What does Stathera do? Give us your elevator pitch.

Stathera is making high-precision frequency references or timing devices, which is a 50 billion unit, $9.4 billion dollar industry annually. We are a semiconductor company that provides cutting-edge, MEM-based timing solutions. Timing devices are in every single digital electronic device that you own. You could call it the heartbeat of electronics.

What we're doing is re-architecting the traditional Quartz-based timing industry with the introduction of our state-of-the-art dual mode MEMS-based timing technology. This redefines what was possible to do in timing – we can drastically reduce the footprint, as well as increase the performance of timing devices in electronics.

There are two reasons why your electronics need the timing device. The first one is just to keep track of time. The second one is telecommunications. Timing devices support your Bluetooth, your WiFi, or your 5G and 6G applications, helping to synchronize the data processing and make things work efficiently. Like air traffic control for data transfer and the various internal components to work in harmony.

What is new about Stathera's approach vs. your competitors?

Today, about 90% of the market is based on Quartz timing. Quartz has been around since the 1920s and is an excellent material to make a timing device. It's very stable and easy to oscillate, which is why it's been the king of timing for the last 100 years.

In the case of Stathera, what we do differently is, instead of making the timing devices with Quartz, we make them through single-crystal silicon. What this material allows us to do is create devices that are an order of magnitude smaller than the Quartz equivalent, are much more robust in terms of reliability, and more precise in terms of what you can do with them.

What problems do you solve that are issues for your customers today?

Quartz has reached what I would call two fundamental physical limits in terms of performance and size. When you talk about size, in the case of Quartz, the frequency of the resonator is defined by the size of the resonator – this puts a lower limit on how small you can make the device. Basically, you can't make a Quartz timing device any smaller than they already are today.

We are seeing more and more IoT wearable devices such as air pods, FitBits, and smart watches, so every single square or cubic millimeter matters. That's where silicon timing devices have a drastic advantage. Stathera is the only company that can develop what's called a dual-mode or dual-output device, allowing you to support timing and telecommunications with one device. That results in a drastic footprint reduction, and we would have a very large advantage compared to the legacy Quartz technology.

The second challenge we're trying to address is more on the higher frequency. Effectively, for the Quartz technology, if you want to go to a higher frequency, the only way to get there is by making the resonator thinner. Once you make the resonator thinner to a certain extent, it becomes more of a vibration sensor than a timing device. There is a fundamental limit to how fast these parts timing devices can be made. That will not be a problem with silicon.

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 Timing devices are in every single digital electronic device that you own. You could call it the heartbeat of electronics.

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What is the long-term vision for Stathera?

Tackling the two issues of size and speed are our main opportunities. I think we're confident that Quartz is going to be unable to help our customers solve these problems. If Stathera can deliver on these two promises, if we're able to deliver these product lines and solve these problems for our customers, I see this as an accomplishment of our mission. There's going to be a transition in a specific market segment from quad space timing devices to silicon timing devices. What we aim to be at Stathera is one of the leaders in this field, spearheading this innovation and this change from legacy solutions to a much better, future-looking technology.

Tell us about your professional background and the path to founding Stathera.

I have a very technical background, getting my bachelor's, master's, and Ph.D. in electrical engineering. My Ph.D. was in MEMS and microfabrication, and more specifically, MEMS timing, which is what Stathera is all about. Some of the core technology at Stathera was based on my graduate work. Of course, it’s drastically improved over time. After my Ph.D., I started a co-founded medical device company called MIO1. I was the CTO of that company and our work resulted in an FDA breakthrough designation. In July 2020, I stepped down from my CTO role to transition and co-found Stathera.

What exciting things are happening in the business right now. Any milestones?

Our biggest milestone recently is the completion of Stathera's Series A funding round, co-led by Celesta Capital and BDC Capital with participation from some very strategic investors, including MediaTek, TXC, and Epson.

We also had some very large technical milestones. We have a technology for next-generation silicon timing devices we're developing as well. The early results we're seeing are very exciting and demonstrate that we can create extremely stable, high performance silicon timing devices.

How do you think an investor can best support an early-stage startup like Stathera?

We’ve been very fortunate that our lead investors can connect us with the right people and give us great business advice, that we otherwise would have to pay a lot for. Taking things like this off our plate is important for the company because they are not always the best use of our time. Instead, I can focus on engineering and developing a product line. Access to an incredible network, as well as to all the value-add services our investors provide, help us run a more lean and efficient organization.

When it comes to our strategic industry investors, we're looking at long-term partnership in product development. MediaTek is one of the key leaders in semiconductors, and they have an unparalleled insight into the future needs of telecom, as well as smartphones. We're working with them on the development of proper timing devices that will power the next generation of electronics.

What drives you to keep going in the face of startup challenges--where do you find motivation?

I am very curious. I have a big fascination with the technology sector and how we can improve our world. I guess that's a big difference between academia and industry. Your contribution to industry can be significant. If we're successful in what we're doing, it will have a very large effect on how people use their mobile phones and other devices.

The cool part specifically about timing is that it basically affects all of us. I think what drives me is a vision to get our product on the market and start making that change a reality.

What advice would you give to other founders and tech leaders? What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned?

I think the obvious one would be to start early. Starting a company comes with a ton of responsibility – it's common for me to put in 14 hours to 16 hours days. The younger you do it, the more energy you have to push through it and take some risks.

I would also strongly advise any new founder to start looking ahead. For example, we just closed our Series A funding round. We're already looking at what milestones we should accomplish in business development and product to ensure a successful series B round.