About

Summary by Companies

  • 9-time CEO/Managing Partner

  • 4-time President/COO

  • 6-time Founder

  • 12-time Court Appointed Federal Trustee

  • 17 Career Board Seats

  • 4 Acquisitions

  • 10+ Acquisition Misses

  • 6 Successful Exits

  • 7 Successful Turnarounds

  • 2 Appointed Shutdowns

  • 50+ Advisory Roles

  • Writer- 1 Book, Quora, Substack, Middlerock, E@RTC, Here

    Most roles overlap

Everything in this section, is AI generated, including the photo of me.

Summary

Tom Nault is a seasoned technology executive, entrepreneur, and current CEO of Hudson Cloud Systems in New York, NY, who resides in Missouri at a home he calls "Moose Lodge." His career spans over four decades, during which he has founded, grown, and led numerous high-performance companies, with a particular focus on Bluetooth technology in the early 2000s. He later co-founded Exotics at Redmond Town Center. See his LinkedIn for more career details.

Contribution to Bluetooth Advancement

Tom Nault significantly contributed to the advancement of Bluetooth technology through his leadership at Dashlight Systems, LLC, and Open Interface North America (OINA):

  1. Founding Dashlight Systems (2003): Nault established Dashlight Systems, LLC, with the objective of creating wireless sensor devices using Bluetooth in innovative ways. At the time, Bluetooth was still in its infancy, primarily used for desktop peripherals like keyboards and headsets, and faced skepticism about its mainstream adoption compared to competing technologies like UWB and ZigBee. Dashlight aimed to integrate Bluetooth with low-power sensors to enable new applications, giving "mute machine conditions a voice."

  2. Acquisition of Open Interface North America (2004): In May 2004, Dashlight, under Nault’s leadership, acquired a controlling interest in OINA, a struggling Bluetooth protocol stack software company. Nault recognized the potential of OINA’s engineering team and folded Dashlight’s intellectual property into OINA, making it the operating company.

  3. Development of Bluetooth Software for Landmark Devices: As Chairman and later CEO of OINA, Nault led the company to develop Bluetooth software that was incorporated into iconic devices, including Apple’s iPhone and Motorola’s RAZR. This work helped establish Bluetooth as a critical wireless communication standard in consumer electronics.

  4. Industry Firsts: Under Nault’s leadership, OINA achieved several Bluetooth-related milestones, including the demonstration of combined Bluetooth and Ultra-Wideband (UWB) functionality, showcasing the potential for enhanced wireless connectivity.

  5. Acquisition by Qualcomm (2007): Nault’s strategic vision and leadership culminated in OINA’s acquisition by Qualcomm in 2007, a testament to the value and impact of the Bluetooth advancements developed under his tenure.

Exotics at Redmond Town Center (E@RTC)

Tom Nault is the co-founder of Exotics at Redmond Town Center (E@RTC) along with Victor Tiscareno. E@RTC has grown into the largest and most respected weekly exotic and rare car gatherings in the United States. Designed to offer a well-organized, ego-free alternative to typical car meets, the event quickly gained traction for its respectful culture and strong community focus. Under Tom’s leadership, E@RTC drew over 400 cars and 5,000 spectators on opening day 2025, and it continues to thrive as a premier destination for automotive enthusiasts throughout the Pacific Northwest and ranked by Jalopnik at #17 as “The Best Events Our Readers Have Ever Attended” in 2024.

Life in Missouri

Nault moved to Missouri in late 2021 after a four-month journey across the U.S. in his Airstream Interstate Sprinter van. He settled in a 7,000+ square foot home designed by Tom Jowett, a renowned architect known for his work as VP of architecture for Bass Pro Shops and Big Cedar Lodge. Named "Moose Lodge" after his late dog, the house serves as his home base and a retreat for his professional endeavors. Nault has expressed a deep appreciation for the Midwest, particularly southwest Missouri, where he has found a sense of home and self-reliance.

Additional Notes

  • Nault’s work with Bluetooth was initially met with skepticism, as reflected in a 2005 conversation with his parents’ friends in Wisconsin, who questioned the seriousness of his focus on Bluetooth.

