Founder Focus | Rogue Valley Microdevices

In our Founder Focus series, we highlight the innovative minds reshaping industries and inspiring others to pursue bold ideas. Today, we’re spotlighting Jessica Gomez, Founder and CEO of Rogue Valley Microdevices, and the first woman and minority to receive the Biden-Harris CHIPS Act funding. Jessica shares how she and her husband Pat Kayatta built a thriving company from the ground up, overcoming a rough recession, sweltering clean rooms, and plenty of doubt along the way.

FALLON: Tell me a little bit about what you did prior to starting Rogue Valley Microdevices. 

JESSICA: I started in the industry as just a lab operator. It was a minimum-wage job at a company in New York named Standard Microsystems, and they were making inkjet chips. My main job was running product through the machines and performing wafer-level inspections. I worked with some amazing engineers who invested a lot of time into helping me better understand both the technology and the manufacturing process. I also had the opportunity to work on the company's MES software implementation, which gave me a global view of the entire manufacturing process, including how the Engineering, production, and quality teams worked together. Eventually, I was recruited to a startup in Southern California, along with a colleague of mine – whom I later married! We had an incredible experience working there and met some truly exceptional people, but the startup didn't last long. Three years later, we were both laid off, and that's when my husband and I decided to start our own company.

FALLON: Did you go to school for this? 

JESSICA: No, I don't even have a four-year degree. I have an associate's degree in liberal arts. 

FALLON: So, with no formal background, you really learned everything as you went, and then launched your own business. That’s impressive.

JESSICA: At that time, this really wasn't an area that you could go to school for. You could study mechanical, chemical, or electrical engineering, but it’s not like it is today, where they have very specific degree programs focused on microelectronics. Most of us really learned on the job. 

FALLON: What’s it like working so closely with your husband?

JESSICA: It's actually great. We met at work, and have continued working together ever since, so we've never known anything different. I think part of the reason it works so well for us is that we are responsible for very different functions within the company. The things that I'm not good at, he's great at. The things that he's not so good at, I tend to be a little better at. His primary focus is on the engineering/operational side, while mine is on the business side. 

FALLON: Can you tell me how Rogue Valley Microdevices started and what gave you the idea for the company? 

JESSICA: My husband Pat and I were both working at an optical switch startup in Southern California. The CEO was this super dynamic guy who used to be a professor at UCLA. He put a lot of emphasis on creativity and being entrepreneurial in the way you work. We would have these company-wide meetings, where he would share financials and talk about company strategy.  He really felt that it was important to involve the whole team in the company’s strategy – from the people packing boxes to the top-level engineers. It was inspiring. Many of us later went on to start our own businesses.

 Unfortunately, after about three years, the startup started running out of money.  At that time, our small fabrication group decided to start offering foundry services to some of the other companies in the area, in hopes that we could offset the burn rate and maybe save our jobs. Ultimately, the company shut down, but we learned so much about manufacturing process flows, quality data, and our customers. That was information we used to develop the business model for Rogue Valley. We realized: some projects were profitable, others weren’t. We built the business around what worked. I was 25 years old when we started this company. We were so clueless; you have to just work your way through it. 

FALLON: How'd you come up with the name Rogue Valley Microdevices? 

JESSICA: When we were putting together the business model, we really put a lot of thought into whether we wanted to stay in California, because that's where we were living at the time. It was so expensive, and it just didn't really seem like a viable option from a business perspective. We also didn't have any family there, but we did have family in Oregon. We found a little space in a multi-use building in Medford – the Rogue Valley area of Oregon – and that's where we decided to start.

FALLON: I read that you opened a second location in Florida! Can you tell me about that?

JESSICA: Yes, Medford was a really amazing place to start the company, but growing the business in Oregon just became too expensive. We have a GM running our Medford location, her name is Kat Anaya, and she is doing an incredible job, which frees me up to focus on accelerating the startup of our new facility in Palm Bay, on Florida’s Space Coast. 

Our new Florida location is a 50,000-square-foot microfabrication facility and is expected to be the first 300mm-capable pure-play MEMS foundry in the U.S., fostering new ways to innovate for our customers. This fab also allows us to offer a strategically located second source, strengthening both manufacturing excellence and supply chain resilience. We’ve really been welcomed by the community and their support for economic development in the area.

FALLON: What were some of the first couple of steps you took to legitimize your business? 

JESSICA: For us, it really was about our personal network. I put a lot of effort into staying in touch with the people we know in the industry and making sure we kept them up to date on our progress as we built the manufacturing facility. We were lucky in a way that we had the opportunity to work on some really successful technical projects at our previous company. My husband is an incredible engineer, so he had that reputation already, and that helped us to instill confidence in our ability to provide value to customers. We talked to a lot of potential customers and really focused our conversations on understanding their pain points and how we could best support them. 

FALLON: In the beginning, you struggled through some difficult times, no air conditioning…a recession. What was that like? 

JESSICA: Those first five to seven years were really, really challenging. We ran out of money pretty early on. I mean, we started with pretty much nothing, and we ended up with negative nothing. Air conditioning was $35,000, and we couldn’t afford it, so we started running the fab without it. The summers were pretty brutal.  We would work at night and in the early mornings when it was cooler, and wear an ice pack on the back of our necks to keep our body temperature down while reloading the machines. 

