No. 8

Techstar Inc.

Business: Satellite technology

Location: City of Industry

Percentage Growth: 215

When the satellite industry was first getting off the ground, Tecstar Inc.’s predecessor was there. Now that’s paying off handsomely for the company, which produces solar panels that supply satellites with electrical power.

Tecstar builds the panels and various parts for them, such as the motors and drives that tilt them toward the sun.

The company was founded in 1955 as Applied Solar Energy Corp., a subsidiary of Hoffman Electronics, to make solar cells for the U.S. Navy. Its experience put it at the forefront when private industry discovered the value of satellites.

“It was a slow road for many years,” explained Chief Financial Officer Bill Baldauf. “There weren’t many satellites through the ’70s. There were just the military ones and we supported those. It’s only in recent years, with the commercial space boom, that things took off for us.”

Tecstar developed its high-powered solar cells “not like the ones on freeway call boxes,” Baldauf said after years of military contracting, and is now one of only two companies in the world that makes them.

The lack of competition is a huge advantage for Tecstar especially, Baldauf said, because its one rival, Hughes Aircraft, also builds satellites.

“A lot of people who are competitive with Hughes (in the satellite industry) don’t want to buy their solar panels,” he said.

The City of Industry-based company has changed hands a number of times. In 1992, an ownership group made up of a private investment firm (Westar Capital), a venture capital source (Enterprise Partners), an aerospace consulting group (Meridian Strategies) and key employees purchased the company.

Stephenie Overman