Nathaniel Turner

Current Position

Title: Chief Executive Officer & Chairman Company: Collectors Holdings Inc (parent company of PSA, PCGS, Wata) Location: New York City, NY

Professional Background

Nathaniel "Nat" Turner is a serial entrepreneur and investor with a track record of building and scaling technology companies that disrupt complex industries. He co-founded Invite Media in 2007 at age 22, an enterprise advertising platform that Google acquired in 2010 for approximately $81 million. Following this success, Turner co-founded Flatiron Health in 2012 with Zach Weinberg, creating an oncology informatics platform that aggregated cancer patients' real-world data to accelerate research and improve patient outcomes. The mission was driven by witnessing how only 4% of cancer patient data is typically studied in clinical trials while the other 96% goes unused. Flatiron Health grew to become a $2 billion company (at acquisition valuation) and was acquired by the Roche Group in February 2018, validating the market opportunity for real-world data in healthcare.

After Flatiron, Turner transitioned into investment and operational advisory roles through Operator Partners, a $40-70 million self-funded venture fund co-founded with other billion-dollar exit entrepreneurs. In 2020-2021, he took a controlling stake in and became CEO of Collectors Holdings (formerly Collectors Universe), a company that owns and operates leading grading and authentication services in the collectibles industry including PSA (trading cards), PCGS (coins), and Wata (video games). Under his leadership, Turner has positioned Collectors as a category leader, with notable recent achievements including a strategic partnership with GameStop and his appointment to GameStop's Board of Directors in November 2024.

Turner's entrepreneurial philosophy is pragmatic yet ambitious. He emphasizes that the best time to start companies is during economic downturns when innovation slows among competitors. He advocates for taking calculated risks while young, when failure carries fewer consequences and recovery time is available. He characterizes himself as a "terrible employee," suggesting his entrepreneurial nature makes him better suited to building and leading organizations than traditional employment roles.

Career Timeline

Education

• B.S. in Economics (Cum Laude), Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 2008
• Pre-college ventures: web development/hosting company, reptile breeding operation, gift card exchange platform (CertificateSwap), online food ordering website

Public Presence

Social Media

Note: All documented profiles are publicly accessible. Turner's X/Twitter presence shows regular engagement with followers (32.1K), with posts ranging from entrepreneurial commentary to updates about Collectors/PSA operations and personal interests in collectibles.

Published Writings

• "10 principles for startup recruiting" — Personal blog (2011)
• "How many co-founders is right? And other related questions" — Personal blog (2012)
• "The startup essentials" — Personal blog (2013)
• "How I manage my inbox" — Personal blog (2012)
• "A quick thought on recruiting today" — Personal blog (2011)
• Various archived blog posts on entrepreneurship and business operations (2011-2014)

Public Speaking

• Wharton School Commencement Speaker — Wharton Undergraduate Commencement (2017)
• "Young, Entrepreneurial and Google-Owned" — Wharton Global Youth Program (featured in video/article series)
• "Risk Taking and Entrepreneurship: Interview with Co-Founder of Flatiron Health" — Penn Innovators in Business/Innovator Media podcast and articles
• "This Is Success" podcast — Episode featuring Nat Turner on negotiating a $2 billion deal (date varies, but from "This Is Success" series)
• "A Hobby Conversation" — Golden Age of Cardboard podcast (December 2023, discussing collectibles and PSA operations)
• "Exclusive: Nat Turner Reveals PSA's Next Moves" — Sports Card Madness podcast (August 2024)
• Interviews and panel appearances at various entrepreneurship and healthcare technology conferences (2012-2018 during Flatiron era)

Communication Style

Tone: Pragmatic, direct, and motivational with a casual accessibility; balances visionary thinking with practical, operational grounding. Turner speaks like an entrepreneur-operator rather than a business theorist—emphasizing real-world execution over abstract concepts.

