<p><em>The article presents the main features of Slovenia&rsquo;s fastest growing companies and compares them with &ldquo;gazelles&rdquo; in the EU. The longitudinal survey presented connects with three other studies applying the same research method, namely studies employing the same questionnaire on growth factors that affect growing companies through to the criteria by which they were selected as growing businesses for the survey. The author notes that the growth factors which have an impact on Slovenian businesses and gazelles in the EU mostly do not show any significant differences, and that these differences also did not change significantly over a 15-year period. This hypothesis is verified by both statistical methods and the data mining method called machine learning from examples.</em></p>