ORCA SEMICONDUCTOR

The demand for analog design talent, especially in power ICs, has never been more competitive. So how do you build a team from scratch in this environment? According to Andrew Baker, co-founder and CEO of ORCA SEMICONDUCTOR the key is finding talent at the right stage in their careers—people who want to be involved and have visibility. Before founding Orca, Andrew built a successful career with some of the largest analog-centric companies, leading multi-million-dollar expansions into markets like mobile devices, wearables, and IoT. Through these experiences, he saw how large companies can make engineers feel invisible. In big organizations, career paths are clear, and progress is easy to track. But that structure can also trap engineers in siloes, limiting their ability to take on new challenges. Startups, by contrast, thrive on flexibility. With fewer layers of management, engineers get direct access to leadership and the chance to work on diverse tasks. Startups can also provide engineers a lot of freedom to work on differentiated tasks because startups live and breathe on flexibility! And smaller organizations have fewer layers, meaning greater access to experienced executives and the chance to learn directly from them. These features translate to more opportunities to be hands-on and get recognized for achievements – which can be selling points but as Andrew said, “You have to get that balance between someone who really wants to work in that entrepreneurial environment who really wants to be hands-on and not just stamp in at 9am and go home at 5pm.” Orca offers an exciting alternative to being buried in bureaucracy and their aim is to work work with top OEMs in wearable tech, handsets, and other sectors to provide custom solutions, meaning a lot of variety and nonstop engineering challenges. Thanks to Andrew for a great conversation and honest insights into the realities of startup life. Where do you stand—are you drawn to startups or established companies, and why? #semiconductorindustry #powermanagement #analogdesign

You made my day today Clive (Max) Maxfield . A light hearted intro with a serious message about what we talked about when we met a while back. I loved the reference to Jaws 😀. Thank you! I hope we talk again for our next product. https://lnkd.in/dC3Qsiad