Bill Eichen of Driven Capital On How 5G Technology May Improve and Impact Our Lives

An Interview With David Liu

5G allows longer distances at a lower power to track all things. It will replace internet providers cables in 5 years.

5G infrastructure is being installed around the world. At the same time, most people have not yet seen what 5G can offer. What exactly is 5G? How will it improve our lives? What are the concerns that need to be addressed before it is widely adopted?

In our series, called, How 5G Technology May Improve and Impact Our Lives, we are talking to tech and telecom leaders who can share how 5G can impact and enhance our lives.

As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Bill Eichen of Sensor Platforms.

Bill is a seasoned technology executive and entrepreneur with hands-on experience in leading corporations in emerging markets. He brings a successful record of revenue growth with a focus on strategy, execution and results. His leadership is focused on technology solutions, business development, and team building in start-ups and large corporations. His software and device experience includes mobile, sensors, fintech, consumer, digital health, privacy/security, automotive, and communications.

Bill was CEO and Chairman of Sensor Platforms, acquired by Audience/Knowles (NYSE: KN) and President/Chief Operating Officer of Analogix, a cross-border leader in digital home, consumer and mobile products who pioneered DisplayPort/USB-C and HDMI. As Founder and CEO of Pie Capital and Software Incubators, Bill has brought to market successful products which solve real-time financial evaluations and notifications, logistics tracking, social networking, security and sports analytics. Bill was CEO of Memcall/RoboGroup Israel, a leader in deep packet inspection for security and communications. Mr. Eichen is an innovator and was responsible for a variety of management successes at National (acquired by Texas Instruments, NYSE:TXN), Cypress (CY), IDT, and Motorola. He holds both Masters and Bachelors degrees from MIT in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science where he wrote some of the original works of Sub-Band and Adaptive Predictive Speech coding for the Motorola Dyna-Tac mobile phones).

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“Don’t trust those who don’t trust others”

They are the ones which are the problem.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

Dr. TJ Rodgers, founder and CEO of Cypress Semiconductor allowed me to run a communications division from ground zero. That company became a leader in communications because he allowed me to run the business from the start at 29–36 years of age.

You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

• Trust — allow others’ stories to be assumed true.
• Hard work — lazy people fail especially if they are not hands-on.
• Team — If the CEO doesn’t allow their people to make decisions, they will fail no matter how smart the CEO.

Are you working on any new or exciting projects? How do you think that will help people?

Entertainment tech startups — allowing the artist to remove the attorneys and agents and be the boss.

Fintech Pie Capital — allowing startups to reach 3000 investors online.

AUTOVET-VC — Licensing evaluation and deal flow software to the largest VCs in Silicon Valley (https://pie.capital).

Ok wonderful. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. Like 4G, 5G has many different facets, and I’m sure many will approach this question differently. But for the benefit of our readers can you explain to us what 5G is? How is 5G different from its predecessor 4G?

5G allows longer distances at a lower power to track all things. It will replace internet providers cables in 5 years.

Can you share three or four ways that 5G might improve our lives? If you can please share an example, for each.

Tracking all objects remotely (keys, children, etc.)

Some have raised the question that 5G might widen the digital divide and leave poor people or marginalized people behind. From your perspective, what can be done to address and correct this concern?

“Marginalized people” can receive tags and tracking technology from the government, allowing everyone to have access

Excellent. We are nearly done. Let’s zoom out a bit and ask a more general question. Based on your experience and success, what are the 5 things you need to create a highly successful career in the telecommunication industry? (Please share a story or example for each.)

• CAPITAL
• TECH TEAM
• CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
• A USE CASE THAT IS A GAME CHANGER
• SUPPORT FROM YOU INVESTORS

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

Allow all good tech people to create their own startup though our venture fund (driven.capital)

How can our readers further follow your work online?

LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/billeichen/

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.