Under 30 CEO Summit This Weekend in Utah

I’m out in Alta, Utah this weekend near Salt Lake City for the Under 30 CEO Summit being put on by Elliot Bisnow.

We’ve been skiing at Snowbird, heard from Ted Alemayhu from U.S. Doctors for Africa, chatted with Scott Fredrick from Valhalla Partners, and talked a lot about business, entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, and how we can work together to make a difference in the world.

Blake from Tom’s Shoes (which donates 1 pair of shoes to children in developing countries for every pair they sell) debuted his video “No Polo Window” announcing the launch of his leather boots campaign to reduce a foot disease called Podo in Ethiopia. Blake gave us each a pair and I’m quite happy to report they are awesome for breakdancing.

The people that are here include Dan Melinger (Socialight), Cristina Miller (Store Adore),
Sean Belnick (Bizchairs.com), Ben Lerer (Thrillist), Blake Mycoskie (Tom’s Shoes), Cameron Johnson (The Big Give), Ben Kauffman, (Kluster), Josh Abramson (CollegeHumor/BustedTees), Rob Jewell (Gratis Internet), Joel Holland (Footage Firm),
Lin Miao (Tatto Media), Ricky Van Veen (CollegeHumor/BustedTees), Jud Bowman (Motricity), Sam Altman (Loopt), Anthony Adams (CreditCovers), Nathan Stevens (Yodle), and Jeff Fissel (KZO Networks).

Yesterday I skied for the second time and went from extreme beginner to beginner. It’s been a great time so far and I’m looking forward to tonight.

Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh Presents on “The Path to a Billion”

Tony Hsieh, the 34 year old CEO of Zappos is giving a talk at the Underground web marketing seminar in Los Angeles. He sold LinkExchange to Microsoft for $265 million in 1998.

His speech is titled The Path to $1 Billion as they are on track to hit $1B in sales this year as a private company that started in 1999, did $8.6 million in 2000 and $32 million in 2001. They have 1,600 employees today and a 500 person call center.

Tony is emphasizing the importance of ‘above and beyond’ great customer service more or less regardless of cost. 75% of his orders are from repeat customers. He talks of ’surprise upgrades.’

Tony shared that they orient new team members with 4 weeks of customer loyalty training at their headquarters in Las Vegas plus week in Kentucky for warehouse training for every single employee. He tells the story of when a customer ordered pizza from their customer service line at 3am and the customer rep found the nearest pizza places in Santa Monica that were still open.

He encourages entrepreneurs to train great people if you want the company to scale as ‘you can’t do everything yourself.’ He provides a culture book to their team members each year. Every single team member writes a couple employee on what the culture means to them.

Their core company values are:

1. Deliver WOW through service
2. Embrace and drive change
3. Create fun and little weirdness
4. Be adventurous, creative, and open-minded
5. Pursue growth and learning
6. Build open and honest relationships with communication
7. Build a positive team and family spirit
8. Do more with less
9. Be passionate and determined
10. Be humble

I am wondering what their customer acquisition cost and customer lifetime value is and what their monthly CPM and CPC spend is and what networks they use to acquire customers via CPA.

Breakdancing in Denver With The Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour

Last Thursday afternoon in Denver at Metro State College we decided to break it down in the quad in front of the Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour Bus with Doug Fath, Arel Moodie, Sheena Lindahl, and Michael Simmons. After falling underneath Carla the Metro State professor we recover and finish with the avante garde high-five of our generation–the ‘pound explosion.’ Can’t I get a Ye-Ah?

Soundtrack: Crush by Paramore

From The 7th Floor of the RDU Parking Deck

I’m blogging from my phone sitting in the back of my suv about to take a 3 hour nap before a 7am flight to D.C.I’ve learned the hard way that me, sleeping at home, and 7am Monday morning flights don’t mix well, so I figured I’d spend the night out here. It’s truly beautiful up here–it’s one of the highest outside points in the Triangle.

