Tim Nufire

I’ve been certain of two things in my career, and wrong both times. In college I wanted nothing to do with computers — yet that’s all I’ve done since. And when I left Apple in 1997, I was sure the company — now worth trillions — was doomed. It’s easy to see problems; it’s hard to appreciate the possibilities. The future will surprise you.

My college years were all about exploration. I started at the University of Missouri, Rolla — an engineering campus with separate buildings for each technical discipline and one small building for all the liberal arts. Too narrow, so I transferred to the University of Kansas for breadth and took whatever interested me most each semester (modern dance, photography, Eastern civ). Math and physics were the constants that ultimately determined my degree. My lone computer course was Pascal, taken to satisfy my foreign language requirement.

After graduation, working in my physical-chemistry professor’s laser lab, I enjoyed programming the computer to control experiments more than the research itself. That Pascal course paid off — so much for wanting nothing to do with computers.

Alan Oppenheimer hired me in 1992 to work with him at Apple in Silicon Valley. I developed Router Manager, a key component of the Apple Internet Router, and rewrote the AppleTalk Data Stream Protocol (ADSP) for Windows. After moving to the Advanced Technology Group (ATG), I wrote SoundSprocket, the 3D-audio part of Apple’s Game Sprockets, under Dick Lyon. At Excite@Home, the challenge was scaling web infrastructure (webmail for 6 million users) and learning to manage people.

My sweet spot is startups, including MailFrontier, SearchFox, and Aplia (acquired by SonicWALL, Yahoo!, and Thomson, respectively). In 2008 I co-founded Backblaze, where I wore many hats over the years (wrote code, designed Storage Pods, scaled data centers, and built teams). We took it public in 2021 (NASDAQ:BLZE).

I’ve kept busy since leaving Backblaze in 2023: initially making our condo as “smart” as possible, and more recently leveraging AI to modernize our 10-unit building’s HOA. Training across swim, bike, and run remains a focus — in April 2026 I finished my first marathon in Eugene, Oregon. Photography is also an ongoing passion. I learned to develop B&W film in high school, and love its evolving mix of art and tech.

I’m a generalist — broad proficiency over deep mastery — and a lifelong learner. Realizing what’s possible requires the ability to solve problems as they arise, and a leap of faith.