Company leader
Nathan Olsen
Co-founder and CEO
BestNotes
Nathan Olsen is the co-founder and chief executive of BestNotes, a Twin Falls, Idaho, company whose electronic health record serves therapy, behavioral health and addiction treatment programs. In 2025 he won season 12 of the History Channel survival series Alone, set in the Great Karoo desert of South Africa.
Growing Up in Southern Idaho
He grew up in a large family in southern Idaho and, as a young introvert, often slipped away into the wilderness around the family home. At ten he persuaded his parents to let him homeschool and work as a sheep herder, leading a flock of Suffolk sheep up the canyon to graze. "My first home school assignment was to find an arrowhead, draw a picture of it in place, and write a story about how it got there."
College at Fifteen
He enrolled in college at fifteen and earned a bachelor's degree in soil science, then an MBA. He worked as a field guide for the Anasazi Foundation, an outdoor therapeutic program his father, Larry Dean Olsen, co-founded, and he farmed potatoes in Turkey and Romania.
Leading BestNotes
He started BestNotes with his brothers and has run it for about 20 years. The company sells its software to programs ranging from solo therapy practices to multi-site treatment centers, at a posted price per user.
In 2025 BestNotes built Sidekick Notes, an AI notetaker from Videra Health, into its system. His aim for the tool was simple: "give clinicians their time back so they can focus on the people in front of them".
Winning Alone: Africa
His brother Luke Olsen competed in season 10 of Alone, and he joined season 12 at 52. Four of the ten contestants left within the first five days in the Great Karoo, and he won the $500,000 prize after 34 days, the shortest winning run in the show's history. His son, Isaiah, stepped out from behind a bush at the finale to mark the win.
He had food stored when the season ended and felt he left too soon. "I had everything I needed", he recalled of his camp, where strips of fish hung drying in the acacia trees. He lives in southern Idaho with his wife, Erica, and a blended family of ten children.