Of the ones on your list I've owned Salk, Philharmonic, and Selah. They compete by using off-the-shelf drivers (or slightly modified), excellent crossover design and, with Salk, phenomenal custom woodworking. On the finance side, their R&D department is their own time/sweat, their marketing department is their customers and, finally, they sell direct.
Notable very small loudspeaker companies (other than Tekton!)
Let's give a shout-out to those very small speaker companies that make excellent products. I'm thinking of true one-man operations (owner-designer-maker) as well as very small ones (owner-designer + a very few employees).
My nominees: Ryan, Prana, Philharmonic, Fritz, Watkins, Vaughn, Chapman, even Daedalus, Salk, Selah.
Who else belongs in this list?
How do they manage to compete with the "big boys", in quality if not in quantity?