Full Scale Makes the Inc. 5000 List Five Years in a Row
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Inc. just added Full Scale to the Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing private companies. Five consecutive years.
I’m proud of those five years.
Many companies make the Inc. 5000 once. Surviving it while we weathered a developer hiring crunch, major tech layoffs, and the onset of AI? That’s special. It means that our clients kept working with us, our developers kept building for them, and the model we put our faith in back in 2018 worked out.
In this post, I want to consolidate those five years of growth into one story. And I want to say thanks.
Five years, five rankings
And here’s where Full Scale landed each year on the Inc. 5000:
| Year | Inc. 5000 rank (U.S.) |
|---|---|
| 2022 | No. 878 |
| 2023 | No. 3,984 |
| 2024 | No. 3,432 |
| 2025 | No. 4,489 |
| 2026 | No. 4,272 |
I’m still blown away by our first year on the list. We ranked 878th in the country because of 723% growth in 3 years, 78th in Business Products and Services, and 6th overall in Kansas. We were also named an Inc. Power Partner that year for the product team support we provide to our clients.
The ranking fluctuates from year to year, which is to be expected. We’re being ranked against all other privately held companies that have grown quickly in the U.S., so our position changes based on other companies’ growth as well as our own. What’s important to me is that we’ve made the list five years in a row.
We ranked 4,272nd in the country with 50% revenue growth in 3 years.
Getting on the list five years in a row shows the growth isn’t a fluke.
Why the Inc. 5000 is actually a big deal
Maybe you’ve never given the Inc. 5000 much thought. Here’s why it’s worth more than a plaque on the wall.
Here’s why it’s more than just a plaque on the wall:
It’s a list that’s been around since 1982. To qualify, a firm must be privately held and U.S. based and demonstrate three consecutive years of measurable, audited revenue growth. No one’s paying to get on it, and no one votes for it either. That’s why it’s not only impressive to be on the list, but it’s even more impressive to make it there repeatedly.
How we got here
We started Full Scale because there was a problem my co-founder Matt DeCoursey and I had at our own businesses: it was hard to find good devs, and even harder to retain them. In 2018, we flew to Cebu, the Philippines, to start an office and hire devs for our own teams. Other founders realized our setup was working and asked us to source devs for them. That was the business model.
The hiring issue never went away. There are still more open software roles than available developers in the US, and firms outside the major coastal cities don’t have the cash to compete with tech giants for talent. Full Scale is how we solved it, and the approach is straightforward: we recruit and vet devs in the Philippines, hire them as full-time Full Scale employees, paying them competitive salaries and providing benefits and equipment, then embed them with one client’s team so they act like any other member of the team. When done correctly, that is how a good offshore team should feel, less like a service provider, more like your own staff.
It’s an actual job, not a gig.
Our devs only work for one client, but we employ them, which is why they stay. We review over 1,000 applications every month, and we hire roughly the top 3% of those who pass our vetting process. At last count, we had over 350 devs in the Philippines, with over 93% retention in an industry known for its high churn rate. We’ve been Great Place to Work Certified for two consecutive years, with 95% of our team stating it’s a great place to work, compared to 65% at an average company. In 2026, those very scores placed us at #15 among Southeast Asia’s best tech employers.
More than 700 developers have been placed with clients since 2018.
That’s the kind of growth Inc. is tracking.
The growth is really our clients’ growth
Now for our entry on that list.
We succeed when they do.
Consider AMC Theatres. When their CIO, Derrick Leggett, began assembling his development team, the chain operated about 170 theatres and didn’t have a website or an app. Today, they run 900+ theatres globally, powering the world’s biggest movie ticketing platform. Our Filipino developers are part of that team like any other AMC engineer, not vendors sitting on the sidelines. As Derrick explained, “Technology’s gone from being a sideshow to being the center of almost everything we do at AMC.” If technology is central to your business, you need more great engineers, and you need them to remain engaged and motivated. That’s where we fit in.
Or consider LendingStandard, where CEO Andy Kallenbach has leveraged our talent through multiple growth phases:
“Onboarding an outsourced team and quick integration is a significant process that Full Scale is uniquely adept at. LendingStandard has seen multiple company growth spurts and Full Scale continues to pay dividends in delivering the velocity and developer innovation our clients demand.”
Andy Kallenbach, CEO, LendingStandard
That’s why we have that number next to our name on the Inc. 5000 in the first place.
2026: still growing, still hiring
It’s 2026. We’re still growing. Up about 30% over last year, and demand for what we do hasn’t slowed down. If anything, the arrival of AI has heightened the demand. Every company wants to ship more code faster, and engineers remain the limiting factor.
So honestly, the streak is not the point.
The point is that what we built continues to work well for our clients and for the engineers we place.
If you need help scaling your development team without breaking the bank, that’s what we do, and we’re still among the best at it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many times has Full Scale made the Inc. 5000?
Five years in a row, from 2022 to 2026. In 2022 we first came in at No. 878 and we’ve been on the list each year since, as recently as No. 4,272 in 2026 with 50% three-year growth.
What was Full Scale’s best Inc. 5000 ranking?
Our highest ranking was No. 878 in 2022 based on 723 percent revenue growth over a three-year period. We were ranked No. 78 in Business Products and Services and No. 6 in Kansas overall in 2022.
Is the Inc. 5000 a pay-to-play award?
Can’t buy your way on. A firm must be privately held and headquartered in the United States. To qualify, it needs to demonstrate audited revenue increases for three consecutive years. It’s that requirement, too, that makes me value a five-year run over any one ranking: you can have good luck once; you can’t show good growth five times in a row.
What is actually behind Full Scale’s growth?
We plug vetted developers in the Philippines onto one client’s team as full-time employees of Full Scale, so when they scale, we do too. AMC Theatres grew from roughly 170 theatres to over 900 with our engineers on their team, and that’s exactly what the number beside our name represents.
Ready to scale your engineering team?
We can connect you with skilled and vetted software engineers in the Philippines who are ready to start working with you within days. Hire developers with Full Scale and let’s create something great.
