Fort Collins – Since 1995, Curt Richardson has been all about selling protection.

The founder and CEO of OtterBox understands how fragile personal electronic devices can be, and how attached their owners become to them.

Upon this knowledge he has built a $350 million (revenue) juggernaut, ranking No. 1 on the Mercury 100 list this year among companies with more than $19 million in revenue.

OtterBox reported revenue growth of 106 percent over 2010 and now employees 400 people compared to 257 last year. If its LinkedIn account is any indication (and it is), it is still very much in hiring mode. For a large company just emerging from a nasty recession, those are impressive numbers indeed.

But OtterBox has demonstrated a genius for targeting emerging products.

Today it offers a dizzying array of protective cases for mobile devices. All the biggies are covered: Apple’s iPhone and iPad, Blackberrys, Motorola,Nokia, Dell, HTC — as well as many more.

OtterBox’s ability to jump on the Next Big Thing has kept it out in front of the competition, and its near legendary warranty policy has won it loyal customers who will purchase nothing else. Forums and chat