And several local companies that might have been attractive candidates for initial public offerings, such as Qpass or Attachmate, were scooped up by larger companies or private-equity firms earlier this decade, when they were flush with cash.
The excesses of the dot-com years have been well documented, but the lure of a big stock-market payday also inspired much of the innovation and entrepreneurship that has marked the Northwest's economy over the past two decades.
Should the dearth of new public companies persist, the region could become a less vibrant, compelling place to work and create.
Which isn't to say that the best Northwest firms are lacking in innovation or ambition. And at a time when so much of what went wrong with the U.S. economy involved the movement of bits of paper or bytes of financial data in ways no one could really quite track, the top ranks of the Northwest 100 are dominated by companies that make stuff you can actually touch.
Take Oregon's Flir Systems, this year's top performer. Flir, the first company to top The Times rankings three times, has relentlessly pushed its core technology -- infrared cameras and other imaging systems -- into more markets, from law enforcement to home inspections to pleasure boating.
"We believe every policeman ultimately should carry an infrared device" to see in dark, murky environments, said Flir chief executive Earl Lewis. "Every soldier should have one, every builder. When you get more electric cars, mechanics will have them."
Amazon.com, having grown into the world's biggest e-commerce company, seems poised to revolutionize the media and publishing worlds with its Kindle e-reader.
Key Technology of Walla Walla is living up to its name by building more sophisticated technology into its food-processing machinery and branching out into new markets.
Precision Castparts and Schnitzer Steel Industries, both headquartered in Portland, have shown that old-line manufacturing industries such as metal forging and scrap steel can thrive in today's internetworked global market.
The stock markets have recovered from last fall's swoon, and it's likely that many of the four dozen public companies that fell out of NW 100 contention this time around will return in years to come.
The real question, though, is whether investors will get the chance to buy into the next generation of pioneering Northwest companies -- or whether they'll be located here to begin with.
In a struggling economy, with investors more risk-averse, it may be a while before significant numbers of companies complete the life cycle from garage startup to Nasdaq listing, replenishing the region's shrunken roster of public companies.
"It doesn't seem like you're seeing as many groups of excited, disgruntled engineers leaving the Tektronix and Intels and Xilinx to start up their own shops," Dickson said.
