AVLR

Avalara Inc

A maker of cloud software that automates sales tax and other transaction tax compliance for businesses, its best-known product being AvaTax, which figures taxes on every sale in real time so retailers and online shops never have to do the math by hand. The company traces back to 1999 as Advantage Solutions, then rebranded as Avalara in 2005, with founders Scott McFarlane, Jared Vogt, and Rory Rawlings nicknamed "The Three Amigos." It reportedly started with just five customers, and its made-up name has no dictionary meaning—a fitting quirk for a firm whose whole job is making a headache disappear.