Maxim was founded in April 1983. Its nine initial team members had a variety of experience in semiconductors design and sales. The founding team included Jack Gifford, an industry pioneer since the 1960s; Fred Beck, an IC sales and distribution pioneer; Dave Bingham, General Electric’s Scientist of the Year in 1982; Steve Combs, a pioneer in wafer technologies and manufacturing; Lee Evans, also a pioneer in CMOS analog microchip design and General Electric’s Scientist of the Year in 1982; Dave Fullagar, inventor of the first internally compensated operational amplifier circuit; Roger Fuller, yet another pioneer in CMOS microchip design; Rich Hood, development director for some of the first microprocessor-controlled semiconductor test systems; and Dick Wilenken, who is acknowledged as the father of key analog switch and multiplexer technologies. Based on a two-page business plan, they obtained US$9 million in venture capital to establish the company. In the first year, the company developed 24 second-source products. After that, Maxim designed proprietary products that offered greater differentiation and higher profits.