Nathan is a very interesting character. Love his idea of developing an industry around "invention capital" and his work with the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is very admirable.
If I may offer a contrary opinion: he's a dweeb. John Dvorak called him that 15 years ago. NM was raving about how MSN was going to be the first time people used modems and PCs to interact in communities, unaware of the long history of the BBS and places like The Well.
Now he wants to own the building blocks of software development and tax anyone who dares to use them. Er, no thanks.