Las Vegas has long been one of the fastest-growing cities in the country.
As the desert metropolis has expanded, so too have a bevy of valley-based businesses that have experienced rapid growth in recent years, including WOW Carwash, Capriotti’s Sandwich Shop and Goodwrx.
Those are three of the top 20 fastest-growing companies in Las Vegas, according to a list compiled by Growjo.com, a data-driven platform that tracks private companies and startups with 15 to 1,000 employees.
“I felt like there was a lack of sources tracking the truly fastest-growing companies,” Growjo.com founder Tom Blue told VegasBusiness. “I would see articles and sites about specific tech companies that were well funded, but that misses the mark for companies that are growing revenue and the number of employees the fastest.”
Blue said the site uses several factors to rank the fastest-growing companies.
“The number of employees is the biggest factor, but news events like new locations or hiring plans also feed into our algorithm,” he said, “plus if they mention their revenue or they mention some type of investment or funding.”
VegasBusiness sat down with the CEOs of Capriotti’s, which was ranked second on the list; WOW, which was ranked No. 8; and Goodwrx.com, a union-supported hospitality staffing app for temporary workers that was ranked No. 18.
Here is a look at each company:
WOW carwash
The wow factor.
Las Vegas has always oozed it, while WOW Carwash, a decade-old Vegas-born business, has strived to provide it.
“We want to wow people, and that’s how we’ve built our entire guest experience,” WOW CEO Heath Pomerantz said. “We don’t want this to be just any other car wash experience. Just like you can get a chicken sandwich anywhere, but you know where to get the best experience. We want to be that level of the car wash.
“That’s why we put it on the building.”
Founded in 2015 by brothers-in-law Scott Wainwright and Todd Bender, WOW opened its first eco-friendly express car wash with free self-serve vacuums here in 2017. Backed by Garnett Station Partners, a minority investor, it has almost doubled in size the last three years, from 11 valley locations in 2023 to 19 in 2025, with three more set to open this year.
“We’re not taking the foot off the pedal. We have a line of sight to 30 locations, still here in Las Vegas,” Pomerantz said. “We’ve certainly entertained going to other markets. But we love Las Vegas.”
WOW, which operates only in Southern Nevada and sponsors the Vegas Golden Knights, Vegas Knight Hawks and UNLV athletics, recently hosted a customer appreciation day in which it washed an estimated 20,000 cars for free.
“That’s what has fueled our growth,” Pomerantz said. “Passion for the community, passion for what we do and passion for our team members. We’re closing in on 300 team members now, which is going to be a major milestone for us.
“We joke at the end of the day we’re washing cars, we’re not saving lives. We try not to take it too seriously. But we take how we treat our team and our community very seriously.”
WOW grand opening celebrations typically feature free Chick-fil-A and coffee, 10 days of free car washes and discounted memberships.
Car washes start at $9, monthly unlimited subscriptions start at $19.99 and customers can earn rewards, or bubbles, on a new mobile app. The company, which uses biodegradable soaps and reclaims 80 percent of all water usage, recently surpassed 100,000 subscriptions.
“We’re going to get pretty close to washing five million cars this year. A lot of those are free car washes,” said Pomerantz, 38. “If you were to ask the competitors in town, they’re not doing those numbers. We’re doing those numbers because the folks know this is where they go to have a great experience.
“It’s going to be friendly people and a friendly smile. That’s our philosophy. What creates something elevated above just a clean, dry, shiny car? The lights that we put in the tunnel for the kids, it’s not going to make your car any cleaner. But it’s a better experience.”
Capriotti’s
Capriotti’s is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. But the Las Vegas-based company has been one of the city’s fastest-growing businesses since 2008. That’s when UNLV graduates Ashley Morris and Jason Smylie bought the fast-casual franchise from founder Lois Margolet, who launched the chain in Wilmington, Delaware in 1976 and named it after her grandfather, Philip Capriotti.
Since the sale, Capriotti’s has embarked on a major expansion from more than 40 restaurants in three states to more than 160 in 33 states, including 40 in Southern Nevada and six in Reno.
“Plus we have 150 in active development,” said Morris, Capriotti’s CEO, at its Downtown Summerlin location. “We’ll continue to grow the company, probably by 18 to 25 percent a year in new units, and will accelerate from there.
“Las Vegas is full. It’s been full for 10 years. But outside of Vegas and outside of Delaware, there’s a lot of area for growth.”
Morris, 46, said the goal is to eventually become a national household brand.
“The reality is we continue to move the ball down the field based on what we think is possible. But 500 (restaurants) by 2032 will be an outstanding goal to have. As we get closer to that, we’ll continue to push toward 750,” he said. “What is the white space opportunity? What is the availability in the United States of America for Capriotti’s? The answer is far greater than 750.
