Budderfly makes Inc. 5,000 list

Named one of 10 fastest-growing privately held companies in the nation

Shelton-based Budderfly has grown from a 2007 start-up company specializing in technology to a business to which other companies outsource the operation of their electrical, heating and cooling systems.

And in the process, the company has become one of the 10 fastest-growing privately held companies in the nation, according to the 2021 Inc. magazine 5,000 list. Revenues at Budderfly grew by 22,468 percent from where they were in 2017.

A total of 42 privately-held Connecticut companies made the magazine’s list of businesses with the fastest-growing revenues; 18 of them were from Fairfield County, 15 from New Haven County.

Matthew Nemerson, Budderfly’s vice president of strategic partnerships, said the company employs about 110 people. Nemerson said he expects the company another 30 to 40 employees “if we grow as fast as we hope.”

The company has clients in nearly every state in the U.S. and almost all of the Canadian provinces, according to Nemerson.

He described Budderfly’s business model in the simplest of terms.

“We're the one paying the utility bill and making sure our customers’ HVAC systems, freezers and lights are all functioning properly,” Nemerson said. Budderfly makes its money by reducing clients’ energy costs and then splitting the savings with them, he said.

Budderfly’s shift from a technology firm that made and installed energy savings to an power systems manager began in about 2017, he said. The company’s chief executive officer and founder, Al Subbloie, had started Budderfly while he was chief executive officer at Tangoe, an Orange-based expense management software firm.

He joined Budderfly’s board of directors in January 2016, just four months before he stepped down as chief executive officer of Tangoe. He became president and chief executive officer of Budderfly in October 2017.

Nemerson said a shift in the company’s focus was necessary because “it turns out

there are a lot of barriers to try and get people to invest in new (energy) equipment, new controls.”

“Nobody put in a new heater until it breaks,” he said. “Our company puts in the equipment and the customer and the company share in the savings. But nobody had ever thought of outsourcing (the responsibility for) keeping track of your energy usage, your electric meter.”

Subbloie said the company’s client list includes KFC/Taco Bell, Subway, and Wendy’s franchises, YMCA fitness locations, retail chains such as JackRabbit, as well as skilled nursing facilities.

“Everyone from Quick Serve Restaurants (QSRs), office buildings, and retail locations to assisted living facilities and schools have one thing in common — significantly high energy usage caused by aging building infrastructures and inability to properly regulate power consumption,” Subbloie said.

Nemerson said Budderfly’s service allows client companies “to get something off their desk that is important, but at the same not so important that you can’t let someone else take care of it.”

“People have more important things to worry about than paying their electric bill,” he said.

Budderfly is the third Connecticut-based start-up that Subbloie, a graduate of Amity Regional High School in Woodbridge and Hartford’s Trinty College, has landed on the Inc. 500 or Inc. 5,000 lists over a period of three decades.

Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc. magazine, said “building one of the fastestgrowing companies in America in any year is a remarkable achievement.”

“Building one in the crisis we’ve lived through is just plain amazing,” Omelianuk said in a statement. “This kind of accomplishment comes with hard work, smart pivots, great leadership, and the help of a whole lot of people.”

David Sacco, a practitioner in residence at the University of New Haven’s Pompea College of Business, said energy services are a high-growth business sector.

“It’s an impressive achievement for any company,” Sacco said of making the Inc. list. “But its easier for a smaller company to do. As a company gets bigger and its revenues grow, it become harder to replicate.”

Some of the brands Budderfly has for clients give the company a certain cache, according to Sacco.

“These are popular brands they are working with,” he said.

Harold Shapiro / Contributed photo Al Sabbloie, chief executive officer and founder of the Shelton-based energy services company Budderfly. Sabbloie is shown at a franchised Subway restaurant location that is one of his company’s clients.