Create the commercial success that bold innovations deserve
Phil Marzolf focuses on establishing initial market traction and expanding customer adoption for early-stage technologies. Phil’s engineering background makes him the ideal partner for technical founders who are navigating their go-to-market and growth journeys. He specializes in initiating early sales, building customer relationships, and smart financial management—drawing on 3 decades of deep experience in semiconductors, AI startups, business strategy, and engineering leadership. Phil fills a critical gap by preparing startups for rapid growth through disciplined sales engagement and outcome focused planning. His mission: Create the commercial success that bold innovations deserve.
Phil is a smart, strategic product thinker with strong global awareness and valuable connections. He excels at commercializing new technologies, navigating business challenges, and driving growth. Beyond direct contributions, Phil has also been instrumental in helping me improve my skills. In addition his extensive network brings diverse perspectives, which he actively leverages to support a company’s success.
BC
Brandon ContinoCEO, Four Growers
Phil transformed our company and was critical in navigating us to a successful exit. In his first four months, he rapidly identified priorities and tackled the hard jobs that most in his background would avoid—from cold calling prospects to attending investor meetings. His insights and hands-on involvement significantly boosted our chances for success. Phil is a joy to work with, brings great energy to the team, and is exactly the type of partner you’d want in your corner.
JR
Jeff RiegerCEO, FreshTemp
Work
Arieca raises $6.5M Series A to scale-up manufacturing of its Liquid Metal-based TIM
After our team of 6 coordinated and executed a series of successful proof-of-concept (PoC) pilots, we leveraged that traction to raise a $6.5M series A round to fund manufacturing scale-up
As a founding member of nSerial, and chief silicon architect, I lead the development of our 10Gb/s transceiver development. I recruited a development team and delivered a working prototype, which demonstrated the required market performance. This effort lead Intel into acquiring nSerial in 2001.
After securing long-term contracts with 3 fast casual franchises, Digi International moved to acquire FreshTemp, and use the core IoT technology as the basis of their successful Honeycomb cold chain product line.
Preforated AI is transitioning a new neuroscience-inspired neural network architecture, developed at USC, that will dramatically reduce the computation required to achieve AI tasks. This should be especially impactful for Edge AI applications where inference is done on device and not in the cloud.
Assessing competitive position and commercialization opportunity for this technology.
Feb 2025 — Present
Open AAM ORG
Commercialization Advisor
OPEN AAM ORG fosters collaboration for sustainable Advanced Air Mobility (AAM). By facilitating the harmonization and adoption of global best practices, OPEN AAM aims to rapidly accelerate the time to impact that AAM will have on society.
Establishing financial support from major governments and corporations that are active in the AAM fields
Spearheaded efforts establishing the Air Mobility Podcast and Aviation 3.0 campaigns
Oct 2024 — Present
Origin Story
Commercialization Advisor
OriginStory is developing a proof of personhood platform based on mmWave sensing technology.
Working with founder to establish key industrial partnerships for proof of concept (PoC) deployments as a prelude to fundraising.
Feb 2020 — May 2024
Arieca
Chief Commercialization Officer
Arieca produced thermal interface materials (TIM) that improve heat dissipation for high performance computing devices.
Drove fundraising activities - $2M angel round and $6.5M series A with VC and strategic investors.
Established and cultivated relationships with top-tier industrial and supply chain partners, especially in Asia.
Secured and executed 14 proof of concepts (PoC) pilots with 14 major semiconductor manufacturers.
Sep 2018 — Jun 2019
FourGrowers
Commercialization Advisor
Four Growers' robots reduce greenhouse production costs so that healty, affordable produce can be made abundantly available. Four Growers is a Y-Combinator Alumnus.
Assisted founding team transition university research into a commercial ready organization and gain acceptance into Y-Combinator.
Jun 2016 — May 2018
PM
pHase2 Microtechnologies
CEO
pHase2 Microtechnology transitioned miniaturized sensor IP from the University of Pittsburgh. The goal was to establish small, wireless sensing of pH sensitive material in industrial and healthcare applications.
Executed $5M Series A fundraising with international VC (JPIF)
Recruited development team in Pittsburgh
Established partnerships with European laboratories
Established and executed 3 PoC pilots with major chemical manufacturers and semiconductors firms.
Oct 2013 — Jun 2016
F
FreshTemp
COO
FreshTemp transitioned IoT IP developed at MIT Media Labs for remote ColdChain monitoring. The company established critical sales traction at 3 fast casual restaurant chains. The company was acquired by Digi International in 2016.
Executed, with CEO, fundraising for $1M seed round lead by local angel investors.
Responsible for all non-technical development aspects of the firm's operations.
Developed go to market plan, executed earl-stage sales, secured commitments from 3 fast casual chains.
Advised CEO during acquisition negotiations with Digi International
Dec 2010 — Dec 2012
Micronas AG
Director of Automotive and Industrial Business Units
Micronas is a leader in magnetic sensing IC products. In 2010 Micronas was transitioning its product focus from consumer to automotive and industrial applications.
Micronas was acquired by TDK in 2015.
Established dedicated Automotive and Industrial product lines to focus the sales of Hall Sensors and Microcontrollers to key customers.
Restructured sales and marketing organizations to align with new strategic focus on the company.
Designed an aggressive pricing policy that lead to 122M (Euro) revenue generation with 20% net profit.
Recruited key personal in Europe, US, and Japan to execute new strategy.
May 2009 — Dec 2010
Telefunken Semiconductor
Interim Geschäftsführer
Telefunken Semiconductor, based in Heilbronn Germany, was a private-equity takeover of Atmel's automotive foundry. Once a product arm of the company was formed, Telefunken Semiconductor was sold off.
Managed fundraising and investor relationships with private equity investors. Built out a corporate product business plan strategy, and roadmap.
Recruited necessary staff, creating 3 operational design centers in Hannover, Los Angeles, and New Hampshire.
Apr 2000 — May 2007
Intel
Product Manager
Intel is a global technology company that specializes in manufacturing semiconductor chips and innovative computing solutions.
Came to Intel through the acquisition of our startup, nSerial, where I was CTO. Through various positions at Intel, I managed global cross-functional teams that introduced the LXT35401, IOP348x, and INTEL82598 into the market
Guided the end-to-end product development process from product definition and architectural decisions to commercialization, ensuring seamless integration of nSerial's technology into Intel's offerings.
Apr 1999 — Feb 2001
nSerial
Chief Product Architect (Most Exciting Man in MOS Technology)
nSerial designed high-speed serializers/deserializers (SERDES) in CMOS technology to serve the emerging transition to cloud computing and the high bandwidth needs that data centers would require. The company was acquired by Intel in 2001.
Led the definition and execution of a 10Gb/s transceiver in CMOS technology. Defined product requirements, recruited teams, lead customer adoption of prototypes.
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