Special Topics in Technology Entrepreneurship
Working to expose students to the pursuit of entrepreneurship, the Keller Center brings experienced entrepreneurs to campus to tell their stories and to share their experiences with students. Below are just two examples of such talks.
Oasis Semiconductor: the 10-Year Run from Founding to Exit
John Koger '85, former president and CEO of Oasis Semiconductor, told the story of the company he founded from its modest beginnings in 1995 with two people and a dash of angel funding, through its sale to SigmaTel for $70 million in 2005.
Koger, who studied electrical engineering at Princeton, described the process of developing the company’s products—a family of specialized image processing chips for printers—and recruiting customers, employees, and investors, and finally on to its liquidity event with teams of bankers, lawyers, and advisers. Koger noted that he enjoyed every aspect of the start-up experience and conveyed some of the fun and excitement of carrying cases of chips through the snow, debugging circuits via long distance, and dealing with stressed employees. During its 10-year run, Oasis sold more than 15 million chips to a range of printer companies, helping create the highly successful all-in-one (printer, scanner, fax) market.
Before founding Oasis, Koger spent 10 years at Digital Equipment Corporation’s Graphics and Multimedia Group as a CMOS logic design engineer, graphics chip architect, and multimedia marketing manager.
Engineering & Entrepreneurship
Chris Loose '02, entrepreneur, business plan competition winner, and 2007 Gilbert Fellow, spoke to students and faculty on the subject of "Engineering and Entrepreneurship."
Loose is the founder of and chief technology officer at SteriCoat Corporation, a biotechnology start-up that develops a long-lasting anti-infective coating for medical devices. After studying chemical engineering at Princeton, Loose worked in R&D at Merck Research Labs. He earned his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from MIT, where his work formed the basis for SteriCoat, which won entrepreneurship competitions at MIT, Harvard, Oxford, and Cambridge. SteriCoat is venture-backed with seven full-time employees and is located in Cambridge, Mass. Loose was selected as a member of the Technology Review 35, which represents the 35 innovators under 35 years of age who are considered most likely to change the future of technology.