Inc. 500

At Viresh Bhatia’s company, InstallShield Software Corp. (#179), in Schaumburg, Ill., innovative employees receive greenbacks for patents–$1,000 when a patent is filed, and $2,500 if it’s granted. The six-month-old program has yielded four patent filings so far. “Having a patent portfolio is becoming more and more important for technology companies,” Bhatia explains. “The bonus is the simplest, purest way to keep that in the front of my employees’ minds.”

Silicon India Magazine’s Top 100 

InstallShield’s motto, “It All Starts Here,” gets a point across. Although computer users don’t normally take much note of their installation programs, many times, a computer’s install program is InstallShield’s namesake. Even if that doesn’t grab you, the beginnings of the InstallShield corporation are much more interesting than the beginning installation of Microsoft Office.

Ernst & Young’s “Software Entrepreneur of the Year Award” (Illinois/Northwest Indiana region)

KPMG’s Illinois High Tech Award