Nat Friedman: Scaling Cross-Platform Tools from Startup to Enterprise

Before helping direct major software organizations, technology executive Nat Friedman built his reputation by constructing essential tools for developers. His enterprise career began with early open-source projects and culminated in leadership roles across major software platforms. At the center of this trajectory was Xamarin, a business designed to streamline how software runs across multiple operating systems.

Foundations in Open Software

Friedman studied Computer Science and Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, graduating in 1999. During his university years, he interned at Microsoft working on web server infrastructure and launched an online communications network dedicated to open-source operating system discussions. In 1999, he co-founded Ximian alongside Miguel de Icaza to create application software for the GNOME desktop project. That business was acquired by Novell in 2003, where Friedman served as Chief Technology and Strategy Officer for Open Source until early 2010. During his tenure at Novell, he oversaw internal migrations to open software tools, directed open-source components for messaging systems, and contributed to operating system studio projects.

Building the Xamarin Ecosystem

In May 2011, Friedman and de Icaza launched Xamarin in San Francisco, with Friedman serving as chief executive officer. The enterprise was founded to offer commercial support for Mono, an effort initiated to deliver an open-source implementation of the Microsoft .NET software stack. Under Friedman’s management, Xamarin focused on advancing Mono and MonoDevelop while bringing the cross-platform Xamarin SDK to market. The company developed tools including Xamarin.Android and Xamarin.iOS, enabling developers to use a single C#-shared codebase. This setup allowed creators to write applications featuring native interfaces for Android, iOS, and Windows, while sharing code across desktop environments like Linux, macOS, and Windows, as well as gaming consoles and mobile hardware. By April 2017, the platform reached an audience of more than 1.4 million developers spanning 120 countries.

Corporate Integration and Platform Growth

Xamarin attracted the attention of Microsoft, leading to an acquisition agreement signed on February 24, 2016. Following the acquisition, Friedman transitioned into corporate vice president responsibilities at Microsoft. In October 2018, he assumed the chief executive officer role at GitHub, a developer platform Microsoft acquired for billions. In his time leading GitHub, Friedman managed a rapid sequence of product rollouts, including GitHub Copilot, GitHub Codespaces, native mobile applications for iOS and Android, security tools, developer financial sponsorship programs, and a new command-line interface. He also expanded GitHub by acquiring several software businesses, including NPM, Semmle, Dependabot, and PullPanda, before stepping down from the leadership position in November 2021.

Broadening Technical Leadership

Following his chief executive tenure, Friedman broadened his work across software interfaces and technical investments. He developed nat.dev, a specialized web interface designed to interact with popular large language models, and co-founded an organization addressing California housing supply. Through C2 Investments alongside partner Daniel Gross, he backed early-stage artificial intelligence ventures while funding grant initiatives that provided compute credits. During financial stress involving Silicon Valley Bank in March 2023, he provided capital support directly to multiple startup companies. By June 2025, Friedman joined Meta Platforms to co-lead Meta Superintelligence Labs alongside Alexandr Wang, supervising applied research efforts and artificial intelligence products. Meanwhile, the original Xamarin product line eventually concluded its official support cycle in May 2024 as Microsoft transitioned users to newer framework offerings.