Today we’d like to introduce you to Seth Nielson.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My parents, James and Aloyes Nielson, both grew up in poverty. My mother came from a tiny ranching town in central Utah, while my father grew up in an even smaller town (more of a mail stop) on the Navajo Reservation in Utah. Neither had any college at the time I was born although my mom got her 2-year RN when I was about 10. Even though they had little education, they were determined that I would be. With blue-collar jobs, they paid for private schooling for much of my growing up, music lessons, dance, and performance. They also pushed me to work hard in math and science at school. As I got into high school, I started to prioritize technical topics over the arts.
College was an interesting experience for me. I had no family tradition for it, and I was figuring it out on my own. I also became extremely social and struggled to balance my studies. I was on academic probation after my first year. I pulled up into B’s and A’s in my sophomore and junior years, but I was still a great student.
I took a break from college to serve a 2-year religious mission for my church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (commonly referred to as “Mormons”). I spent two years in Brazil teaching about our church’s beliefs, as well as serving and working with amazing people. In developing spiritual faith, I also developed better work habits and a stronger drive and focus. When I got back from serving as a missionary, I hit the ground running in college and got my first ever 4.0. I also began to date a long-time friend named Amy Quist. We got married in 2000, right after I graduated in Computer Science from Brigham Young University.
After working as an engineer for a few years, I went back to graduate school and earned a Master’s Degree in Computer Science. Now, I was really in new territory because nobody in my family had done graduate school. But I found out that I liked it and decided to keep going. So, with a wife and two kids in tow, we all moved to Houston, TX, where I started a Ph.D. program in Computer Science. The Ph.D. program was tough, especially because I was the sole provider for my family. Amy had a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering and had worked for several years as an engineer, but she wanted to focus her talents on our children. So, trying to graduate school and provide for the family really required a lot of faith, patience, hard work, and dedication. During this time, we had a third child that was born ten weeks premature. I thought I might have to drop out of school, but through some amazing miracles, we kept going, and I graduated with my Ph.D. in 2009.
For the next seven years, I lived in the Baltimore area, working in various consulting capacities. I loved the work as I got to dive into different clients’ problems and figure out how to solve difficult problems. I gained insights and experience from great mentors and great co-workers. Our family also continued to grow, adding in our fourth and fifth child. We loved visiting historical sites, Washington D.C., and occasional trips across the country to visit friends and family.
But by the end of 2015, I realized it was time to move on. I first looked at transitioning into a consulting partnership with two other colleagues. It ended up not being a great fit, so on March 1st, 2016, I struck out completely on my own, and Crimson Vista, Inc. was born. I felt ready. I felt like I had graduated from years of training and working and could take on my own clients. The reality, however, was much tougher. There was a shortage of clients during 2016, and our family was living on reserves and loans. Amy and I would talk regularly about how long we thought we could last and when I might have to give up on the dream of my own business. Things were getting critical when the work finally started coming in. By the end of 2016, we were finally moving positively for the first time. By March 1st, 2017, I was able to throw a party to celebrate Crimson Vista’s 1-year birthday. We’ve had plenty of work ever since.
In 2019, Amy and I felt very strongly that we should make a move with our family to Austin. We felt that several miracles enabled an easy sale of our Maryland house and the purchase of our Texas home. We became Texans (again) on July 1st. I reformed Crimson Vista Inc. as a Texas company and began working to build it into a larger firm. Amazingly, during the Pandemic and the corresponding shutdown, we still had plenty of clients and a lot of work. We grew during the pandemic, and we’ve continued to grow since then.
Crimson Vista’s bread and butter is computer security and forensics. We help clients with all kinds of problems: did someone alter digital documents, break into a computer, steal digital source code, and many other challenging conundrums? I have testified in court multiple times about our investigations. We’ve built a reputation for integrity, expertise, effective communications, and efficient production.
And this brings me back to where my story began: my parents. My mom passed away in 2002, shortly after my first child was born. But I believe in an afterlife, and I believe she watches over me, grateful that all the training she gave me has paid off. My dad is still alive. I look at the successes I have had with earning a Ph.D. and starting a successful company and recognize that so much of it came from lessons I learned from him. My father, who to this day does not speak with correct grammar, made it possible for me to reach the highest levels of academic achievement. He never made a lot of money, but what he taught me about money is why I’m successful in business. I hope to be like him when I grow up. And I make sure his name, which I carry as my middle name, is always mentioned. The books that I’ve written, the technical reports I’ve produced for court cases, and the contracts I sign for Crimson Vista are always identified by my full name: Seth James Nielson.
As you know, we’re big fans of Crimson Vista Inc. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Crimson Vista, Inc., is an engineering company that provides cybersecurity analysis and forensic investigations. Clients frequently come to us when something has gone wrong, and they need us to figure out what went wrong, why, and the impact. One example of this is computer code theft. This sometimes happens when an employee or other affiliate leaves a company and takes the confidential code with them without permission. We are often asked to do an investigation to prove or disprove that such a thing happened. This typically involves studying the source code and the development metadata to find evidence of unauthorized copying.
We also have helped clients figure out how their systems were broken into, what attackers did or could have done with stolen data, and if digital data has been altered or modified. We have worked with Fortune 100 companies, including banks, insurance companies, law firms, tech companies, and state governments.
What I think sets us apart is both our breadth and our depth. The collective technical brain-trust of Crimson Vista has wide experience. We have worked with mobile devices, mobile apps, computer networks, video games, robotic vacuum cleaners, WiFi chips, computer security devices, high-frequency trading software, financial software, World Wide Web applications, e-commerce, and many, many more. We have dealt with software design, security design, cryptographic design, network design, data design, privacy implications, location tracking, artificial intelligence, and a plethora of other computer science and computer security topics.
But we are also very deep in selective areas. Cryptography (the mathematics and applications of secret codes), for example, is an area in which we have a lot of experience. Crimson Vista is currently sponsoring the non-profit Crypto Done Right foundation that aims to help improve the use of cryptography in the technical industry.
Something else that sets us apart is our backgrounds in both theory and practice. I, for example, teach classes as an adjunct at the University of Texas at Austin, which keeps me up-to-speed on theory and research. At the same time, I have been involved in the hands-on development of start-up technologies. Combining theory and practice is crucial for certain technologies, such as cryptocurrency and blockchain. Theory helps us understand idealized goals and hard limitations, but experience in the field translates into current best practices and preferred design optimizations.
We frequently receive feedback from our clients indicating how pleased they are because of how effectively they fused these various attributes together in solving their problems.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
If you’re like me and had a steady job before going to work for yourself, the biggest challenge might be switching into a world of risk and reward. When you’re an employee, you can negotiate for a higher salary, ask for vacation, and expect paid benefits. When you work for yourself, all of that safety net goes away. You have to learn to embrace the risk. You have to be willing to fail. You have to be willing to lose everything and have a plan for starting over when you do. You will quickly learn that nobody “owes” you a paycheck anymore, and you only “eat what you kill.”
Contact Info:
- Website: crimsonvista.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crimsonvista
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/crimson-vista-inc.
