What We’ll Be Doing in Kenya and Uganda June 25-July 5

From June 25th through July 5th I’ll be in Kenya and Uganda with Jess Shorland and Bob Phoenix. The purpose of our trip is to:

1. Visit the non-profits that The Humanity Campaign and iContact have provided funds to in order to see and document how they are using the funds and to learn about their operations and needs;
2. Find additional qualified non-profits for The Humanity Campaign to invest in;
3. Find companies with unique innovative appropriate technologies that address local social needs and for-profit companies with a social mission to invest in;
4. Learn as much as we can about conflict resolution, IDP camps, food and water distribution, rural health care provision, and rural primary and secondary education; and
5. Dance, dance, and dance some more like Matt from Where The Hell is Matt!

On our first day in Nairobi we’ll be meeting with Amon Anderson from the Acumen Fund and Mary Muhara from Africa Rising. Amon is a friend of mine from back when we went to UNC together and from when he was in charge of the entrepreneurship minor at UNC. Mary is the in-country local representative for Africa Rising who vets the non-profits that Africa Rising contributes to. Mary will be taking us to visit TULIP Nairobi a program supported by AR. TULIP “strives to deliver hope for girls subjected to poverty and its vices: teenage pregnancies, HIV/AIDS, drugs, crime, and prostitution.”

On day two in Nairobi we’ll be visiting with Carolina for Kibera. CFK works in Kibera, a slum in North Nairobi to “promote youth leadership and ethnic and gender cooperation in Kibera through sports, young women’s empowerment, and community development.” CFK was started in 2001 by a UNC students Kim Chapman and Rye Barcott. Rye has since completed five years of service as an officer in the Marines and completed a MBA/MPA joint degree from HBS and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, which is what I’d love to be doing in a few years. They operate a soccer league, medical clinic (Tabitha Clinic), and a reproductive health and women’s rights center (Binti Pamoja). I’m so excited to be seeing their operation first hand.

On day three, we’ll be flying from Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta Airport to Entebbe, Uganda. We’ll stay the night in Kampala with our friend Louis Ntale, the brother-in-law of Duke’s Christopher Kigongo, and then wake up early to catch the five or six hour Posta Uganda bus from Kampala to Gulu and traverse once again the adventurous roads of rural Uganda.

Upon arriving in Gulu we’ll be meeting up with Andrew Morgan of Invisible Children. Over the past year I have been studying the conflict between the LRA, led by Joseph Kony, and the Ugandan army known as the Ugandan People’s Defence Force and formerly known as the National Resistance Army.

Invisible Children (IC) is working to put an end to the conflict, which has died down considerably in Northern Uganda but spread to the Central African Republic and the Northeast Democratic Republic of Congo, near the Garamba Forest. IC also working to re-integrate and educate former LRA child soldiers in the surrounding region’s Internally Displaced Person’s camps and to lobby the U.S. government to put State Department resources into ending the conflict. I had the chance to spend a couple days with their CEO Ben Keesey and co-founder Bobby Bailey while at The Summit Series trip in Aspen in April. They’ve put out a series of very well done DVD documentaries explaining the conflict and highlighting the stories of particular child soldiers. I’m very excited to see the IC operation while in Gulu.

After a day with IC, we’ll be visiting the Concerned Parents Association, another organization supported by Africa Rising, which mobilises parents of abducted children toward the objectives of:

1. Immediate and unconditional release of all abducted children
2. Peaceful resolution of the conflicts
3. Creation of an awareness of the plight of children in conflict

After three days in Gulu, we’ll head back down to Kampala on July 1st, visit with Opportunity International Kampala and then Jonathan Gozier of Appfrica, and stay the night again with Louis. On Thursday, July 2nd we’ll have one free day and either head to the Kampala Hospital, do a follow-up visit with the the Kyetume health clinic an hour away in Nkokonjeru, or head over to Jinja to see the source of the Nile.

