Interview on the 2017 Yale SOM Venture Showcase

At the Yale Club in New York City on November 29, alumni gathered for the 2017 Yale SOM Venture Showcase. The event, sponsored by the Program on Entrepreneurship, highlighted startups from recent alumni and current students in industries including food service, home living, technology, and healthcare.

Chen Chen, Co-founder and CEO of Saphlux, alumni of Yale SOM, also attended the event and was interviewed by Yale SOM and told about his company and how Yale SOM contributed to his work.

“We’re creating the next-generation materials for LED lasers, which are going to make light bulbs 10 times brighter. The technology we are working on is the entire semiconductor imaging material, which includes your phone, automobile headlights, computer screens, et cetera. We think it is a revolution for the semiconductor lighting industry or solid state lighting industry as a whole.”

Chen Chen ’16, CEO (pictured with Terry Xie)

“I met my cofounder at Yale, Professor Jun Han from the electrical engineering department. The most important thing that SOM taught me is how to bring the social responsibility and business sides together. Our company isn’t just in it for money; we believe we also have a responsibility with this technology to make people’s life much easier or much better. We are going to work with investors that see this and know this, and I think that’s important.”