Protein Discovery

The first place that we visited in the Survey of Technology Entrepreneurship course is Protein Discovery. The owner is impressive in his own right due to the fact that he managed to start this tech company without having a background in science or technology. This UTK MBA prior to going into entrepreneurship worked for a phone service provider in which he felt his efforts weren't fully rewarded. This was enough motivation to become an entrepreneur. Originally he wanted a service based company but that idea was changed to a product based company. He began his endeavor by writing 25 SBIR proposals in 6 months. Out of the 25 only 2 received Phase I funding. The idea that stuck was about to receive a million dollars in venture capital when his partner backed. I can only imagine the feelings that are going at this point of time.

The office space that the company is located in is in a life science tool space building in downtown Knoxville. In 2007/2008 the owner achieved completion of the protein prep device. The initial selling cost of this device was an astonishing $50,000. This initial device was considered a failure for several reasons. In 2008 the company received $10 million from a group out of Texas. The new and improved product sells for $15,000 which was launched in June 2009. I believe this story is just the first of many that I will personally find of great interest during the remainder of the semester.

I used my cell phone to take pictures of my visit but I believe I pressed the wrong button to save. This is something that I will try to correct on our next visit.