This is an interesting point in history as Moore’s Law is coming to an end. Pursuing device dimension downsizing doesn’t work as well as before, innovations in materials, IC integration and packaging, technology stack, system and architecture level, also business processes and business models are all important and fast-moving. Collaboration across old boundaries is not just a nice-to-have. Furthermore, the big environmental impact caused by the semiconductor industry can’t be neglected, answering to sustainability calls is another challenge to the semiconductor industry. How can collaboration across segmentations in the value chain help with a greener future? What’s possible and what’s not?
As usual, we connect conversations from across boundaries, in this roundtable, we’ll have authentic perspectives from a big enterprise leadership (Samsung), a deep tech venture capitalist (Lam Research/Capital), and an experienced expert on engineer’s leadership development (with UT Austin). It’s a closed-door brain date, no streaming, sign up to join us.
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When/Where
Date: Dec. 13, 2021
Time: 5 PM, GMT / 11 AM, US Central Time
Where: Zoom (The meeting link will be sent to you)
Interview questions
(For Samsung’s background information)
Samsung is a huge multinational enterprise with capabilities from semiconductor foundry, memories, to IC design to consumer electronics. Could you help us understand the organizational structure and collaboration of the whole Samsung innovation ecosystem? (venture capitals, innovation department, new product planning department, etc)
What is Samsung’s strategy for engaging with startups across different possibilities? (how do you scout, relationship before investing, early-stage investing, integration with business units, M&A…) And which business lines are working with startups? (Semiconductor, consumer electronics, sofrware & services…)
(For Lam Capital’s background information)
Lam Research is a long-standing leader in semiconductor equipment manufacturing, while Lam Capital is a young subsidiary of Lam research. What is the main strategic consideration when it comes to establishing an investment arm?
What is Lam Research/Capital’s strategy for engaging with startups across different possibilities? (how do you scout, relationship before investing, early-stage investing, integration with business units, M&A…) How does Lam Capital collaborate with startups and your parent company?
(For Samsung and Lam Capital)
How do you measure the success of startup engagement? What is its value that can’t be quantified?
Can you tell us some lessons about startup engagement you have learned? And some success stories?
What are you looking for in startups that want to work with you?
- stage
- product or technology category
- geography
- Attributes of founders or teams …
(For all speakers)
Most startups you engage with might be deep tech teams. What are your suggestions for engineer founders? (or stories of how engineers succeed in startup ventures)
What are the different challenges faced by scaleups compared with startups, and do you have any advice for them?
What is great leadership look like when it comes to leading deep tech enterprises to continue to innovate at a meaningful scale and speed?
What environment and education can create the most innovative engineers in deep tech?
Speakers
Hrishikesh Sathawane, Director of Product Planning at Samsung
Hrishi has his MS in Electrical Engineering with a focus on Semiconductors and Solar Cells, and MBA with a focus on Marketing/Strategy and Clean Technology. has had leadership positions in big companies – 10 years in Micron Technology, 6 years in Toshiba, 3 years in Western Digital, and currently the Director of Product Planning at Samsung. His strengths include product marketing (coordinate sales, customers, engineering and management to launch new products and opportunities), and strategic marketing (investigate big trends in technology and markets and relate them to the company’s product offering, conceptualize new products based on market direction and ensure company’s involvement in industry groups). He has a deep understanding in the market for electric vehicles, battery, Flash memory modules markets, Utilities and related regulations, among others.
Kevin Chen, Partner at Lam Capital
Kevin joined Lam Capital mid-2020 bringing over 15 years of entrepreneurial and operating experience in materials-centric deep- and bio-tech companies. Most recently, Kevin was CEO of Crop Enhancement, an agriculture technology company commercializing novel products that replace synthetic pesticides, leading it from Seed through Series B. Prior to that, Kevin held senior roles at Hanergy (EVP of Silicon Valley Product Development Group) and Applied Materials (CMO of Energy and Environmental Solutions and GM of Energy Storage Solutions). Prior to Applied, Kevin led business development and product management efforts at NanoGram (acquired), AMD/Spansion, and Lumentum. Kevin’s passion for entrepreneurship was ignited early in his career when he co-founded Cumulus Photonics to commercialize innovative optical networking equipment. He earned his Ph.D. from MIT and is a mentor with the MIT VMS.
Leslie Martinich, President, Competitive Focus
Leslie holds a Master Degree in Computer Sciences from the University of Texas at Austin. She is a regular speaker at global and corporate events, inspiring technology and engineering professionals to improve innovation capabilities. In her many years in the tech industry, she observed that engineers and leaders need to build skills in innovation management, leadership, critical thinking, communication strategies, negotiation, ethics, diversity and inclusion, and more. Knowing that engineering professionals prefer to receive that training from someone who understands their industry, she has been teaching those topics to engineers, entrepreneurs, and leaders since 2001. She has also chaired several operating units in IEEE, including the IEEE Central Texas Section.
Moderator
Jessie Chuang, Wise Ocean
With a background in Physics and Electrical/Electronics Engineering, Semiconductor Industry R&D, and consultancy experience with corporations on cost reduction, product development, and project management of emerging technologies and AI, Jessie has been passionate about building interdisciplinary knowledge networks for big challenges and open innovations. She co-founds Wise Ocean with a team across borders to help scaleups build up the growth journey through global strategic partnerships, also to coordinate collaboration between startups/scaleups, strategic investors, ecosystem partners, and enterprises. Jessie helps with industry connections opportunities in the IEEE society as a community service.
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StartupBlink
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Mawsonia
Mawsonia Ltd is the publisher of three titles: Global Corporate Venturing, Global University Venturing, Global Government Venturing. These are accompanied by events and networking opportunities across the world. Our target community is the world of corporate, university, and government venturing. There are about 1,000 companies worldwide with corporate venturing departments. These departments back and incubate exciting new companies. Alongside these investors are universities developing new spin-outs and governments seeking to create a framework to encourage enterprise and ingenuity. Mawsonia is the publishing and events company that operates at the heart of this community.