Survey of Technology Entrepreneurship: 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.