August 15, 2018

Interview with Silicon Catalyst Director and Semiconductor Luminary Jim Hogan

Silicon Valley, CA, Silicon Catalyst, the world’s only startup incubator focused exclusively on solutions in silicon and recipient of the prestigious UBM Canon Startup Company of the Year, announced today that veteran venture capitalist and semiconductor / EDA industry luminary Jim Hogan has been appointed to its Board of Directors.

Jim has worked in the semiconductor design and manufacturing industry for more than 40 years gaining experience as a senior executive and board director in electronic design automation, intellectual property, semiconductor equipment, material science and IT companies. He was a general partner at Telos Venture Partners and senior vice president of business development at Artisan Components Inc., now part of ARM Holdings PLC. He held executive engineering, marketing and operational management positions at National Semiconductor Corporation (TI), Phillips Semiconductor (now NXP) and Cadence Design Systems, Inc. Mr. Hogan holds a B.A. degree in mathematics, a B.S. degree in computer science and an M.B.A. all from San Jose State University. 

"Jim is a legend in our industry and is the quintessential activist board member providing advice in strategy, fundraising, and personnel, among other areas of vital importance to a company with a global footprint. We are honored to have him sit on our board. Over the past three years, Silicon Catalyst has gained a critical mass, having screened well over 200 startups, with 16 Portfolio Companies having been accepted into our incubator since 2015. His engagement and valuable input at this point in our company's evolution is a significant milestone," said Pete Rodriguez, CEO of Silicon Catalyst.

"Pete and his team at Silicon Catalyst have conceived and are executing on the right thing at the right time, filling a much-needed void in the semiconductor industry for seed stage companies. The company slogan of 'its about what's next' sums up the entire value proposition," Hogan said. 

“The thing I'm most concerned about nowadays is how do we innovate at a reasonable and economic level, because there's a lot of great ideas but they never see the light of day because they can't find a way to fund them. The Silicon Catalyst incubator provides startups a great way to take care of the big expenditures that happen right off.  Outside of people, when you do a semiconductor startup you're going to worry about design tools and then foundry access. Another aspect of the Silicon Catalyst incubator is the mentoring of the startup’s technical founders on how to run their business.  I’m looking forward to interacting with those technical innovators and hopefully make them more successful. I am also excited about both the prospects for the company and my involvement to help drive semiconductor innovation and overall industry growth,” added Hogan.

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.