About us

Fast Track has established a reputation as the UK's leading face-to-face networking events company due to:

• the high calibre of the entrepreneurs and directors from the UK's top private companies that regularly attend our invitation-only networking dinners and have become part of the Fast Track alumni network
• the quality of our research behind the league tables
• delivering tangible value to our blue-chip sponsors, most of whom have been supporting us for many years

The first Fast Track 100 league table was published in The Sunday Times in December 1997. Fast Track now produces seven annual league table supplements and awards programmes, which have created seven distinct alumni networks of entrepreneurs, ranging from tech entrepreneurs to those who run and own the biggest private companies.

Fast Track is based in Oxford with 16 full-time staff and a network of freelance researchers. Our research team interview most companies on the league tables and visit over 300 a year. Our events team arrange a national awards event for each of the 7 league tables, and a series of follow-up regional and bespoke dinners for current and past companies on each programme.

Fast Track was founded in 1997 by CEO Hamish Stevenson who secured cornerstone sponsorship from Richard Branson as part of his research fellowship in entrepreneurship at Oxford University, where he completed his doctorate and remains an associate fellow.

Fast Track alumni network of current and past companies

Fast Track's league tables have spotted and engaged many successful companies before they floated, such as chip designer ARM Holdings and Carphone Warehouse, and before they became household names such as, Pets at Home and Boden. Read the success stories here.

Over the past 16 years our league table awards and events programmes have helped raise the profile of over 3,500 private growth companies.

These 3,500 fast-growth and medium-sized companies that have featured on our league tables are essential to the UK economy, as they represent:

• the majority of the UK's 1,700 private companies with operating profits of over £3m, and almost all with profits over £20m or sales over £250m
• £470bn of combined sales
• £25bn of combined profits
• 2.5 million employees

Over 10,000 entrepreneurial founders and directors from these past companies have participated in our research visits and/or attended our events. Many continue to participate in our Fast Track alumni network as attendees at our networking dinners and as guest speakers.