Nathan Seidle is the founder of SparkFun Electronics in Boulder, Colo. Nathan founded SparkFun in 2003 while an undergraduate student studying electrical engineering.
Nathan opened SparkFun to fulfill his vision of a company that had clear product photos with multiple views, linked to the datasheet, and had tutorials on every product they sold. In the 14 years since, the company has grown to over 130 employees and is one of the leaders of Open Source technology. In addition to products, SparkFun provides tools, hardware, and educational resources for artists, engineers, prototypers, and hobbyists that want to explore electronic gadgetry.
Nathan (orange jacket) celebrates as his bot crosses the finish line at SparkFun AVC 2010.
Nathan also invented a system for printing small runs of circuit boards efficiently called BatchPCB. BatchPCB was a sister company within SparkFun until 2013 when Nathan successfully sold BachPCB to OSH Park, a similar company dedicated to printed circuit boards. SparkFun has been responsible for fulfilling multiple manufacturing runs for KickStarter projects, including the popular MaKey MaKey board.
Nathan was instrumental in initializing the open hardware logo and is active in the open hardware community. He has served on the board of the Open Source Hardware Association and continues to promote and serve the organization. Nathan has been invited to the White House to participate in discussions around intellectual property policy and patent reform and attended multiple White House Maker Faires. Nathan has spoken in front of Congress on copyright and trademark policy. He has presented on the many facets of manufacturing and open hardware at the National Science Foundation, Google, and Sketching in Hardware. Nathan has guest lectured at numerous institutions including MIT, Stanford and West Point Academy.
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