Sivakumar P. R
Founder & CEO
One such leader who is well known in the business fraternity for his clear understanding of the industry and exceptional managerial skills is Sivakumar P R, the Founder, and CEO of Maven Silicon. Sivakumar incepted Maven Silicon in 2010 with a vision to be a one-stop destination for all VLSI training needs and thus be the most preferred VLSI training partner for both corporate organizations and academic institutions. Today, the company offers a range of corporate training & professional development courses and is thus on a mission to produce highly skilled VLSI engineers and help the semiconductor industry worldwide to meet the growing demand for VLSI experts.
Inception Story
“Despite being passionate about chip design, my transition from the electrical engineering field to VLSI was very challenging due to the very limited knowledge I could acquire while pursuing my VLSI course. This is because most of the syllabus being taught at these institutions was redundant and outdated, thus failing to give suitable industry exposure to the students. Thus, I founded Maven Silicon to bridge this skill gap by introducing domain specific advanced VLSI courses”, says Sivakumar.
As a passionate Electrical Engineer, Sivakumar chose the EEE course over the CSE course offered by NIT Trichy and completed his BE in Electrical & Electronics Engineering from Alagappa College of Engineering and Technology. He started his career as an electrical engineer and then shifted to the teaching profession, where he was engaged in training EEE engineers for a
few years. Later in 2000, Sivakumar quit his job and pursued his PG Diploma in VLSI. This marked the beginning of his tryst with the VLSI space, wherein he joined a VLSI startup in its VLSI training division and then shifted to its EDA division as an Application Engineer to promote their new ASIC verification EDA tools and methodologies.
Sivakumar then held the role of Lead Application Engineer and Lead Verification Consultant at Cadence Design Systems and Synopsys, respectively. During his stints with Cadence and Synopsys, he emerged as an expert in using cutting-edge EDA technologies for the VLSI Design. Thus, he quit his job and incepted two companies Maven Silicon (VLSI training) in 2010 and Aceic Design Technologies (VLSI design) in 2011.
Leading Maven from the Front
“At Maven, I am responsible for its vision, technology, and business operations. As a tech company offering VLSI training services, we must remain well-updated with the cutting-edge VLSI and EDA technologies, especially to lead the VLSI training industry. Thus, we collaborated with top VLSI companies like ARM and RISC-V International as their approved training partners. Additionally, we also have partnerships with top EDA companies like Siemens EDA and Synopsys, which have helped our technical staff to work on their state-of-the-art processor & EDA technologies and acquire unique VLSI domain expertise. This has enabled us to efficiently serve our enterprise customers and grow as their VLSI Centre of Excellence in the B2B business”, adds Sivakumar.
Just like any other startup founder, the journey of entrepreneurship was no cakewalk for Sivakumar either. Being a 100 percent bootstrapped company came with its own set of niche challenges when it came to scaling up the business. After tasting success, when the company wanted to focus on execution, there was a lot of resistance from competitor companies who didn’t want Maven to disrupt the VLSI training market through its unique training methodologies. However, through sheer perseverance and determination, Sivakumar was able to successfully wade through these rough tides at cruise towards building a successful company and simultaneously be the successful leader he is today.
“At Maven, we have 100+ employees working in various roles like technical staff, business development, and marketing, supporting us to grow both in B2C and B2B segments as the top VLSI training company in India. After completing 14 years of successful journey as a VLSI-COE for the academia in B2C business, we are now growing exponentially in B2B business and working with our Tier-I & Tier-II product and services customers”, says Sivakumar explaining the future roadmap.
Sivakumar PR, Founder & CEO
Boasting a 25-year-long career in the engineering and VLSI Design & Training space, Sivakumar specializes in the areas of Verification IP development, VLSI Design Consultancy, EDA Flow Development, and Corporate Training for many top EDA and VLSI corporates. Apart from being the author of all VLSI courses at Maven Silicon, he is also a blogger for Design & Reuse, Semiwiki, and RISC-V Blogs.
Hobbies:Blogging, Cycling, Marathons, and Trekking
Awards & Recognition:
Outstanding Technical Achievement award from Cadence Design Systems
Sivakumar then held the role of Lead Application Engineer and Lead Verification Consultant at Cadence Design Systems and Synopsys, respectively. During his stints with Cadence and Synopsys, he emerged as an expert in using cutting-edge EDA technologies for the VLSI Design. Thus, he quit his job and incepted two companies Maven Silicon (VLSI training) in 2010 and Aceic Design Technologies (VLSI design) in 2011.
Leading Maven from the Front
“At Maven, I am responsible for its vision, technology, and business operations. As a tech company offering VLSI training services, we must remain well-updated with the cutting-edge VLSI and EDA technologies, especially to lead the VLSI training industry. Thus, we collaborated with top VLSI companies like ARM and RISC-V International as their approved training partners. Additionally, we also have partnerships with top EDA companies like Siemens EDA and Synopsys, which have helped our technical staff to work on their state-of-the-art processor & EDA technologies and acquire unique VLSI domain expertise. This has enabled us to efficiently serve our enterprise customers and grow as their VLSI Centre of Excellence in the B2B business”, adds Sivakumar.
I Founded Maven Silicon To Bridge The Skill Gap By Introducing Domain-Specific Advanced VLSI Courses
Just like any other startup founder, the journey of entrepreneurship was no cakewalk for Sivakumar either. Being a 100 percent bootstrapped company came with its own set of niche challenges when it came to scaling up the business. After tasting success, when the company wanted to focus on execution, there was a lot of resistance from competitor companies who didn’t want Maven to disrupt the VLSI training market through its unique training methodologies. However, through sheer perseverance and determination, Sivakumar was able to successfully wade through these rough tides at cruise towards building a successful company and simultaneously be the successful leader he is today.
“At Maven, we have 100+ employees working in various roles like technical staff, business development, and marketing, supporting us to grow both in B2C and B2B segments as the top VLSI training company in India. After completing 14 years of successful journey as a VLSI-COE for the academia in B2C business, we are now growing exponentially in B2B business and working with our Tier-I & Tier-II product and services customers”, says Sivakumar explaining the future roadmap.
Sivakumar PR, Founder & CEO
Boasting a 25-year-long career in the engineering and VLSI Design & Training space, Sivakumar specializes in the areas of Verification IP development, VLSI Design Consultancy, EDA Flow Development, and Corporate Training for many top EDA and VLSI corporates. Apart from being the author of all VLSI courses at Maven Silicon, he is also a blogger for Design & Reuse, Semiwiki, and RISC-V Blogs.
Hobbies:Blogging, Cycling, Marathons, and Trekking
Awards & Recognition:
Outstanding Technical Achievement award from Cadence Design Systems
