Secured Success

A trip Walt Augustinowicz took to Washington, D.C., last year to meet with patent officers was a dream-come-true entrepreneur moment.

There he was in a waiting room at 9 a.m., watching U.S. Patent and Trademark Office employees shuffle into work. Many of those employees, it turns out, use ID badge holders made and sold by Augustinowicz's company, Englewood-based Identity Stronghold, to access the building. “That,” says Augustinowicz, “was so cool.”

Augustinowicz has had many other pinch-me-like moments in the nine years he's spent turning Identity Stronghold from a home-based startup to a thriving, filled-to-the-brim firm. Sales are up 142% since 2011, from $3.3 million to $8 million last year, and Augustinowicz projects the firm will surpass $10 million in 2014 sales. The firm has 16 employees, plus another 30 who work on order fulfillment on a part-time basis.