2022 Giant Vision Competition

The South Dakota Chamber of Commerce & Industry hosts the Giant Vision Business Plan Competition each year to encourage those with innovative ideas to build their dreams in South Dakota.

2022 Governor’s Giant Vision Winners

2022 marks the eighteenth year of the Giant Vision Business Competition. The following winners were selected as this year’s entrepreneurial standouts.

Business Competition

• This year’s first-place $20,000 winner was AMBER LLC (Anaerobic Membrane Bioreactor with Electrolytic Regeneration — offers an on-site wastewater reuse system), Maryam Amouamouha, Rapid City.
• In second place, winning $10,000, was Prairie BioTechnology LLC (Product that can extend shelf life of fruit; a food preservative derived from a proprietary oilseed fermentation process), Matthew Cole, Logan Wolf, Jordan Traub and Ian Schuh, Brookings.
• In third place, winning $5,000, was E Glass Industries LLC (After-market, fiber-reinforced composite auto body panels, designs and builds molds), Alexander Ellett, Redfield.
• In fourth place, winning $3,000, was Provender Technologies LLC (Modernizing cattle feeding with automated feeding system –automated, remotely accessible, and data driven), Henry Wegehaupt, Dimock.
• In fifth place, winning $2,000, was Thaumachron (De novo generation of patient-specific biologics that require only antigen sequences, allowing for cost effective, personalized, and patient specific treatments), Andrew Simpson, Rapid City.
  In sixth place, winning $1,000, was Blue Sky Holdings LLC (Minimally invasive medical device to surgically stabilize rib fractures to accelerate recovery), Tung Nguyen, Ryan Oines and Steven Briggs, Sioux Falls.

Student Competition

2022 was the sixteenth year of the college student competition. Entries were received from across South Dakota. Following a thorough review of the original applications, nine finalists were selected to compete and the winners of the Competition are:

• Taking first place in this year’s student competition, winning $5,000, was Disappex LLC (Resin for 3D printers that will dissolve in water; initial application is molds for manufacturing products), Whytneigh Duffie, South Dakota School of Mines & Technology.
• In second place, winning $4,000, was ITE Solutions LLC (Automated asphalt paving system, fleet tracking and data collection), Nick Degen, Ben Diersen, Rick Kittelson and Kade Griesse, South Dakota State University.
• In third place, winning $3,000, was SYNOZYME (Enzymatic biodegradation of un-recyclable consumer plastic products), Tawnie Williams, Northern State University.
• In fourth place, winning $2,000, was Li-Tech Lures LLC (Patented fishing lure that allows user to control action of the tail), Philip Litecky, South Dakota School of Mines & Technology.
• In fifth place, winning $1,000, was Envision 3D (Custom gaming accessories), Justice Forster and Pack Forster, Dakota State University.

The 2022 Competition Qualifiers

For the 2022 Giant Vision Competitions, a panel of judges selected the top qualifying entries that advanced to the next level of the competition on Thursday, April 14, at the Sioux Falls Convention Center. The display area in Exhibit Hall 1 was open to the public from 9:40 a.m. to 12 Noon.

About the Competitions

The Governor’s Giant Vision Business and Student Business competitions were established to help citizens realize that South Dakota is the very best place to start a successful business. The program was designed as an opportunity for entrepreneurs to compete for seed money and a chance to achieve their dream. This South Dakota Chamber of Commerce & Industry program is chaired by Brad Wheeler, Wheeler Manufacturing of Lemmon.

Giant Vision is a program of the South Dakota Chamber of Commerce & Industry, made possible by financial support for prize money from Governor Noem’s Office of Economic Development. These funds are matched by the following businesses to generate additional prize money and funds necessary to run the event. (No public funds are used to run the competition.) 2022 marks the 18th year of the Giant Vision business competition and the 16th year of a college student competition.

• Student Competition sponsors: Citibank N.A. and SD EPSCoR
• Business Competition sponsors: Black Hills Energy, Christiansen Land & Cattle, Ltd., Dacotah Bank, First National Bank in Sioux Falls, First PREMIER Bank, MidAmerican Energy, NorthWestern Energy, Valley Queen Cheese, Wheeler Manufacturing Co. and Xcel Energy