Circuit Talk

Tom Leahy, Head of Aerospace & Defense Business Development at SiFive, joins John Cole for this episode of Circuit Talk: Funders and Founders. Leahy speaks at length about the critical work that SiFive is doing in the semiconductor industry; work that is not going unnoticed by both the public and private sector. Recent partnerships with Google and NASA show how SiFive serves as a trusted organization for micro architecture. 

SiFive is currently being used by a staggering eight of the top ten semiconductor companies, as well as increasing their work with the Department of Defense and the wider Defense Industrial Base. Leahy's perspective is invaluable as semiconductor fabrication continues to expand across the ecosystem in the wake of the CHIPS Act. 

Learn more about SiFive at SiFive.com. 

Listen to other episodes of Funders and Founders, as well as our full range of Circuit Talk podcasts, and be sure to subscribe. 

Gayathri Radhakrishnan, Partner at Hitachi Ventures, joins John Cole in this episode of Circuit Talk: Funders and Founders. Through the corporate venture arm of Hitachi, Radhakrishnan helps create partnerships with start-ups, forging relationships with companies ready to scale and deliver value for their industry, the nation, the globe, and Hitachi. 

With a keen eye on the impact that technological advancements can have on the global marketplace, Radhakrishnan speaks on the importance of making hardware engineering cool again. As she says, “as much as software may be eating the world, that software needs to run on underlying hardware. It’s not magic.” 

Learn more about the work Hitachi Ventures does here: https://www.hitachi-ventures.com/ 

Asif Bhatti, Head of Strategy and Innovation at America’s Frontier Fund (AFF), joins John Cole for the most recent episode of Circuit Talk: Funders and Founders. Bhatti shares his perspective on the future for advanced technology in America, and how AFF determines how to inject their resources into the market with a vision for where deep tech will be 50 years in the future. 

A three-component organization, AFF assessing opportunities with 1) deep technical expertise, 2) their venture studios, and 3) their fund. Cole and Bhatti dive deep into how AFF shines a light on ideas and opportunities to signal to the market, the government, and philanthropists where there are unique, worthwhile business opportunities to target. 

Listen to their conversation here, and be sure to subscribe to get more Circuit Talk as soon as it’s released. 

Sam Salama, CEO of Hyperion Technologies, joins John Cole for this newest episode of Circuit Talk: Funders and Founders. With a focus on advanced packaging, Hyperion Technologies is operating at the forefront of one of the most critical aspects of semiconductor technology. The CHIPS Act specifically calls out and allocates funds directly to advanced packaging, so what makes it such an essential component of America’s plan for success as a domestic industry? 

Mohamed Kassem, co-founder and CTO of efabless, joins John Cole in this week’s Circuit Talk: Funders and Founders. Beginning with a brief but informative history of his position within the industry, Kassem dives into what he feels are the most pressing issues facing the semiconductor industry. From workforce development to the need for a semiconductor major in undergrad, Kassem and Cole engage in a wide-ranging discussion centered around the future of the domestic industry and how efabless is putting in a concerted effort to shape it into something accessible for all. 

Dan Marrujo, President and Managing Director at Trusted Strategic Solutions, LLC joins MITRE Engenuity Chief Technologist Raj Jammy to discuss the impact of semiconductor innovation on national security. Long time friends and collaborators, Marrujo and Jammy enjoy a robust conversation ranging from issues critical to national security to dreams of a shared digital architecture for semiconductor technology.

Shahin Farshchi, General Partner at Lux Capital, joins John Cole for episode six of Circuit Talk: Funders and Founders to talk about the important ways that a semiconductor startup can differentiate themselves to garner game-changing investment. Farshchi goes into detail about how Lux Capital determines whether an organization meets the requirements for investment, where some of the best start-ups are coming from, and the impact he believes the CHIPS Act will have on the ecosystem. 

Jimmy Kan, partner at Anzu Partners, joins John Cole on this episode of Circuit Talk: Funders and Founders. The two speak about how Anzu is focused on investing not just in emerging tech, but in the tech that will define the next generation. Kan speaks specifically about how much the landscape of deep tech, and specifically semiconductor, investing has changed in the last five years - he sees a bright future, but one that will come with necessary changes to the ecosystem. He and the team at Anzu Partners are working to guide that restructuring.