Entrepreneurweek Be Driven

Sam is co-founder and CEO of Octopart, an electronic component search engine. Prior to starting Octopart, Sam pursued a PhD in Physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder, leaving before graduating to start Octopart in 2006. In graduate school Sam worked on an experiment to develop a novel plasma confinement scheme which might one day be used in commercial fusion reactors.

Sam continues to maintain relationships in the scientific community, speaking at the American Physical Society’s March Meetings on starting startups from a physicists perspective.

What challenge is your company addressing?

Octopart solves the problem of electronic part search on the web. Octopart provides distributor stock and pricing information, datasheets, and advanced search features with a focus on speed and simplicity. Octopart also offers an API, http://octopart.com/api which allows for novel applications to be built on our data platform.