Benny Lee and his wife Edith win the award for having traveled the farthest to pursue the American dream. The Taiwan natives and their 15 employees supply home appliances and housewares from their Riverside, Missouri location. Lee started the company 15 years ago and has experienced his greatest growth surge in the last year, a surge he attributes to a timely introduction of new products to the market, particularly steam cleaning appliances for the home. The Lees live just up the hill in nearby Briarcliff and have already become fixtures in the civic life of their adopted hometown.

1st Year

This Overland Park company has grown with remarkable consistency—a total of 735%—over the past four otherwise inconsistent years in the nation"s economy. Perfect Output"s 43 employees, under the direction of CEO John Walker and President Farrah Walker, provide document management, consulting, and management services to its clients. Walker"s path to success has been pretty straightforward—"a better way of doing business at a lower cost." With offices in Houston, Columbus and Calgray, the firm grossed more than $15 million last year.

1st Year

This biotech company is one of the first of what area leaders hope will be many—a successful life sciences start up. The company provides and applies novel technologies to solve pharmaceutical formulation problems for the drug industry. CyDex has an exclusive license to the SBE cyclodextrins, two of which, Captisol® and Advasep®, are available commercially. Based in Overland Park, CyDex employs 30 people and had gross revenues of nearly $4 million in 2002. The company has spurred its growth by signing new licensing agreements with major pharmaceutical companies.

4th Year