Robo growth

In 2009, three guys in a strip-mall office started Hine Automation. Resurrecting the name from a company they purchased in the downturn, they began servicing legacy robots for the semiconductor industry.

Less than a year into business, the company shifted to design its own robots, which proved to be more lucrative — the business earned positive cash flow every year after its first, its founders say. “Only reason we weren't the first year was because of the startup costs. A lot of the stuff we have, we bought the first year,” says Jeffrey Cole, one of Hine's three co-founders.

Now the company designs and builds robots for semiconductor manufacturers, a move that helped it expand quickly. “The semiconductor industry provides products to almost every electronic in the world,” says Scott Craver, Hine Automation's general manager.