Recurring themes: Risk-taking and timing in entrepreneurship; the importance of identifying problems worth solving and building teams to address them; the value of data and technology in transforming legacy industries; recruiting and team building as critical success factors; the intersection of business opportunity and social impact (particularly evident in his Flatiron Health mission around cancer data).

Notable positions: Strong advocate for taking entrepreneurial risks while young, when the downside is manageable and recovery time is available. Skeptical of conventional employment structures for entrepreneurial personalities. Positioned Flatiron's approach to healthcare technology as "thoughtful disruption"—innovating within an industry without creating chaos in patient care delivery. Bullish on the potential of real-world data to accelerate medical research and improve outcomes. Recently, he has actively promoted collectibles as a viable asset class and cultural phenomenon, leveraging his position at Collectors to legitimize the industry through authentication and grading standards.

Nat Turner communicates with a balance of confidence and intellectual humility. His public statements reveal a founder who thinks in terms of market opportunities, competitive advantages, and team execution rather than ideology. He frequently references learning from failure and emphasizes that entrepreneurial success requires ongoing adaptation. When discussing Flatiron Health, he articulated a clear problem statement (underutilized patient data) and a direct solution (technology platform). His more recent public engagement around collectibles suggests a similar pattern—identifying market inefficiency (inconsistent grading and authentication standards) and building systems to resolve it. His tone on social media is informal and sometimes self-aware (e.g., his tweet "I'm never deleting twitter"), suggesting comfort with public engagement but not excessive personal revelation. His blog archive from 2011-2014 reveals a founder focused on operational details: recruiting principles, inbox management, team composition—indicating he thinks about the mechanics of building organizations.

Notable Achievements

• Co-founded and built Flatiron Health from inception to $2 billion acquisition by Roche (2012-2018)
• Successfully sold Invite Media to Google for ~$81 million at age 24 (2010)
• Named to Crain's New York Business list of notable entrepreneurs (age 29)
• Flatiron Health recognized as World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer
• Orchestrated acquisition and operational turnaround of Collectors Universe, positioning it as category-leading grading/authentication authority
• Active angel investor in 250+ startups including multiple unicorns: Plaid, BarkBox, Cedar, Clover Health, Headway, Oscar, Ramp, Workrise, Vise, Zipline
• Appointed to GameStop Board of Directors (November 2024)
• Multiple successful exits: Invite Media (Google), Flatiron Health (Roche)
• Speaker at prestigious venues including Wharton commencement and major podcasts and industry panels

Key Relationships

• Zach Weinberg — Co-founder of Flatiron Health and Invite Media; long-standing business partner since first day at Wharton (undergraduate); now co-founder and CEO of Curie.Bio; partner at Operator Partners. Turner has characterized Weinberg as visionary on product design while he focuses on operations and team leadership.
• Operator Partners — Co-founded with fellow billion-dollar exit entrepreneurs (including early Plaid investor); primary vehicle for venture investing and operational advisory to portfolio companies
• GameStop Board — Director position appointed November 2024; strategic connection to collectibles category expansion and retail technology
• Collectors Holdings Partnerships — Strategic relationships with major players in collectibles market; recent GameStop partnership as authorized PSA dealer
• Former Google/Roche Networks — Connections from Invite Media integration (Google 2010-2012) and Flatiron exit (Roche 2018); likely board or advisory relationships from exits
• Wharton Network — Strong institutional relationship as featured speaker and student entrepreneur whose success reflects well on the school

Information Availability Assessment

Overall: HIGH

Public information about Nat Turner is substantial due to his success as a serial entrepreneur, media coverage of both major exits, and his active social media presence. Professional background is well-documented through press releases, news coverage, and company bios. His communication style and philosophy are accessible through interviews, podcasts, and blog archives. Current role at Collectors is actively covered in collectibles industry media. The primary limitation is that detailed strategic/operational decisions at Collectors are not heavily covered in mainstream business press compared to Flatiron's healthcare tech prominence, and his personal life remains private despite his public professional presence.