American Accessories

This small company began 50 years ago by a UT professor, Dan Boulet. The engineering company has 8 industrial engineers between the United States and China whose main office is located in downtown Knoxville. The company primarily deals with Fortune 500 companies through contract manufacturing. The diversity in clients allows the company to align itself with customers around the world. The company is busy with 50 to 100 companies at any given time while subcontracting over 100 manufacturing facilities in China.

Over the past 25 years business has been made easier to work in China due to advances in technology. In 1985 the factories did not allow phones therefore communication was severely delayed. In 1993 the company was turned around when Eric Zeahnah became the president and in 1995 he became the owner with his vision to make things better. Eric considers himself a conservative business man and that feels the Chinese government to easiest to work with.

Eric is a believer that service in the United States no longer exists and feels that there is opportunity in service for the nation. The company began in 1995 with a $5million line of credit with no backing because he was able to prove to the bank that cash was only needed temporarily for 30 days.

In conclusion Eric suggested for the entrepreneurs to identify a need in a market by talking with people of that market.

Over the course of this semester the ability to hear first hand stories of local business men truly has provided insight that I feel I would have never gained from any class at the university. This course has provided me with confidence that I will one day be able to follow in the footsteps of these men and entrepreneurs everywhere to start my own business. I will proceed forward with this knowledge gained in this course and go into a full time position with a company in Houston. After a couple of years of gaining practical experience and getting a chance to see a need in the market I will go forward and take the leap into the world of entrepreneurship. I am grateful for the opportunity to take this course and thankful for Dr. Martin welcoming the students in this course to entrepreneurship.

Tech 2020

April 12, 2010 we had the pleasure of visiting CEO of Tech 2020, John Morris. Our discussion with John followed a theme of decision points and how these decisions shaped his life. John is a preacher's son of Southern Baptist. He completed his high school diploma at Rhea County High School where early on he wanted to pursue a career as a high school band director. From this early decision he attended the University of Tennessee and majored in music education for one year before he changed his mind. Soon after he chose to attend Chattanooga State and obtained an associate degree in Electrical Engineering which followed a 5 year span working with TVA. The next decision point in John's life was his choice to go back to UTK and complete his bachelor's in Computer Science where he then worked for ORNL for 4 years with a "Q" level security clearance. During this time the desire to work for a small business resided in John but like most first time entrepreneurs he had his fears. After leaving ORNL he took a job with a small business called Consultec Scientific Inc. John was the 3rd employee of a 3 people company which gave him a chance to learn everything about a business and named the CEO after 4 years.
Later on John began two companies: Net Learning and Micro-systems that raised $660,000 and $16,000,000 respectively. The more successful between the two was Net Learning and in 1997 he became the CEO from what started as an idea. Net Learning is a software based learning management tool that was implemented in 500 hospitals clients. This company consisted of 43 employees and sold its first system on December 31, 1997. The main competitor of Net Learning raised over $16,000,000 whereas Net Learning began with $660,000. Net Learning was sold to Thompson Corp in 2004 which left John with the decision as to what to do next. John worked with one other company before he made the decision to stay in Knoxville and become CEO of Tech 2020, which is a business incubator with access to $50,000,000 in venture capital. In 2008 Tech 2020 assisted 214 innovative companies. John is currently working on making the transition from mentoring to actively being involved in start up companies in the area. In closing John believes that "Luck is the intesection between coincidence and preparation."

Event Booking

John Platillero is the CEO of EventBooking.com. This business venture has the most unique start in comparison to the previous businesses seen this semester. John's passion and love for music sparked the interest behind this business concept. He began as a concert promoter where he booked church events locally in Knoxville then eventually started booking concerts for the Bijou Theater. While working as a small time promoter, he came up the the concept of having online booking to have musicians stop through Knoxville on the way to Atlanta or Washington D.C.

As a student in the MBA program he wrote his business model for an entrepreneur class. Even though he was debt free he needed capital to begin Eventbooking.com. So he talked to friends and family and was able to raise enough money to hire a programmer and two salesmen. He struggled initially because of the relative newness of the internet. He was attempting to sell a product to consumers that was internet based before people knew the internet. An early client was the Staples Center in L.A. where he was determined to pick a market and stay focused on it. In the year 2000 the idea was derailed because the users of his software didn't integrate the software to their business. Through his struggles he managed to have 200 of the 450 arenas across the country booked to use his software. His motto was to bring today value to the company, with application based software. Clients at this point were charged a usage fee of $10,000 or $2,000 a year.

Presently the software books conventions in addition to tours, John never thought the software would reach the level of growth it has over the years. The software currently has an application on the Iphone and Droid cellular phones. The company is now in a great position for growth and is fortunate to have a industry giant such as Disney as a user. This company has shown that anyone can have a great idea but a combination of timing i required.

Pro 2 Serve

The name Pro 2 Serve stands for Professional, Product, and Services. The engineering firm sells solutions in the form of technical and engineering services. Dr. Goss started Pro 2 Serve 14 years ago after leaving SAIC which was at the time the largest employee owned company. Dr. Goss utilizes his educational training as a Phd to solve problems. Dr. Goss was the VP of Marketing during his time at Battelle where he was able to explore the US and Europe. Through this training as VP of Marketing he learned how to stay half a step in front of the market by noticing trends that occur in the market place. Dr. Goss is a great business leader that is able to detect a trend a make it a companies goal. Another trend he noticed was that long term employment with a company is becoming extinct through the means of work changing to project oriented assignments. Under SAIC he learned how to run a business but under the a corporate umbrella.

