Smalbach had just been booted from two brokerage firms in two months when he landed the job in September 2008 as vice president of corporate finance at TTI. The company was supposed to turn patents into profitable products. In July 2008, Christoph Trina, the company's chief executive, said TTI had patents on a pesticide for citrus disease and a rust inhibitor for paint. "We've got two grand slams here," he told Gulf Coast Business Journal.