"They've grown like wildfire," said Jeff Brown, a co-owner of Bettorsworld.com, a Connecticut-based company that tracks and rates the offshore sports books.

Tallow is used to make a biodegradable motor oil by a Stamford, Connecticut-based company called Green Earth Technologies.

Mr. Tow heads Citizens Utilities, a little-known Connecticut-based company that's making tidy profits on small phone, power and water companies in small markets nationwide.

"We're very pleased," said Amy Shapiro, an executive in charge of pay-per-view for Century Communications, a Connecticut-based company that runs 55 cable systems nationwide.

The four created the Connecticut-based, dancer-illusionist company MOMIX.

The Primerica Corporation, a Connecticut-based company, provided the funding for the nationwide survey.

Employees of Mariner Health, a Connecticut-based company that provides health-care services in many states, often use nonrefundable airline tickets.

The Farmstead Telephone Group, a small Connecticut-based company, entered the picture in February as the unit's warehouse lease and the employees' hopes were running out.

The inductees included two Connecticut business leaders and two Connecticut-based companies.

Another private group recently paid $7.7 million to save a portion of the DeLorean estate, which is being developed into an 18-hole golf course by a Connecticut-based company.