Nathan Seidle (ElecEng ’04)
2016 Kalpana Chawla Award Winner
Nathan Seidle could be a poster child for the start-up era.
In 2003, as a CU Boulder engineering student, he opened a one-man business reselling hard-to-find circuit boards from Eastern Europe. That dorm-room enterprise would become SparkFun Electronics, a Boulder-based firm that offers tools, hardware and guidance for artists, engineers, prototypers and electronic gadgetry hobbyists.
Today SparkFun employs a workforce of more than a hundred fellow geeks (as he puts it), has annual revenues of more than $30 million and spreads the joy of making things worldwide. Seidle, the CEO, retains an infectious tinkerer’s spirit that animates the company.
“Where many in his position would have moved on from technical work to high-level business machinations,” said a fellow entrepreneur, “Nathan remains heart and soul an engineer.”
He also happens to be a big-hearted guy with what one intimate called “an extraordinary presence.”
Seidle invites school groups into SparkFun’s factory, hosts robot competitions and sponsors workshops for gadgeteers and makers, often joining beginners in the act of invention. He’s advocated for women and the underprivileged in engineering and made himself available to fellow entrepreneurs seeking business advice — convincing at least one to manufacture in Colorado instead of in China.
“Nathan Seidle,” one admirer said, “is a mensch.”
At CU, Seidle not only visits classes, but has provided fellowships for doctoral candidates and a sales channel for their inventions.
Along the way, one CU computer scientist said, Seidle “put Boulder on the map as a central hub of personalized do-it-yourself-technology.”
“We should be beside ourselves with pride,” another professor said, “to call Nathan Seidle a graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder.”
