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.