Semiconductor makers are normally not the baton-twirling leaders of Silicon Valley’s technology showcase. They toil in the background working out the nuts and bolts that consumers aren’t terribly interested in but that make the magic happen nonetheless. This year’s ACG SV Grow Awards, however, decided to shine a spotlight on the chip industry by recognizing Ambarella, Inc. with the ACG SV Emerging Growth Award. 

George Laplante, CFO of Ambarella, Inc., said that it is first and foremost an R&D company. “Over 80 percent of our employees are engineers,” he told Lisa Martin (@Luccazara), cohost of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team. He emphasized that this direct pipeline to innovation helps them export the latest technology to product makers in a frictionless way.

“We’re able to share that development effort and share that operational effort across both consumer and professional, and it works out really well,” he said.

Feeding the furnace

Laplante spoke about the challenges of competing for talent  with companies that may have flashier exteriors or greater name recognition. Ambarella’s strategy is to play to the innate inventiveness and creativity of young technologists.

“It’s extremely important with engineers to challenge them,” he said. “Give them work that’s on leading technology where they can go out and really be creative.”

Laplante said that Ambarella is currently innovating in semiconductors, computer vision, “things that don’t exist today” and that attracts recent grads. “As soon as they walk in the door, they’re expected to become involved with creating new products and moving the company forward,” he stated.

Watch the full video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of the ACG SV Grow Awards 2016.

Photo by SiliconANGLE