“Subway has over 15,000 domestic restaurants. Jersey Mike’s has close to 4,000 restaurants. Capriotti’s is sort of next on that trajectory to continue to grow behind these large companies that have all sort of sold to the mega-behemoth private equity firms. What’s the real opportunity for Capriotti’s? It’s probably multiple thousands of restaurants across the country.”
Morris said sales have increased fivefold since 2008, from $30 million to more than $150 million.
“There’s no doubt in my mind, given the next five to 10 years, we should be a $1-billion-in-sales company,” he said.
The average initial investment for a Capriotti’s franchise is $650,000 and the average sales for each location is $848,013. That figure soars to $1.27 million for the top 25 percent of shops. The franchise was featured in the 2025 Fast Casual Top 100 Movers & Shakers.
Morris and Smylie fell in love with the food at Capriotti’s as UNLV students, even moving into a different apartment together because it was closer to the sub shop. A few years after graduation, they wanted to go into business together and scheduled a meeting to present their ideas.
“Both of us only brought one idea to the meeting,” Morris said. “And it was Capriotti’s.”
They bought their first franchise in 2004, and one quickly became three before they acquired the entire company.
Morris said Capriotti’s biggest key to success is using the highest-quality ingredients, including Butterball Grade A turkeys and Snake River Farms American Wagyu beef.
“We are a restaurant operating as a fast-food outlet. We are not an assembly line,” he said. “That’s the company strategy and philosophy. It was the promise I made to the founder when we bought the company. We will always remain the highest-quality product.”
Goodwrx
Thirty cooks in 30 minutes. That’s an example of what the Goodwrx.com platform can provide its clients.
“We’ve done it. The technology and the network enables us to do that,” Goodwrx co-founder and CEO Nathan Armogan said in an office at UNLV’s Black Fire Innovation research hub. “We can fill shifts probably faster than it takes to get an Uber sometimes.”
Armogan was general manager at multiple Caesars Entertainment properties in Las Vegas before he came up with the concept of connecting employers with temporary workers via mobile app.
Goodwrx was one of the inaugural winners of UNLV’s Lee School Prize for Innovation and Entrepreneurship developed to aid the COVID-19 recovery in 2020, earning $150,000 for the job-sharing platform. The company was launched on New Year’s Eve 2021 with about 2,000 workers registered on the site. There are now more than 50,000 workers signed up in Las Vegas alone.
“We are lucky to have great clients across the resort corridor, as well as downtown and the stadiums, arenas and sporting facilities,” said Armogan, 48. “We’ve really been able to create a nice network of properties and venues where the workforce can take their transferable skill sets and ply their trade across multiple locations and have more flexibility in their schedule.”
The app also offers temporary workers access to W-2 jobs with culinary and bartenders union wages and other benefits. A union referral is required to work a union job, but full union membership isn’t required to participate on the Goodwrx platform.
“The difference with Goodwrx is most of these temp agencies take a cut of the worker’s pay, they don’t guarantee any benefits and you’re really at the whim of the employer and the agency,” said Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer for Culinary Local 226. “Goodwrx signs a negotiated agreement with the large employers here in town that also have union contracts. It guarantees that the employer gets the very best workers and you actually get paid union wages and your benefits are covered.”
Goodwrx, which makes money through a markup on workers’ wages, was boosted by a $4 million investment from Advantage Capital in a Series A round in 2023 that helped it expand operations to Detroit, Minneapolis, New Orleans and Washington, D.C.
“Our goal is to replicate this model from Las Vegas to as many other places as possible,” Armogan said. “We think it’s a win-win solution for workers and our clients. Our North Star is to build a gig economy ecosystem that distributes value more equitably to all stakeholders, including workers.
“We do believe that this model is applicable in other industries as well, specifically shift-based labor.”
Armogan came up with the name Goodwrx, which holds multiple meanings for him.
“It’s good work for individuals. Our tagline for our company is ‘Let Good Work Find U,’ as opposed to you going and pounding the pavement to find the good work. Let the good work find you through our platform,” he said. “Then also good works. Doing the right thing can actually work.”
Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on X.
Fastest-growing companies in Las Vegas
According to Growjo.com
1. Rio
2. Capriotti’s Sandwich Shop
3. U.S. Security
4. Big Chicken
5. Circus Circus
6. Sunseeker Resorts
7. Cowabunga Vegas Waterparks
8. WOW Carwash
9. Reveal Lasers
10. Virtue Recovery Center
11. Forthright Capital Partners
12. Pavilion Payments
13. Marathon Digital
14. Giving Home Health Care
15. Koin Payments
16. CleanSpark
17. The Crossing Church
18. Goodwrx
19. Las Vegas Ballpark
20. EO Solutions
Growjo’s methodology
Growjo.com is data-driven platform that tracks the fastest-growing private companies and startups in the world, using annual revenue, competitor analysis, number of employees growth, funding news, sales and financials, valuation increases and other growth triggers. Because the list is focused on startups with traction, to qualify the company must have between 15 and 1,000 employees.
