Philip Dilk
I was born in Canada but grew up in the Philippines for most of my young life. Experiencing life in a 3rd world country can greatly change your view on the world and really made me appreciate life in Canada when we eventually moved back. I went to school at University of Victoria in Canada BC and very quickly after graduating joined a semiconductor company called PMC Sierra in 2011 as an Applications Engineer. I had joined after the company was just starting to recover from the dot-com bubble burst in early 2000s. I heard many stories of the stocks skyrocketing and the perks that came with it, as well as warnings from people that did not cash out before the bubble burst. I enjoyed my time in PMC Sierra, focusing on PCIe Switches, gaining experience from very knowledgeable engineers and learning about the highs/lows of a growing company. Five years later in 2016 our company was acquired by Microsemi, moving away from a close-knit startup culture to one that was more sales oriented. This allowed me to gain more customer-facing experience and more time at trade shows. Three years after that in 2019 we were acquired again by Microchip, a large and more conservative company. This company showed me how large companies can get bogged down by layer upon layer of processes and how teams can silo them selves off from each other preventing collaboration. Through these 3 companies I polished my knowledge as an Applications Engineer, mainly focusing on PCIe switches, working on 3 generations of switches from Gen 3 to Gen 5.
Three years later in 2022 I decided it was time for a change and moved to Silicon Valley to finally pursue my dream of joining a young start up. I Joined Astera Labs as a Principal Applications Engineer right before they closed their Series D round, working on a new protocol called CXL which works on top of the PCIe physical layer. Start up life was exciting and exhausting at the same time, allowing me to wear many hats and participate in meaningful work that directly affected the company. From doing initial power on for the Leo CXL Memory Controller silicon device (second in world) all the way to demonstrating industry first demos at trade shows using the device, it was some of the most challenging and rewarding work I have done in my career. In 2024 I was able to cross off another goal from my bucket list when we IPO’d. It was a surreal experience getting to see it all from inside the company making all the time and sacrifices worth it. It has been a dream watching the company grow from 2 offices, eventually taking over the whole building and now moving to 2 even larger buildings, going from 100 employees to over 700. Currently I have moved into a management role, now leading the CXL team that I initially joined.
I have been blessed to be able to cross off some big items on my bucket list after moving to Silicon Valley, and one of the last ones I have here is to become an Angel Investor. Now that I have some capital from the IPO, I feel like I am in a good enough position to work towards this dream of becoming an Angel Investor