Ben Nader was born in Iran, where he lived until emigrating to the United States in his teens. His lifelong passion for tinkering and building things, especially electronic devices, crossed the Atlantic with him.
As an undergraduate at Oregon State, Nader gained a full year of real work experience through the Multiple Engineering Cooperative Program. Upon graduation, he was offered a position at Intel, but decided to take another offer from Maxim Integrated in San Jose, California, where he eventually moved into product management.
Living in the Bay Area had it drawbacks, and one of them was that people kept breaking into his home and stealing his personal property.
“I couldn’t afford a sophisticated security system, but I needed a simple way to keep an eye on things I care about,” he said. So he invented the world’s smartest security camera.
Nader and his team, which includes his brother (Brandon Nader, ’14 Business Administration) raised $2.3 million in startup capital and launched a company and a product called Butterfleye. Sixty days from shipping, the company already has $600,000 in presales.
Nader has always loved the idea of being an entrepreneur, and he draws inspiration from the bold move his parents made in moving the family to a new country.
“Basically, you leave your life behind with the hope of a better life,” he said. “It’s the same with starting a new business — you have to move out of your comfort zone. I like to think about being an entrepreneur of life.”
