressive feat in a regional marketplace that is vastly more competitive than you’ll find in most cities of similar size. As part of that, interest-bearing balances surged more than 3,000 percent in that same time period, and the portfolio of real estate rocketed from $70,000 to $1.72 million—a tidy jump of 2,353 percent. Under CEO Josh Rowland, whose family acquired the Garden City bank in 2005, and President Greg Bynum, the bank has become a go-to lender for aspiring entrepreneurs.