Mark Medley, Control Technologies Inc.

"The watchword of the future will be human happiness and contentment. When this state of mind has been attained, the production will take care of itself more effectively than anything ever accomplished where people did not, and could not, mix faith and individual interest with their labor." ~Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich

Visiting with Mark on site at CTi it was clear that he is different from the entrepreneurs I have met thus far. It seems to me that there are essentially two types: serial entrepreneurs and lifestyle entrepreneurs. Serial entrepreneurs will start many businesses in their lifetime. If they are successful this will mean that many of the businesses will be acquired by larger companies leaving them free to move on to the next venture. Mark Medley is the lifestyle entrepreneur. He has no intention of looking seeking acquisitions or looking for an exit strategy. He is very satisfied in his work, because he is able to deliver solutions to his customers.

Mark began his entrepreneurial journey right out of college. He joined with close friends from his fraternity to start two companies. He felt that it was a great time to take a risk, because he was still young and could more easily bounce back from failure. Mark emphasized the importance of choosing your partners wisely. Starting a business with friends may not always work out, but Mark and his partners had a strong work ethic and trust between each other. Those qualities were keys to the success of the business.

A great piece of advice that Mark offered is to do what you say you are going to do. Mark believes you should be honest and transparent in your business dealings to build your credibility and trustworthiness as a business person. People will be more willing to work with you if they know you have a good track record. Another great point that he made was to always try to have a balanced life. Right at the beginning of starting a business this may not always be possible. However, time management is critical and you should try to find the balance once the business is up and running.

The tour of the CTi facilities was very exciting as we were able to see some of the equipment in an operational state. We watched as the tiny pieces of the circuit boards were being rapidly and meticulously assembled by machines. Mark also showed us where the products would be washed and dried. That one large space that housed the equipment also contained an area were programming was performed, as well as a storage space for finished goods. The employees we encountered were very friendly and excited to talk about their work.

It was a great experience to interact with Mark, a successful entrepreneur who built his business on solid ethics, hard work, and forward thinking. These qualities have allowed CTi to compete with the best in the industry.

Joe Matteo, MicroTypes, LLC.

"Every adversity brings with it the seed of an equivalent advantage." ~Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich

Joe Matteo of Microtypes LLC has a background in defense robotics, however his “windows of opportunity” have lead him into an innovative field of microfluidics, chemistry and rapid prototyping. Joe knew at an early stage in his career that he wanted to be an entrepreneur. The beginning of his journey was to learn from others who were successful, innovative thinkers; and so, he began working for CTI a successful PET scanner company that was later acquired by Siemens Medical.

Joe enjoyed the exciting work environment at CTI that encourage and inspired innovation and creative thinking. Through his work and mentorship from colleagues at CTI, Joe gained the confidence to begin his first venture in 1994 called Matteo Automation and Robotics. In this venture he successfully received two NASA SBIR’s which led to two issued patents. While CTI was very supportive in Joe’s venture, they later offered him a new position within CTI. Joe recognized the opportunity and put his small business aside to become a Division Director at CTI.

Joe’s experience as Division Director gave him access to an expanded skill set including R&D management, manufacturing, facilities, contracts, sales, marketing, business development and service. Joe learned from these skill sets and resources and was able to apply them to new ventures in the future. Once again Joe was struck by a window of opportunity while at CTI. The company was planning to pursue a plastic based version of a product rather than glass based. Joe saw a niche market opportunity in the glass based product and wanted to pursue it.

This window of opportunity lead to the founding of NanoTek in October of 2004. Joe was able to combine microfluidics technology that he had learned about at CTI with rapid prototyping technology that he had developed skills in from Matteo Automation and Robotics. This venture was very successful and had what Joe referred to as “staying power.” This meant the company was self funded, had industry sponsors, and received SBIRs. By 2006 the company had sold 7 commercial units, acquired 6 employees, achieved positive cash flows and was developing a strong image. NanoTek was successfully acquired by Advion in 2008. The partnership was ideal because each organization had missing puzzle pieces that the other organization could fill.

While Joe was happy with the success of the acquisition, the increase in size of the organization had an effect on the company culture. In a smaller organization ideas can be put into action much faster, and Joe thrived on that kind of innovative and exciting culture. Joe decided it was time to pursue something new.

Joe’s new and current venture is MicroTypes, a rapid product development company. In any organization the goal is to achieve product development that is fast, good, and cheap. The reality is that most companies can only successfully achieve two of these qualities. Joe will not settle for two and strives to achieve all three at MicroTypes. His company uses SolidWorks and LabView to do product molding. We had the great opportunity to tour his facilities which are located in the bottom floor of his beautiful mountain home. It was quite an impressive operation.

Though MicroTypes has only been operational for 8 months it already rich in achievements including a DARPA funded R&D project, the beginnings of a partnership, proprietary technology, contract R&D, collaboration and hopes to have SBIR grants in the future.

Joe’s take away message was a list of valuable do’s and don’ts:

Assess your strengths and weaknesses, capture opportunities, get a financial partner, maximize staying power, surround yourself with role models, become a role model and mentor for others, build a proprietary advantage, don’t fear failure and don’t allow it.

