How It All Started
Nathan Whittacre
President and CEO
Stimulus Technologies
Stimulus Technologies’ CEO Nathan Whittacre started his career in computer technology in the summer of 1994 when he got a job at Image Computers when he was only a junior in high school. Image specialized in building home and business computer systems and in Novell servers and networking. The next year, the owner of Image Computers decided to close his shop so he could focus on teaching at UNLV and one of his true passions – magic.
Nathan learned a great deal during that year and wanted to put his knowledge to work. He went home that night and spoke to his father and brother about opening their own computer company. Nathan’s father Jarrard, who had experience running several businesses, agreed to help. In July of 1995, at the age of 17, Nathan along with his father, Jarrard, and his brother, Brett, formed Whittrio, Inc.
Brett’s garage served as the first headquarters for the new company. Nathan and his brother worked part-time building computers, installing networking equipment, and tinkering with new technologies, while also working other jobs and going to school at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. Nathan eventually earned his Master’s degree in Computer Science at UNLV.
Eventually their hard work began to pay off and Whittrio began to grow. They moved out of the garage to downtown Henderson, which allowed them to jump into becoming an Internet Service Provider for local businesses.
Stimulus Technologies Is Born
Over the next few years, Brett began to focus on his own business, which involved writing medical dose tracking software, while Nathan focused on computer and internet services. By 2002 Brett became the general manager of Biodose medical software and Nathan took over the day-to-day operation of Whittiro, Inc.
Nathan decided that he wanted a new name for his business that would fit the service he was providing. He had always like the word stimulus because it means an activity that creates energy in something else. He rebranded the company Stimulus Technologies. For the logo he based it on the Linux penguin Tux holding lightning because of the company’s heavy use of the Linux operating system for their Internet services business.
Growth, New Location, And Expanded Services
Stimulus Technologies now had a new name and experienced new opportunities and growth. The company began the build-out of its own wireless network infrastructure, which necessitated a move to a new facility, at 6100 Mountain Vista St in Henderson, to house its growing data center.
At the same time, Stimulus started experimenting with a new service model – Managed IT Services. Stimulus could handle the requirements that businesses needed to maintain good computer, server and network infrastructure. This included anti-virus, offsite backup services, managed updates, security and monitoring systems. Stimulus started putting the necessary systems in place to offer these services as a bundled package, called Proactive Wellness.
Stimulus continued to grow, moving into a bigger space at 6100 Mountain Vista in 2007, which has allowed the company to expand its Internet services offering with higher speed Internet services and VoIP phone services.
Stimulus expanded its service offering with the deployment of Metro Ethernet high speed Internet services in 2012. This expanded Internet offering gave customers the option of subscribing to fiber-optic-like Internet in areas where fiber was not available and at a price point much lower than fiber. The Metro Ethernet network was built with high priority Internet traffic in mind, especially VoIP traffic. It is the only wireless network in Las Vegas capable of serving VoIP services.
