Origins

Early Engineering

I was NateTheTech for years before I ever turned it into a business. But during college, studying everything from code to microelectronics, I did little with it but develop the nickname into a good reputation.

When I left RIT in 2007 and began my search for a career, I registered NateTheTech as a DBA to make ends meet. I shelved it again shortly thereafter, though, when I found employment as a Test Engineer, at a company that built million-dollar silicon crystal growing furnaces for the solar/chip industries - and settled in to build a career. I put my diagnostic talents to work with glee, testing and repairing everything from DC circuits and computer hardware up to three-phase 250kW power supplies, on furnaces that grew silicon crystals at 5,000°F. After just six months, I was sent off for a month-long trip as the company’s engineering rep to a solar panel manufacturer in Portland, Oregon.

A $40 per-diem business-tripping dream come true… or so I thought.

But, like so many others at the time, I had a hard lesson to learn about corporate life. I’ve never been a keep-your-head-down kind of guy, and I quickly got myself into hot water over a photo of myself (a “selfie,” before they were a thing) taken on the factory floor… and posted to Facebook. The low resolution of the photo didn’t matter, nor did my proud and good intentions of simply showing family/friends how much I loved my cool job. The company had a “zero tolerance” policy, and I broke it… so out the door I went - skills, career, and all.

Small Business

Suddenly in need of income, but still with a few lessons left to learn about corporate work, I joined an office supply chain’s “technology” staff. From 2008 to 2010, I helped commercial and residential customers purchase and repair digital cameras, printers, computers, and software. I quickly learned about workplace “culture,” and just as quickly found myself disgusted by mainstream retail services. Too often, a customer would ask me to perform services for which I was easily qualified… but rather than being encouraged to harness my skills to serve the customer, I was consistently met with brick walls to the tune of “we don’t offer that service.”

That just seemed dumb. Why not? What happened to customer service? What happened to above-and-beyond?

Whenever I had to say “no” to a customer I could have helped, merely because the company insisted, the customer would invariably ask me for my own number - so I could help them outside of the company’s purview. At first, I was too much of a boy scout - and I was still a bit gun shy from having so recently to start over again for breaking the corporate mold. But over time, my distaste for the rigid and inane structure of the company grew, and I began making business cards to carry with me. With a lengthy name that’s difficult to spell phonetically, I resurrected the much more memorable “NateTheTech” and started building.

Within the space of a year, I’d developed enough positive reputation that I was getting more referral work as NateTheTech than I was making hourly at the store - so, in early 2010, I quit, and took NateTheTech up to full time.