The stereotype of a tech billionaire such as Daniel Nadler is one of data-driven, optimization-obsessed figures who view technology as a solution to virtually every problem. The ‘hyper-casual’ wardrobe of white trainers and high-waisted jeans housed in a minimalist compound in Palo Alto would also be essential components of the tech plutocrat checklist. A love of composing poetry is unlikely to feature on any list, yet this is where Nadler breaks the mould.

Today’s rapid pace of technological change is creating a new class of tycoons. This class is in-keeping with a centuries-long tradition of past giants who straddled their industries and societies with an outsized presence. Each generation has its particular sector that dominates the public imagination more than any other. Today’s is tech.

In the late 19^th century it was the transportation giants, in the form of J.D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie, who produced the steel, iron, oil and infrastructure that connected the world like never before. The 20^th Century saw the rise of the automobile tycoons in Henry Ford and Walter Chrysler. In the postwar era it became the ‘media moguls’ in the form of Rupert Murdoch and Katharine Graham. In most cases they were tycoons who ‘gave back to society’ by becoming international patrons of the arts, funding museums around the world and financially backing all manner of creative pursuits.

The tech tycoons of today are names as familiar as A-list movie stars and world leaders. Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Elon Musk and their ilk, in terms of perceived influence and public interest, stand above all others. However, unlike their predecessors, their interest in supporting the creative arts appears much more limited, stereotyped instead by their data-driven, analytical and technical approach to business and life.

In Daniel Nadler, who today heads up OpenEvidence, an AI-powered medical tool used by more U.S. doctors than any other, there is a tech tycoon who has placed creative arts at the heart of who he is and what he wants to achieve. Having made billions from both OpenEvidence and his previous sale of Kensho Technologies, a company which developed AI machine-learning tools, Nadler finds himself in the rarified circle of 21^st Century tech tycoons.

With that position comes the data-driven, analytical stereotype. An expectation of behaviour and interests that has followed tycoons since the term was invented. For so called ‘tech bros’ engaging in creative extra-curricular activities, let alone supporting them are, at least in the public’s mind, not the norm. Yet for Nadler, poetry forms as much a part of his personality as his love of technology and a fundamental belief in its ability to reshape and improve society.

None of the illustrious tech tycoons mentioned previously are associated with the kinds of artistic curiosity their predecessor tycoons were. They are primarily concerned with taking complex, cutting-edge concepts and technology and translating them into simple, mass market products. As an artist, Nadler sets himself apart as more of a visionary who can see beyond the simple nuts and bolts of mass-market tech.

Nadler’s love of poetry began during his education at Harvard, where he was a mentee of Jorie Graham, a Pulitzer Prize winning poet, who has been described by the Poetry Foundation as ‘one of the most celebrated poets of the American postwar generation’. Nadler formed a passion for poetry that has set him apart from his fellow tech tycoons ever since. It also led him to publishing Lacunae: 100 Imagine Ancient Love Poems in 2016, serving as his debut collection. Since then, more than seventy of his poems have been published, including in Best American Experimental Writing.

Nadler’s creative pursuits don’t start and end in poetry. In 2019, he took a plunge into the world of movie making, providing financing and being credited as a producer on Motherless Brooklyn, written by and featuring Edward Norton. In 2021, he also produced the Justin Timberlake film Palmer.

So what does this tell us about the modern-day tech entrepreneur? It tells us, as has been the case for centuries, that tycoons are just as capable of dispelling their stereotypes and confounding expectations as any other part of society. It also shows us the limits of trying to understand the tech leaders of today through the rough, generalised stereotype that we are all guilty of applying at times. Far from pigeonholed, data-driven obsessives, the example of Daniel Nadler shows there is plenty of room for creative output amongst the tech tycoons of today.