After two years of that, we were able to afford a chiller for AC, but then the recession of 2008 hit, and it almost destroyed the whole company. I laid everyone off, including ourselves, canceled our health insurance, asked for a temporary reduction in rent... anything to reduce our operational costs.  We also invested in a new website and hired a salesperson to help boost sales.  It worked, and we had most everybody back to work in about four months. We knew if we didn’t make a drastic change immediately, we’d be out of business. I have seen a lot of companies wait too long because they are hoping things will turn around – I didn’t want to make that same mistake. 

FALLON: How many times, during all of that, did you consider closing shop? 

JESSICA: I never really considered it because, if it happens, that's it. I mean, we would literally be done. We would have lost our house and everything we owned. In my mind, failure was not an option, so we worked through it. I think for any leader, that is your job. At the end of the day, you take responsibility for every failure and credit the successes to your team.  People think that being a company founder or CEO is somehow glamorous. I would say it's probably one of the most demanding and emotionally challenging jobs there is.

FALLON: What has been your biggest professional accomplishment with the company so far? 

JESSICA: I would say making it to year 20 is a tremendous accomplishment. Over the past few years, I have really focused on developing the leadership team in Oregon so that the operation is capable of running without my day-to-day involvement. Being able to move to Florida to start the new facility, plus having a fully functional fab in Oregon, is a huge accomplishment. The ability for a company to run independently from its ownership is an important sign of maturity that adds additional value to the business. 

FALLON: What advice would you give to an early-stage entrepreneur? 

JESSICA: Be prepared to have no personal life. I mean, really be prepared to put in the amount of effort that it's going to take. So much of this depends on what kind of business you're in, right? Some people can work a few hours a day and have a side gig, and that works well for them. But if you're going to try to attempt something like what we did, it’s going to be more work than you could ever imagine yourself doing. 

FALLON: Can you talk about some of the lessons you've learned and some of the mistakes you've made, to help other people start a business? 

JESSICA: I guess one of the big things that I had to learn in the beginning was to manage my emotional reaction to things. I spent the first five years literally crying under my desk. There was so much I didn't know and so many things that seemed to go horribly wrong in the beginning. I would just hide under there, and people would knock on my door. Hello, are you here? You eventually build the knowledge, discipline, and self-awareness it takes to overcome those obstacles, but it is not an easy process. 

Another thing that I've learned is, don't wait. If you have an employee who's not the right fit and they are negatively impacting your company culture, the sooner you can transition away from that person, the better off the rest of your team will be.  

It always amazes me how much one person in the wrong position can negatively impact company culture and productivity. It's more important than most people realize. And it can be very tough to make the decision to let someone go. You might have an employee who has children, they might be a single parent, they might be struggling in other areas, and you have to sit in front of them and say, I'm very sorry, but this isn't working out. 

FALLON: What do you think makes your company stand out from your competitors? 

JESSICA: We have a very collaborative, open style, and I think that makes us stand out among the crowd. We're very upfront with our customers; if we make a mistake, we're the first to admit it. Customer service and trust are so important. The true test of a company is how you respond to challenges. In my opinion, these are opportunities to strengthen your customer/supplier relationship.  

We are also big on providing customers with data. They know exactly how their devices are manufactured, right down to the recipe parameters used for each machine. There is also a direct line of communication between our engineering team and customers. This approach has had a big impact on our ability to quickly resolve manufacturing and yield issues. 

FALLON: What do you think is the importance of legal representation for this journey that you've been on? 

JESSICA: Huge. Legal representation is really, extremely important when you need it. I would say we use it sparingly for the most part, but there are very particular things that you, as a business owner, need to ensure are handled correctly. I like to have support for human resource-related issues.  These issues can be complex, and you absolutely need representation to guide you. Each state has its own labor laws, and there is a lot to consider when working through a tricky situation. Even doing what you think is the best thing for your employee could get you in trouble years later. Also, when it comes to complicated supplier contracts and sales agreements, it's important to have an attorney at your side, making sure that you understand what you are agreeing to. They may not be able to negotiate everything to your favor, but at the very least, you need to understand the responsibilities of each party involved. 

FALLON: I also read that you're going to set up a daycare at the Florida location, which is so great. What are other ways you work that really speak to the culture of what you're trying to accomplish with your employees? 

JESSICA: I had the luxury of on-site childcare because I created that for myself as a CEO. I had two home births, brought each of my babies to work with and I had them at the office until they were like three or four years old. I think they have been much better off for having very involved parents from when they were little. When we discovered that we had the room in the Florida facility, it was something that we really wanted to do for our employees as well. 

A lot of the motivation for this is based on my own experience, and the fact that many moms are having to self-select out of the workforce or delay incredible careers to prioritize raising a family. We're missing their genius in technology development because so many don't feel they have the support they need.  On-site childcare is a way that we can support families during those first few years while parents are also trying to balance careers. In most locations, having childcare in a light industrial zoning is not legal. We worked with the city of Palm Bay to add a Conditional Use Provision for educational and daycare facilities. It was a huge step in the right direction. 

We also give our employees five days of time to volunteer during working hours. They can go out and volunteer in their community, and we pay them for that time. We try to encourage people to get involved in initiatives they're passionate about. We also go out and present to a lot of the robotics clubs or at schools that are focused on STEM. This helps inspire kids to learn about technology development and microelectronics manufacturing.  Most don't realize that the MEMS and semiconductor industry is home to some of the most creative careers you can have outside of the arts. We have a disproportionate number of photographers, musicians, and artists who have found fulfilling careers in our industry.  If you go to any conferences in this field, they can pull together a band in like five minutes! 

Jessica’s journey from lab operator to industry leader shows the grit, creativity, and resilience it takes to build something lasting. We’re proud to highlight her story in our Founder Focus series.