Entrepreneur Chuck Witkowski brings startup home from Memphis [The Knoxville News-Sentinel, Tenn.]

Oct. 07--Chuck Witkowski is exactly what Knoxville-area leaders want in an entrepreneur.

The University of Tennessee MBA graduate launched his first startup, which emerged through local entrepreneur Lee Martin's Technopreneurial Leadership course at UT, in 2001.

The company developed relationships with research and development powerhouse the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and UT, lured some $18 million in venture capital, and opened its headquarters in a downtown Knoxville loft.

In 2007, Witkowski, then 30, received the Knoxville Chamber's Young Entrepreneur Award.

Protein Discovery's sale in 2011 to a United Kingdom-based company ended its 25-employee presence in Knoxville, but Witkowski says the community still benefits from its investment, which included $130,000 in improvements from the Knoxville Industrial Development Board to its downtown office and laboratory.

"Protein Discovery brought some $18 million to the area that was spent on salaries, rent, supplies, services etc. and we recruited PhD-level individuals, some of whom stayed here," he says.

More importantly, Witkowski is helming another startup, relocating its headquarters from Memphis, where its inventor and venture capital partner are located.

Now 37, married with children and having moved from downtown to the suburbs, Witkowski took several months off after Protein Discovery's sale before becoming an "entrepreneur in residence" at MB Ventures, the first venture capital fund to back Protein Discovery.

Among MB Ventures' interests is Hubble Telemedical, a health care information technology and services company that aims to make advanced eye examinations available to primary care physicians to screen patients with diabetes.

Witkowski has become its president and CEO and set up shop in the Stokely Building in West Knoxville. It's his role to take the technology and build a business.

The company received a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research Grant in September, and is licensed to operate in 32 states.

Witkowski, whose father is diabetic, says the technology can greatly reduce blindness in diabetics through early detection.

While diabetics are advised to get regular eye exams, and insurance typically covers the cost, only 40 percent of patients do and the biggest reason is convenience, he says. Because they don't experience problems with their eyesight, the patients don't make visiting a specialist a priority, he adds.

"We hope to raise compliance rates to 80 percent," says Witkowski, noting that by the time a patient notices eyesight deterioration it is too late.

The technology is opportune because of the Affordable Care Act's emphasis on outcomes. Comprehensive diabetes care will be among the quality standards for which physicians will be measured and paid.

"We are in the midst of a massive sea change in health care," Witkowski says. "Whether you like it or not it's here."

Health-care reforms are focused on "quality and cost, and hopefully not at the expense of each other," he adds. "We think telemedicine will be a big part of that."

Witkowski says he finds Knoxville a changed environment from when he started Protein Discovery in 2001.

He is now part of a community of entrepreneurs, many of whom share Lee Martin as a mentor.

"I think it's evolved a lot here locally," he says. "You get the next wave of entrepreneurs and it keeps growing exponentially."

Witkowski has invested in a couple of other local startups, and mentors their leaders. He speaks at UT engineering and business classes to "share my story and try to inspire those younger folks."

And with the availability of early-stage funding through the state's TnInvestco and Launch Tennessee funds, he says, "There's never been a better time to be an entrepreneur in Tennessee."

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