Everspin

Everspin

Chandler, Ariz.
Founders: Saied Tehrani and other former employees of Freescale Semiconductor
VC Investment over the last four quarters: $32.5 million

Everspin is a 50-employee company that was spun out of chipmaker Freescale Semiconductor in June 2008 to develop the company's MRAM products, a type of memory that stores information in magnetic material rather than with an electric charge. The company has been selling MRAM products commercially since 2006 as a part of Freescale. Everspin sees opportunities to grow despite the recession, with a chance "to get more product penetration in the market as well as continue to build very strong employee talent as we grow the company," according to Tehrani in an e-mail.

Key to startup success: "Setting aggressive but realistic expectations and goals for the company [combined with] solid execution, passion, and dedication."