Joe Matteo and Micro Types

On Monday, February 8th, I had the pleasure of visiting Joe Matteo and his wife at their home in Walland, TN. Joe has been in the entrepreneurial business ever since he broke off from CTI Molecular Imaging in 2004 to start NanoTek, LLC which specializes in micro-fluidic chemistry systems for application in Positron Emissions Tomography, more commonly known as PET scans. Joe told us that much of his success spawned from his experiences working at CTI. While at CTI, Joe was able to help build technologies and products from the ground where much of the work was very collaborative with people outside of CTI. He was able to build a large network and gain a wide range of skills some of which include R&D management, Sales, Contracts, Service Business Development, and Marketing. This wide range of skills and ability to find outside sources to collaborate with outside sources was an integral part of Joe’s success as an entrepreneur.

NanoTek’s technology stemmed from research done by CTI where CTI grew the plastic based technology due to manufacturing reasons and costs and NanoTek grew the glass based technology. Joe spoke about his time with NanoTek as “Lean and Mean” because the company was able to leverage prototyping and was collaboratively driven by working with companies and institutions such as UT, Siemens, and GlaxoSmithKline. He was able to obtain 7 SBIR awards in 4 years discussed the staying power of his company. The company focused on building a strong image to compete with larger companies and about how the resources of the areas such as Tech 2020, UT, and ORNL were able to help him grow the business.

After a while, he knew he wanted to move the company into clinical use instead of just laboratory work which required a good distribution channel for the product. NanoTek partnered with Advion , a company based out of Ithaca, NY and was eventually acquired by them. Joe spoke of how there were some advantages and disadvantages to this because they now had a large distribution channel for the product, but the process slowed way down due to the new size of the company. He stayed 18 months with the company and then left to form Micro Types.

Joe’s passion has always been for rapid innovation and started Micro Types to help companies, mainly small start ups and entrepreneurs, to rapidly prototype their ideas. He told us that he had really found his passion and was able to pursue it. When asked by Tech 2020 what his exit strategy was for Micro Types, he said he went blank because he had not thought of that and that all he knew is that he wanted to pursue this endeavor.

Joe finished his talk by giving young entrepreneurs, or anyone really, some “Do’s and Don’ts about life. The first was to assess your strengths and weaknesses and find your passion. As soon as you do this, you can focus on finding others to complement your skill set which will lead to success because of the passion you have about your work. Secondly was to build your skill and recognize and capture your opportunities. He said that everyone is confronted with a window of great opportunity, its all a matter of whether we can recognize that opportunity and have the guts to take it. Next was to get a personal financial planner now in order to prepare yourself for the unknown future. Another piece of advice was to surround yourself with role models and mentors and then to turn around and do the same for others. Just like these talks I go to every Monday, this facilitates the learning curve and allows one to avoid mistakes made by others in the past. An important piece of advice to build a successful business was to build a proprietary advantage because your earnings can grow exponentially when you have one. Lastly was to never fear failure and don’t allow it. Everyone fears failure, the important part is not to dwell on it but focus on success and success will follow.