Chroma Technology Corp.

Founded in 1991, Chroma is an employee-owned company whose primary product is filters that are used in microscopes. Technically, Chroma is not an ESOP, but it is nonetheless 100 percent employee owned, with each individual's ownership stake varying according to seniority. In its first year, Chroma employed 7 and had sales of $300,000. A decade later, the number of employee-owners had risen to 54 and sales exceeded $12 million.