Chuck Witkowski, Protein Discovery

“I am the Master of my Fate, I am the Captain of my Soul.”

-W.C. Henley

The most important take away message from my visit to Protein Discovery was the “never quit” attitude of Chuck Witkowski. Many obstacles stood between him and success but he never let those hurdles take him out of the game.

Chuck graduated received his MBA from the University of Tennessee where he met his mentor, Dr. Lee Martin through the New Venture club. He went on to take an entrepreneurship class offered by Dr. Martin where he learned valuable knowledge of licensing technology from national labs and the SBIR program, or Small Business Innovative Research program, which offers research grants to small companies. Chuck was so determined to start his own company that he wrote 25 SBIR proposals (each 25 pages long) within a six month period of time. This surely was no easy feat especially considering Chuck’s schooling background was not highly technical.

Of the 25 proposals submitted 2 were approved and Chuck was able to seed his company. Chuck’s first intended product was based on a technology that he licensed from Oak Ridge National Labs. His first employee who led the research efforts was Jay Hawkins. After much diligence from Jay and Chuck it was inevitably determined that the technology was not going to perform the way they had intended, so they needed to head back to the drawing board. Chuck jumped right back on the horse to write four more SBIR proposals of which three were approved.

Through his due diligence Chuck knew there was a market need for high throughput protein analysis and this is where he focused his efforts. The company hit a milestone when venture capitalist Gary Stevenson came onboard and invested $1M in Protein Discovery. While he considers this a step of success Chuck emphasized that it is always best to take your company as far as you can before looking for venture capital. Venture capital can be risky as you will lose some equity in your company and it is very hard to obtain.

Not two weeks after the venture capital had been allotted Chuck’s partner decided that he needed to move on from Protein Discovery for personal reasons. This presented a great challenge for Chuck as he was concerned he would lose the valuable venture capital. However, Gary still believed in what Chuck was doing and felt that the market need was very great.

Between 2005 and 2008 Protein Discovery was able to complete and launch their first product, the Passport System. It provided high throughput protein analysis that was not available on the market at the time. Unfortunately, Chuck was presented with another hurdle as the Passport System failed in the market. It had taken too long to commercialize and had features which did not satisfy the customer.

Chuck knew that focus on the user was incredible important so researchers at Protein Discovery worked to repackage the product into a smaller more user friendly design. He used the printer/printer cartridge business model, meaning that the majority of revenue streams would come from the purchase of one time use cartridges rather than the device itself. Chuck discovered something very interesting about his market. While it was rather small—only 50,000 to 60,000 target customers—the need was very great. This strong market need makes the future of Protein Discovery very promising. Chuck taught me that going after a large market size is not the only strategy that can be successful.

It was very encouraging to learn about Chuck’s journey and see the impressive facility in downtown Knoxville. Many times it might have seemed easier to Chuck to just give up. His will to succeed in the protein analysis industry remained strong as he overcame the challenges. He is getting positive response on his product from users and has been able to start a dialogue with distributors that could lead to growth in sales.

Through the Eyes of an Entrepreneur...

A great way to learn something is to try it out. An even better way is to completely fail at it but realize that you can pick yourself back up and try again. Its not an easy way to learn but it can be quite rewarding.

I am Sarah Davis, a dual degree MBA/MS in Biomedical Engineering student and this semester I will be taking a journey to walk in the footsteps of entrepreneurs as a part of the Engineering Entrepreneurship and Techonomics class at the University of Tennessee. My time thus far in graduate school has been both challenging and gratifying. In addition to pursuing two graduate degrees in two years I have also endeavored two business start-ups.

While both of my attempts at a technology based business start-up have failed I have learned a great deal through the experiences. Most of all I have seen my own strengths and weaknesses and learned that failure is not something to be feared. Failure can be embraced as it teaches your something new each time and strengthens you in the process. I now look forward to seeing through the eyes of other entrepreneurs to learn from their hurdles, milestones, and successes.

In this course I will be interacting with entrepreneurs from 13 start-ups in the Knoxville community. This course is led by Dr. Lee Martin, a seasoned entrepreneur and engineer. He worked for 6 years at ORNL as a development engineer, before starting his own technology based company, Telerobotics International Inc., which later became iPIX. Dr. Martin was key to securing funding for this endeavor through the Small Business Innovation Research Program. He attributes the success of many technology based start-ups to this program.

Dr. Martin has assembled and impressive list of entrepreneurs that will allow students to walk in the shoes and learn from their experiences. The list includes:

Chuck Witkowski, Protein Discovery Inc.
Joe Matteo, MicroTypes
Mark Medley, CTI
Jeff Bohanan, Protomet
Bert Ackermann, Spinlab
Andrew Stephan, Material Innovations
Terry Douglas, Provision
Barry Goss, Pro2Serve
John Platallero, EventBooking
John Morris, Tech 2020
Vig Sherrill, Aldis
Tony Buell, EnergX LLC
Mike Carroll, MKT Technology

I look forward to this valuable experience to learn from innovators, visionaries, and value creators.