October 9th, 2018

Silicon Catalyst CEO Pete Rodriguez was a featured panelist at the GSA Silicon Summit

The GSA East event in Saratoga Springs, New York was hosted by both the Saratoga County Prosperity Partnership, Saratoga County, New York’s economic development agency and the Center for Economic Growth, a regional economic and business development organization.

Silicon Catalyst's CEO was a panelist along with Brian Pierce / Director, Information Innovation Office / DARPA, Yunsup Lee / Co-founder and CTO / SiFive, and Fran Korosec / Vice President of Program Management / BRIDG speaking on the "Semis Matter – Building a Research Based Innovation Pipeline and Ecosystem" program. In a fast-paced and engaging presentation entitled "Accelerating Innovation by Powering Semiconductor Startups", Pete spoke of the current semiconductor startup landscape which is being shaped by extensive industry consolidation, which has lead to a dramatic decrease in both R&D and innovation. This comes against a backdrop of expanding applications which will find their way onto silicon being fueled by innovations in IoT, bio, wearables, HV, and the like. Hardware is making a big comeback and Silicon Catalyst is uniquely positioned as the only incubator focused exclusively on semiconductor solution startups.

With a theme of “Harnessing Emerging Semiconductor Market Opportunities,” the event served to advance semiconductor technology and to promote collaboration within our industry. The event featured keynote addresses from two industry technology and market thought leaders: Dr. Gary Patton, Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President of Worldwide Research and Development at GLOBALFOUNDRIES, and Mark Lipacis, Managing Director of Jefferies Group LLC and a top analyst in identifying semiconductor trends and opportunities. 

More than 150 leading semiconductor executives and technologists converged on Saratoga Springs for the inaugural event which was a global industry conference aimed at extending semiconductor technology and business, highlighting developing market trends, and enabling opportunities for regional collaboration and growth. 

About Silicon Catalyst

It’s About What’s Next® - Silicon Catalyst is the world’s only incubator focused exclusively on accelerating solutions in silicon, building a coalition of in-kind and strategic partners to dramatically reduce the cost and complexity of development. Close to 300 startup companies have engaged with Silicon Catalyst since April 2015, with a total of 21 startup and early-stage companies admitted to the incubator. With a world-class network of mentors to advise startups, Silicon Catalyst is helping new semiconductor companies address the challenges in moving from idea to realization. The incubator/accelerator supplies startups with a path to design tools, silicon devices, networking, access to funding, banking and marketing acumen to successfully launch and grow their companies’ novel technology solutions.