Mike Farmwald

Paul Michael "Mike" Farmwald is a serial entrepreneur working in the Silicon Valley high-tech industry.

Farmwald holds a doctorate in computer science from Stanford University, where he was a Hertz Foundation Fellow, has founded six companies, five of which were financed in part by Benchmark Capital, where he is a venture partner.

He has founded these companies:

• FTL (1986) developed emitter coupled logic (ECL) supercomputers, merged with MIPS Computer Systems
• Rambus (1990) marketed high speed interfaces, used in PCs and video game consoles.
• Chromatic Research (1993) developed media-processors, acquired by ATI Technologies
• Epigram (1996) invented HomePNA, a local area network implemented over plain old telephone service (POTS), acquired by Broadcom
• Matrix Semiconductor (1997) designed 3D semiconductors

Farmwald invests directly in startups through Skymoon Ventures. His recent investments include technology companies incubated at Skymoon R&D (Dash, whose navigation systems bring internet to the car, and Finesse Solutions, a measurement and control provider to the biotechnology industry) as well as companies that bring technology to traditional business (Remote Lands, a luxury bespoke Asian travel outfitter started by entrepreneur Catherine Heald and ICE, a fitness concept company started by award-winning cheerleading coach Darlene Fanning).

He has publicly criticized and shorted the stock of technology companies he believes are defrauding investors by misrepresenting their technology. In 2005, he shorted ParkerVision, a RF semiconductor IP company, and created a website detailing their problems with the company.