Nate's fate

Tapping skills honed as a community organizer for President Obama's campaign, 25-year-old Web entrepreneur Nate Westheimer hopes to bring more cohesion to the diffused New York technology industry.

"My focus is on creating efficiency within the New York tech ecosystem, rather than focusing strictly on growing it," says Westheimer, recently elected organizer of NY Tech Meetup, which, with 7,500-plus members, is the largest club of tech pros in the city.

By building bridges among tech groups, Westheimer hopes to foster more collaboration and perhaps reduce redundant efforts.

"Making the New York tech community more efficient will help the businesses, people and groups it encompasses become better equipped to survive this economic climate and thrive into the future," he says.

Host to monthly meetings where local entrepreneurs demonstrate their products to potential investors, partners and customers, NY Tech Meetup is something of a poster child for the company that launched it, Meetup Inc., a New York startup that leverages the Internet to help organize groups. Scott Heiferman, the CEO of Meetup, has served as the organizer of NY Tech Meetup since its inception four years ago.

Heiferman announced in November that he would step down as the group's leader to focus full-time on his company, which received backing from New York venture capital firm Union Square Ventures in July.

Westheimer beat out eight other contenders for the position in an online poll, in which 600-plus members voted. His bid was boosted by endorsements from New York Angels Inc. chairman David S. Rose -- who is also the founder of Rose Tech Ventures LLC, which employs Westheimer as entrepreneur in residence -- and Charlie O'Donnell, the CEO of career development site Path 101 Inc., who founded NextNY, a grass-roots group for young Web entretrepreneurs.

During the fall, Westheimer returned to his native Clermont County, Ohio, to serve as a deputy field organizer in the Obama campaign, where his faith in reaching out to existing groups was reinforced. "In the Obama campaign, we were so well organized that it made more sense for unions and other groups to just show up to our headquarters to be put to work rather than work separately," Westheimer recalls.

Back in New York in December, he campaigned for NY Tech Meetup organizer on a similar platform of reaching out to other groups.

Westheimer led his first meetup earlier this month, when 400 people gathered in the lobby of Barry Diller's sleek, Frank Gehry-designed IAC/InterActiveCorp building to view demonstrations of half a dozen programs for microblogging service Twitter. In attendance were many of the city's best-known VCs, including Union Square Ventures co-founder Fred Wilson, a backer of Twitter.

Westheimer asked for volunteers for a new community committee, which will share information and resources among various New York technology factions, such as businesses and universities.

"In economic times like these, industry groups need to operate more efficiently while supporting the community," Westheimer says. "Cities like New York need a vibrant tech industry like never before. As Mayor Bloomberg pointed out in his State of the City address, while Wall Street evaporates and Madison Avenue slumps, technology can be a saving grace."