Paul Pickering

Paul Pickering has been a passionate advocate for emerging semiconductor and sensor technologies during the length of his 40-year career. He has worked with an extensive array of technologies and has also been on the founding team of two semiconductor start-ups. Paul is an active angel investor in the area of early-stage semiconductor and sensor technologies. He currently serves as Managing Director of Microtech Ventures and Managing Partner at Silicon Catalyst, both organizations have numerous angel investments. During his corporate career, he was an executive at two public companies that have subsequently been acquired. From 2015 to 2019, he was the Chief Revenue Officer for Micralyne Inc. based in Edmonton Alberta, Canada. In August 2019, Micralyne was acquired by Teledyne Technologies.

Paul is a graduate of West Chester University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Science degree and also attended Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania. He is a recognized speaker at technology conferences and trade events in the semiconductor and MEMS industries.

Shooting Stars and Unicorns: Investing and Funding Seed-Stage MEMS Companies

The strong partnership between investors and entrepreneurs is an essential component to enabling the success of any venture funded company. Establishing a healthy base of investors at an early stage is an ideal situation, but this is rarely the case with seed-stage MEMS and Sensor companies. It is more common for early-stage companies to struggle through the process while operating with very limited funds. Over the last eight years, I have reviewed business plans from over 300 MEMS and Sensor companies. Several great companies stand out in this group, and many others have significant deficiencies. In this session, I will provide relative insights for both investors and entrepreneurs to help identify the qualities of successful MEMS and Sensor companies. The goal is to provide tangible guidelines for raising capital and investing in this space for the most successful outcome for the investor and entrepreneur partnership.