I’ll be speaking at Howard University at 10am and George Washington University school of business at 1pm on monday. Then I’ll be riding in the back of the Extreme Entrepreneuship Tour Bus to Fairfield, West virginia to speak on tuesday. I’ll be talking about how to find and follow your passion as an entrepreneur and social entrepreneur and how to build a company.

Hopefully ill be able to promote the book, evangelize the power of online communication through iContact, and inspire a few early stage entrepreneurs and change agents to follow their dreams.

In seven short hours from now the music starts playing and I start freesyling from the back of the room.

Stand up, and turn around. For today my friends is a special day. Our paths have merged and our lives have converged.Today is a day of creativity, a day of prosperity and limitless opportunity. There is nothing that stands in your way other than mental poverty, for there is no disparity between he and she, you and me. Faith in yourself is the only thing I ask you to bring. And in return a great potential will spring. So, my friends, let me ask you just one question. Look, if you had, just one shot, one opportunity, to seize everything you ever wanted, one moment, would you capture it, or just let it slip???

The Chapel Hill Trivia Game

Here’s a cool entrepreneurial venture in the Triangle. My business partner at iContact Aaron Houghton and three other UNC alums have spent the past few months creating The Chapel Hill Trivia Game. They just got their first shipment of 1000 games this week. If you’re from Chapel Hill or went to UNC, or know someone special that did it’s a perfect gift for the holidays.

“Along the way we’ve had a lot of fun, dug up and verified thousands of facts about Chapel Hill, and turned the best of the best into The Chapel Hill Trivia Game. We now have the first 1,000 games in stock and are eager to get them into the hands of UNC fans, alums, students, etc in time for the holidays. The Chapel Hill Trivia Game makes the perfect gift for anyone who loves Chapel Hill or UNC. ”

Check out the game at http://www.chapelhilltriviagame.com.

CEO Keynote: Want to See Me Dance to Soulja Boy in Front of 800 People in Chicago?

Here’s an excerpt video clip from my keynote speech at the Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization Annual Conference in Chicago. Enjoy!

“Entrepreneur Ryan Allis dances to Crank That Soulja Boy during the middle of the Collegiate Entrepreneur Organization keynote speech, Finding The Purpose of Your Life in Six Lessons, presented November 3, 2007 at the McCormick Conference Center in Chicago in front of 800 college entrepreneurs.”

Keynote at CEO: Finding Your Purpose in Life

Here is the slide deck from my keynote speech on Saturday afternoon at the Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization Annual Conference(7MB).

The speech was titled Finding The Purpose of Your Life in Six Lessons. I had a blast giving the speech. I can’t say I’ve ever danced to Soulja Boy in front of 800 people.

The accompanying music for the slides is Yeah by Usher Feat. Lil Jon and Crank That Soulja Boy by Soulja Boy.

Here’s the BHAG gorilla…

In Chicago Speaking at Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization Conference

I spoke this afternoon to 150 attendees at a breakout session at the Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization conference in Chicago on the usual, yet updated, topic of How to Build a Company to $1 Million in Sales. Here is a link to the slides from the speech (48 MB).

I’ll be doing a keynote in front of the full crowd of 1,200 on the topic of Finding Purpose in Your Life (slides coming tomorrow). This will be the largest group I’ve ever spoken in front of. I’m excited!

Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour in Canton, OH

I’m in Canton, Ohio today speaking at Stark State College with the Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour and my good friends Michael Simmons, Sheena Lindahl, and Jason Dalrymple. Michael and Sheena are doing a great job right now on their presentation on how to indentify and pursue your passion in life. While I’m only speaking at one college with them this semester, they are going to about 15 schools in a big RV (wait till you see photos of their branded RV later today!). Good luck to them on their tour! I’ll be putting up the video of the speech in a few days.

Speaking at Appalachian State Yesterday

I had a chance to head over to Boone, NC yesterday to speak to students at Appalachian State University. I gave a presentation on “Ten Steps to Building a Company to $1 Million in Sales.” You can download a copy of slides from the event here.

Thanks to Bryan and Zola for bringing me over and for everyone that helped with the event!