His father is Pat Cavanaugh, a serial entrepreneur from the Pittsburgh area, former captain of the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) Panthers basketball team, and founder/CEO of Ready Nutrition, a sports nutrition company with athlete partnerships (e.g., Giannis Antetokounmpo, Aaron Donald).
Nate has publicly credited growing up in an entrepreneurial family—interning at his dad's companies from a young age—as a big influence on his own path (he dropped out of Indiana University Bloomington around age 19 to co-found Brainbase, an IP licensing platform, later FlowFi, and more recently Special).