What happens when a single, outdated $5 semiconductor can stall an aircraft program, delay medical equipment, or freeze production lines? In this episode of Austin Tech Connect, Thom Singer sits down with Ryan Hatcher, CEO and founder of Phoenix Semiconductor, to unpack a supply chain problem that quietly cripples industries: "end-of-life" chips that are no longer manufactured, but are still essential to the systems we depend on. Ryan shares how his career path from physics to defense electronics to tech scouting put him front-row during the COVID-era shortages, where the real bottlenecks weren't always the cutting-edge chips… but the small components no one could replace.

Ryan explains how Phoenix Semiconductor is building drop-in replacement chips that perform indistinguishably from the originals... and why that matters for defense, aerospace, medical devices, energy, and heavy industry. Along the way, you'll hear a smart, honest look at entrepreneurship (starting with "zero momentum"), the power of mentorship, and why Austin's tech ecosystem still has a rare advantage: the ability to reach the right people through real relationships. If you care about semiconductors, supply chain resilience, or how founders build meaningful companies in Austin, this one is worth your time.

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Thank you to Calavista Software for being the annual sponsors of this podcast for 2026.