Dr. Goss believes that every good company has a core set of values that never change in a changing market. He wanted to start a company with values and build from. With his company he set in his by-laws to give back to communities in which employees live and work.

The core competencies of Pro 2 Server are engineering, nuclear weapons, material, waste, and energy. The four major business units are: design, physical security systems, and complex security systems. Due to the nature of the work performed by the company over 75% of the employees hold high level securities.

Pro 2 Serve is the largest corporate giver locally to the United Way for 3 consecutive years.

Aldis

The birth of this company came about one night while Vig Sherrill of ALdis was riding home from work. In this conception it was observed that great ideas need real world application. This device in particular is very fascinating but the device lacks a target consumer audience. The interesting aspect about this device is that the user of the device is not the consumer therefore battles to give the product customers have proven to be difficult. The competitive advantage of this device is that is runs from a personal computer whereas its competitors have legacy issues. The device requires little to minimal effort to set up zones in which it monitors traffic flow. The technology behind the device took a total of 4 years to have the user interface working properly. At a typical traffic intersection a loop costs on average $2000 with an associated failure rate of 20-25%. The average intersection has 12 loops therefore the replacement for this device is cheaper than the typical loop. The United States has 350,000 intersections therefore this product sold at $10,000 a unit is not enough to sell. The alternative approach is to acquire data and sell this information to a retailer such as a Wal-Mart and assist in the determination of an optimal location for a new store. To date 12 units have been sold in China and with China’s rapidly growing economy this device can possibly have a large enough market to sell. A quote was left which states “Don’t start a company for money but have a desire to make things better. “ Other noticeable things about the visit to this company is that Vig worked for Mark Medley at CTI Inc, about 20 years ago. At this point is when he realized he was doing something that he wasn’t passionate about therefore he raised $8 million through venture capital. This ultimately drove Vig to follow his passion where he learned to start a business with someone that is as equally passionate. The visit to Aldis was a peculiar from the previous experiences because the immediate need for such a device was not noticeable. The creativity of Vig in creating a product and creating a need for a huge retailer such as Wal-Mart has led me to believe that as an entrepreneur you have to have a savvy business demeanor to survive in the entrepreneur world.

Protomet

The story of Protomet begins with Jeff Bohannon who received his bachelor's and master's in mechanical and industrial engineering respectively from the University of Tennessee. His professional career began at Y-12 as a co-op where he participated in a 2 year rotational program geared towards upper management. He decided to leave ORNL and take on the risk of becoming an entrepreneur. His endeavors began as a consultant for Y-12 which lead to his desire of wanting to make parts. Jeff firm beliefs in writing out personal goals allowed him to be able to pursue his desire and begin his company. His first big contract came from Mercedes which consisted of a making one million parts for the automobile company. The per unit asking price was $4 to make a seat belt bushing. From this transaction Jeff learned that producing a high volume products is more lucrative than producing high end technology at a low volume. His biggest customers currently are Mastercraft and the Department of Homeland Security. Through his efforts he helps his customers understand the manufacturing process. He is also venturing into manufacturing a modular dome kit which has a retail value of $4200 which is half the cost of having the same dome hand made at a cost of $8500. Jeff attributes his success to his formula for innovation which is a step function as output increases input decreases therefore a steady input is required to balance the two.

Jeff speaking to our class about a copper machined part.

Material is sent into the warehouse where it is machined to it specified part.
Modular kits are formed for customers.
Machine used to make parts.

Control Technology Incorporated (CTI, Inc)

CTI, Inc. was another wonderful experience, which provided insight into the world beyond SBIRs and establishing a company for the long haul and not the quick money. Mark Medley is a good friend of Dr. Martin for about 20 years. His start came about in the early 1990s when Mark met with the head of Sony in Japan in the early 1990s and obtained some useful information about letting machines do their jobs of repetition and allow humans to do their job and apply logic.

In 1972 Mark started 2 companies with 4 fraternity brothers where they published magazines for high school and college as a small business. The money was borrowed from parents, professors, friends, and friendly bankers. Before Mark ventured into his own business he worked for Proctor and Gamble as a manufacturing manager head of making pampers. The decision to leave came about when he noticed his father pass up the opportunity to leave his profession and gamble as a business owner. Mark dislikes venture capitalists because he believes that they force small business to make decisions that are not in the small business best interest.

After his initial business he focused on making a product that a large corporation such as Texas Instruments can benefit. He found holes in their product where he would not compete against the larger businesses. His company also sold his product to Siemens where they eventually began competing against this giant. Siemens soon after sued Mark's company by stating that Mark stole their design. The court hearing took place in Nashville where Siemens ceased the arguments after $250,000.

A generally principle that Mark believes in is to govern with rules, use broad policies, and deal with one or two individuals. Last Mark stressed the importance of finding a balance in life between spiritual, family, and health. Mark started CTI in 1980 and knew then it was a company to harvest and grow.

Circuit Board to Commemorate 1,000,000 Shipment.

Pieces of manufacturing assembly

Completed circuit boards

Mark speaking to our class