The Fastest Growing Companies list is unusual for Fortune.

Unlike the Fortune 500, it's not a bunch of names you already know.

What it really is a bunch of up-and-comers.

In fact in the past, companies like Starbucks, Dell and Microsoft...

...appeared on this list many years before they became national names.

There are a bunch of companies from China, there are health care companies,...

...there are energy companies, all of which you'd expect.

And then in the end, there are always the wild cards.