Russ: This is the BusinessMakers Show heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com. And now it is time for the Aflac BusinessMakers Flashback, brought to you by Aflac, ask about it at work. And for this mornings flashback we are going to roll back to earlier this week when I was in San Marcos Texas and had the opportunity to sit down with biopharmaceutical entrepreneur, Terry Chase Hazell. Terry is a encourager of entrepreneurship, throught the ACTiVATE program, a program designed to help women entrepreneurs create technology based startup companies. Check out this discussion. Terry, welcome to the BusinessMakers Show.

Terry: Thanks for having me.

Russ: Well, let's start by you telling us about ACTiVATE.

Terry: We recruit women with significant business experience and technology experience. And then three entrepreneurs, including myself, take them through the process of launching a tech company. Every single woman that was accepted to the program without question said, "I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur, and when I saw ACTiVATE announced, I knew this was my opportunity."

Russ: Are there that many that sign up for ACTiVATE?

Terry: There were more qualified applicants that we could accept in our class, so we need to start another class. In Maryland it was the same case. For five years, they've had more applicants than they can accept.

Russ: Okay. And it was at Maryland where you first became part of the program?

Terry: Yes. Converted, so to speak. I had never been involved in a women's program, so this was my first introduction to helping other women start businesses. And it was just a fantastic experience, being able to, you know, just tell people everything that I had done wrong, and helping them, you know, learn from that experience and launch their companies. It's very gratifying when, you know, a woman calls you and says, "I sold my first product today." Or, "I've gotten my first investor today."

Russ: Absolutely.

Terry: And it's very exciting.

Russ: Cool. Well, how long has the ACTiVATE program been in existence?

Terry: Five years.

Russ: All right. So you must have gotten in fairly early.

Terry: Yeah. I was in the second class.

Russ: Okay. So how does ACTiVATE work?

Terry: Well, once we recruit our candidates, we bring together three main pieces. One is instruction. So there is general entrepreneurship and business instruction. Second is mentoring skills development. And third is networking. We bring people that they need to meet to help them start their company, all to one night a week.

Russ: Okay.

Terry: So they get mentoring, networking, and instruction all in one night.

Russ: Okay. Now I know you've mentioned University of Maryland and here at Texas State as well. Are there ACTiVATE chapters all over the country?

Terry: There will be. The plan is to expand it in Texas and in Maryland first –

Russ: Okay.

Terry: – and then definitely to talk with other states.

Russ: Okay. Well, let's say there's somebody listening that's interested in the program. How could they find out more, perhaps even find out how to start one at their university?

Terry: Well, there's Activateprogram.org, where they can find where the different programs are, and then there's TexasState/ACTiVATE, to find our program.

Russ: Obviously, you had a technology background, and you already had two successful businesses in your past. Correct?

Terry: Yes. My first business was a pharmaceutical manufacturing company, and I grew that from a university idea to a revenue-generating firm.

Russ: What was the name of that company?

Terry: It was called Chesapeake Perl. And we had this idea to mass produce proteins in caterpillars, whole insects.

Russ: Wow.

Terry: And as crazy as it seemed, it did have a very strong manufacturing advantage. And almost 12 years later, the company is still operating and producing protein for pharmaceutical companies.

Russ: Wow. Tell us about that. How did that get started?

Terry: Well, I had been working at companies that were producing products for microorganisms since I was 16 years old, so I really enjoyed the production, manufacturing, the pharmaceutical manufacturing field. I had been managing phase III manufacturing at a company, and one of my old bosses said to me that he had started this company called Chesapeake Perl, and by started, he meant, incorporated.

Russ: Right.

Terry: Would I come run it? And I had just finished my master's in biotech management, so I said yes right there. And he was shocked, of course, and thought, you know, don't you want to think about this? But knowing me like he did, he said okay. You know, here we go. And I quit my job a few weeks later and started writing the first business plan.

Russ: Were you like more interested in the whole pharmaceutical field or in business?

Terry: I started out thinking that I was going to be a scientist in the laboratory making proteins, but everywhere I worked, even internships, before I knew it, I was managing someone else. So management seemed to be what I was good at, and I enjoyed. That's why I took a master's in management versus science.

Russ: Okay. How many employees did you have at Chesapeake?

Terry: We got up to a couple dozen.

Russ: Okay.

Terry: So it was a good-size biotech company.

Russ: Was it easy the whole way? Or did you have some typical entrepreneurial challenges?

Terry: Oh, no. It was smooth the whole time.

Russ: Okay.

Terry: No. Absolutely we had challenges. From the very beginning, the whole process is like a journey. So yes, there's a lot of – a lot of heady times, of great achievement and excitement, and a lot of really low, mouth in the dust kind of days.

Russ: Okay and that wraps up the broadcast portion of our interview with Terry Hazell, but obviously there is more. So go to thebusinessmakers.com and check out the Terry Hazell WebXtra and hear about the heady times when Terry started Chesapeake Perl. And that wraps up this mornings Aflac BusinessMakers Flashback, brought to you by Aflac, ask about it at work. Stay tuned in for our featured guest segments with Dr. Don Minnick talking about surviving downsizing. This is the BusinessMakers Show heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com.