Industry Expert Blogs

A co-founder of an incubator for semiconductor startups gives advice to entrepreneurs working in silicon.

Traditional venture investors in the semiconductor sector have gone elsewhere. They believe it takes $100 million to launch a meaningful semiconductor company, seven years or more to get to revenue and there are much better investments elsewhere.

Nevertheless, this is a great time to launch a semiconductor company and there is plenty of money looking for clever startups. However, this money is just not from the traditional venture capital sources. For example, AngelList currently shows 3,780 investors who have made or are interested in semiconductor deals.

For engineers ready to take the plunge, here’s a summary of what I have learned over the past couple of years from advising numerous semiconductor entrepreneurs.