Startups + technology strategy
I was founder or first European employee of six EDA start-ups in the US and UK. All six were successfully acquired, for a total of over a billion US dollars in 2026 money.
| Company | My role | Acquired by |
|---|---|---|
| Gateway Design Automation (Verilog) | First European employee, European Technical Manager | Cadence, 1989 |
| Chronologic Simulation (VCS) | Vice President and European General Manager | Viewlogic, 1994 |
| Virtual Chips (silicon IP) | Vice President and European General Manager | Phoenix Technologies, 1996 |
| Ambit Design Systems (synthesis) | Vice President and European General Manager | Cadence, 1998, $280M |
| Co-Design Automation (Superlog, SystemVerilog) | Co-founder, President, CEO and Chairman | Synopsys, 2002, $36M |
| Imperas Software (processor models, RISC-V verification) | Founder, CEO and Chairman | Synopsys, 2023 |
What those companies taught me
Many of the hard decisions in those companies were commercial: which market to enter first, when an open standard would help more than a proprietary product, and how a small company works with customers and partners many times its size. At Co-Design we took the Superlog language through Accellera, where it became SystemVerilog. At Imperas we built an ecosystem around open APIs and standards, first Open Virtual Platforms (OVP) and later the RISC-V Verification Interface (RVVI). In 2008 I led a management buy-out of Imperas; when Synopsys acquired it in 2023, it was owned by its staff and profitable.
Where EDA start-ups can win now
Agentic AI is where most new EDA start-ups are today. Most of them optimise existing workflows, and the large EDA vendors, and the largest chip companies building AI tools for their own use, are doing the same with far greater resources. The larger opportunity is a holistic approach that rethinks the toolchain itself, so AI can reason across design, verification and implementation. Start-ups aiming for step-function improvements of that kind need investors prepared to fund them on that basis.
I advise a small number of founders, boards and investors. See Strategy & Startups.
Questions I am exploring
- What kind of EDA start-up can succeed now that the large EDA vendors and the largest chip companies are all building their own AI tools?
- How should investors back EDA start-ups that aim for step-function improvements?