Protein Discovery

Tonight we visited Chuck Witkowski of Protein Discovery in downtown Knoxville. While Chuck was in graduate school getting him MBA, he spent some time working for Motorola. During this time, he discovered his own desire to start a business, though he didn't know quite how to go about it. Around this time he met Lee Martin, who guided him in the art of entrepreneurship, encouraging him to pursue his dream. Chuck heard about the SBIR program, which he considered free money. He realized that this was an excellent way to take the first step toward starting his own business.

Chuck wrote 25 proposals in a six-month period. Two were funded. This number may be low, but it was enough for Chuck. He accepted the funds and decided to pursue the technology he described in his proposals. Unfortunately, Chuck never considered himself a scientist, though much of his life was spent around them. To overcome this problem, he found a research technician that was willing to work for him. The two began researching and developing their technology with full force. Early on, Chuck said that he was forced to learn much about licensing technology. He had to research what existed, and what he was allowed to do himself, as well as accepting the technical risks involved. There is much research and paperwork to be done, but it is a worthwhile and necessary use of time. He developed a relationship with ORNL, and was able to agree to a license which gave him the exclusive right to develop and sell their technology, though he had to pay the patent expenses. In return, ORNL received royalties and a small equity.

With the SBIR money, Chuck was able to lease an office space and begin work. After working on one technology for a while, he realized that that wasn't the best one to pursue. He wrote four more SBIR proposals and received funding for three of them, after which he continued research and technology development.

After a bit of time, they decided that they were ready to pursue getting outside funding. In retrospect though, Chuck says, they should have continued with SBIR funding for as long as possible. They obtained venture capital, but his partner quit the company almost immediately afterward. However, they kept the capital and continued development. Unfortunately, six months later, they discovered that the technology on which they were spending most of their time and effort was not worth pursuing. Again, though, they were able to keep funding and continue research and development.

They decided to hire a VP in R&D that moved from California to work with them. They got an idea for their next product and began to build it. They soon discovered that they could not continue without additional funding, which they soon received. They moved to a building in downtown Knoxville and developed their Passport system. The system consists of an instrument with disposable cartridges (they knew they wanted a razor/razor-blade-type business). They were able to acquire more funding with this product and were then able to market and sell the system. The first release of the system did not produce great results in the marketplace, though, and they were forced to continue R&D. A few years later, they developed a new system that was cheaper and better than the previous one. Now, their target market consists of approximately 50,000-60,000 customers, and their company is doing well.

In recent news, Protein Discovery has been communicating with a larger company who is interested in their product. The larger company may want to help Protein Discovery distribute their product worldwide, or may just want to purchase them. Either way, Protein Discovery has had a good run.