  • Beyond Bluetooth, Nault has a diverse career, including founding Middlerock Partners, LLC, for corporate turnarounds, serving as a federal court-appointed corporate trustee, and holding 17 board positions across various sectors over the years. He also authored a book, How To Not Fck Up Your Own Company*, and runs a Substack newsletter on business and technology.

In summary, Tom Nault’s contributions to Bluetooth involved founding Dashlight Systems, acquiring and leading OINA to develop software for landmark devices, and achieving industry firsts that helped solidify Bluetooth’s place in modern technology—all while now enjoying life in his Missouri home, Moose Lodge.

(Created by Grok using the search term, “Who is Tom Nault who now lives in Missouri and what was his contribution to the advancement of Bluetooth?”)

More about this site…

This site began as a personal scrapbook in 2015, a place to share ideas before Substack existed and when I had little interest in Medium. With enough about me already on LinkedIn, I wanted something different.

I created this platform to advance ideas and "pay it forward" for those interested in entrepreneurship. Given the nature of the internet, I knew I needed to include credibility milestones—proof that my ideas weren’t just theories but ones I’d successfully put into practice. More than that, I wanted a platform of my own. Social media didn’t feel right, so I set out to build a more authentic home for my thoughts.

In late 2017, I discovered Quora, which became a new outlet for answering specific questions on topics I knew well, as a way to help others. While Quora is full of opinions, I focused only on sharing what I knew to be effective or accurate. It was a space where my experience and ideas could be scrutinized and challenged, as they should be. The real-time debates and differing opinions, along with the friendships formed, have been something I’ve greatly enjoyed. However, my engagement with Quora made this site less relevant, though I still felt the need for an anchor—a place to store my thoughts.

Over time, as I wrote more elsewhere, this site became less of a form of expression and more of a guestbook, like the ones you find at old lodges—except I’m the only guest. Now that I live at Moose Lodge, this site has evolved into just that: a place to store my thoughts.

Moose Lodge

I acquired Moose Lodge in December 2021 as a place to both live and work and as a professional retreat for co-workers and collaborators, and a place that was central to my clients in all parts of the US and the globe. This is my grand experiment! Is it possible to build a successful career and ideal lifestyle at the same time?

To my colleagues and clients in other countries it was a glimpse into life here in the US. I’m an easy flight to most major cities and the time zone makes it much more workable than the Pacific Northwest where I lived for 43 years. I moved here to be closer to family and I wanted to find a place that was more conducive to the kind of work I do and this odd combination of writing and consulting.

The lodge itself is just a name for a home named after my old dog whose nickname was “Moose.” The home was designed and built by Tom Jowett, the VP of Architecture for Bass Pro for 32 years who’s distinct style can be seen in all stores as well as Big Cedar Lodge near Branson, Missouri. This house is known as the “Bass Pro House” to many locals.

Navigating This Site

The "Journey 1, 2 and 3" and “Moose Lodge” pages are password protected because they tell the story of the daily adventure of finding Moose Lodge, and it was written specifically for my close friends, so they knew where I was and what I was doing. That journey began in mid 2021 and continues every day, even now. The “Journey” was the punchline to an even longer story. I wanted to share my experiences with those who already knew me well and wanted to keep up with this unusual idea.

The writings seem far too personal for the general public and it served as a way of keeping my friends up to date now that I’m living far from all of them. Like any good movie or book, you need context, and the Journey pages without context wouldn't make much sense to the general public. There was nothing more complicated, other than my desire to maintain a private life as I was living the story of finding and adapting to life at Moose Lodge.

My Writings

As for my Quora stats; 44.3+ million content views, 3,100+ answers, 160,800+ followers, 22,500+ personal followers, 294,308,000+ Quora Digest (email recipients) since December 2017 with 1,022+ answers, or about 31% of all my answers consistently making the Quora Digest. I’ve been a top writer numerous times.

I’ve never asked for followers, upvotes or views and I’ve never participated in engagement farming or any outside marketing anywhere.

My E@RTC weekly blog has 90,000+ unique visitors annually and I never sign my name. You’d think it was a different person, but nope. It’s me. I also write a humor blog under a pen name.

On Substack, I’ve written over 350 articles covering everything from entrepreneurship, modern anthropology, tech, and lessons learned from trial and error.

Building a Calidus near Boise, Idaho