Joe Matteo

Last night we made the journey to Walland, TN, to meet Joe Matteo and his home and office. After a hearty dinner of Buddy's barbecue, Joe began a presentation on his career.

Joe's early career focused on Defense Robotics. During that time, he said there were many ideas were planted in his head and seeds sown that led him to where he is today. He began to develop an inventor vision and a desire to become an entrepreneur. He spent a while in CTI product development, where the environment was quite conducive to entrepreneurship. They valued imagination and new ideas as well as collaboration and support. These two qualities make a great combination in a working environment.

Joe first decided to venture into entrepreneurship in 1994, when he began to create Matteo Automation and Robotics. He feels that he was very lucky to have had such fantastic support from those around him. He received two SBIR grants, got two patents, and CTI still allowed him to work 24 hours per week. He began to make rapid prototypes with a good machinist friend of his. However, he was soon offered a promotion at CTI. Accepting the job would mean postponing his entrepreneurship dream. However, after much deliberation, Joe decided to accept the job and put his small business on hold.

In retrospect, he is confident that the decision was the correct one to make. The job at CTI provided an excellent opportunity to build and expand his skill set to include R&D management, manufacturing, facilities management, contracts, sales, marketing, business development, and customer service.

Soon, though, another opportunity came along for Joe to start his small business. He claims that "Everybody's got great opportunities; the question is whether you know enough and are willing to take them." Joe knew that at this point, he was ready to take the risk and start his own business. He worked with microfluidics and health care. Using technology he helped develop, they were able to take a process and scale it down to manageable size and time.

Working in microchemistry, Joe became aware of the common desire to work with glass over plastic. He proposed his idea to develop the process to his colleagues, who promptly encouraged him to take the leap and start working towards that goal.

Joe took the advice, and in October 2004, NanoTek, LLC was born. The company focused on glass-based microchemistry, which had a pharmaceutical precedent but was not yet widespread. One of the biggest advantages Joe had in dealing with clients was small business speed. The company began strong, and had good collaborative partners like UT, Siemens Medical, and GSK. The company also had a strong team of advisers throughout its existence. They were awarded one patent, and had three pending. They had strong staying power, which was helpful in maintaining the company through ups and downs. Joe stressed the importance of this, and told of how he had several corporate sponsors who each donated small sums of money that added up to a powerful amount.

Another thing his advisers stressed was the importance of developing a strong image. They set up a long-term vision for the company, hired quality personnel, and remodeled and decorated their facilities to appeal to clients. Customer service was the most important thing, however. They wanted the clients to feel like they were well cared for.

The company had rapid success with lots of validation and a fairly regular cash flow. Their master plan was to develop a strategy to form a network of people for a distribution channel and move into clinical work. The wanted to provide continuous improvement of their product and market it to clients. In August, 2008, just four years after it formed, NanoTek was acquired by Advion BioSciences. Unfortunately, Joe felt that after being acquired, the innovative atmosphere of NanoTek was lost. He stayed with the company for about 18 months before leaving to pursue other work options.

He thought much about his dreams and desires, and decided that he had a passion for innovation and rapid prototyping. He developed the idea for an umbrella structure for a company, including proprietary product development, development services, and partnerships. Soon, he created Microtypes. Their mission was rapid product development. They wanted to help clients impact the productivity triad (scope, schedule, and cost) by choosing to improve all three. With rapid prototypes, there can be rapid development and improvements in other areas.

Joe also has a strong desire to continue learning. He enjoys starting projects he doesn't completely understand and broadening his knowledge on the subject. His personal business strategy is to expand his tool set, acquire tools, and leverage staying power.

A few words of advice from Joe were quite encouraging. He advised to find something you love to do and to do it. People can tell if you love what you do, and it makes them want to do it with you. You must assess your strengths and weaknesses and build your skills to recognize and capture opportunities. Get a financial planner, and surround yourself with role models and mentors. Become a role model and mentor to other people - one of the best ways to learn something is to teach it. Maximize strong staying power, but balance the level of risk involved. Build a proprietary advantage. If you're willing to work, you will find a place to work. Don't give up looking. And most importantly, don't fear failure, and don't allow it. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

All in all, I was very pleased with our visit to Walland. Joe was very personable, and he had a magnificent attitude toward life.