On Friday we’ll head over to Mityana, Uganda to visit the Naama Millennium School and get an update on the scholarship program that iContact and The Humanity Campaign have funded that will be helping students at Naama attend secondary school. We’ll also be visiting a team from Duke and Nourish International. Naama serves 321 students, 113 of which have lost one or both parents. It was a true joy last year visiting Naama and seeing the school children dance!

After visiting Naama we’ll visit the Mityana Secondary School. One of my favorite memories from the visit last June was sitting in on an entrepreneurship class and seeing first hand the drive in the students to excel.

On our final day, Bob and I will head back to Kampala to fly to Nairobi and then back to RDU through Heathrow and JFK to be back in time for work on Monday morning July 6. Jess will continue on and head down to Karagwe, Tanzania to work with Juma Masisi at WOMEDA, a women’s rights organization.

I look forward to blogging about our experiences! Stay tuned.

MIT IDEAS Competition Slides - The Great Opportunity of Our Generation

I wanted to post my Powerpoint slides from the presentation I gave at MIT for their 2009 IDEAS Competition on Monday night. You can view them on Scribd or below via this blog post.

The topic was “The Great Opportunity of Our Generation”

Some of the formatting is off in Scrib but mostly OK…

MIT IDEAS Social Entrepreneurship Competition, Ryan Allis, The Great Opportunity of Our Generation, May 200…

Here are some notes from the award ceremony following my presentation from Joe Chung. Congratulations to the winners! AquaPort, HeatSource and EGGTech were especially interesting to me.

Opening: Nick Fontaine
Keynote: Ryan Allis

Chancellor introduced
$2.5k IDEAS Award Winners
Aquaport
Oladapo Bakare
Ashley
Mary
Rob
Joonhaeng
Ash
Rebecca
Daniel
(water filtration)

Professor Thomas Byrne introduced
$2.5k winner
Vision Group (seeing machine)
Quinn Smithwick
Brandon Taylor
Yi Fei Wu
(project image directly into eye, bypass distorting part)

Barbara Baker introduced
$5k IDEAS Award winner
sponsored by Baruch Family
Global Citizen Water Initiative
Scott Frank
Stephanie Bachar
(place water in tube for 24 hrs to see if clean)

Allan Powell introduced
$5k IDEAS Award Winner
sponsored by The MIT COOP
BLISS
Saba Gul
Dr. Ishrat Hussain
Nadeem Mazen
Ghanzala Mehmood

Presented by Dean Stephen Lerman
$5k IDEAS Award Winner
sponsored by the office of dean of grad education/Yunus Challenge Winner
EGGTech Blandine Antoine Emmanuel Cassimatis Alla Jezmir
(providing battery for lighting to those in tanzania without electricity)

Yunus Challenge Winner
$7,500 IDEAS Award Winner
Lebone
Alexander Fabry
Aviva Presser
Hugo Van Zuuren
(microbial fuel cell solution for providing electricity)

Presented by Professor Thomas Byrne, MD
$7,500 IDEAS Award Winner
Braille Labeler
Aleksander and Anna Anita Leyfell
Adelaide Calbry-Muzyka
Josh Karges
Karina Pikhart
Maria Prus
Rachel Tatem
(electromechanical braille labeler)

Presented by Professor Michael Cima
Sponsored by the Lemelson - MIT Program
$7,500 IDEAS Award Winner
HeatSource
Amy Qian
Celeste Chudyk
Scot Frank
Allen Lin
Mary Masterman
Catlin Powers
Saad S
(encapsulating solar radiation through textile/material that provides heat during night)

Winner’s Retreat 2 Days at Endicott House

Beware: The Beijing Tea Ceremony Scam

The fireworks are blasting outside my window as I write. I happened to have arrived in Beijing on the night of the Festival of the Laterns, which involves hours upon hours of continuous fireworks all over the city. Today is the 15th day after the Chinese New Year on January 26, and thus the fireworks. Here’s a photo from my hotel window about 20 minutes ago.

On the way from Chicago this afternoon, instead of flying West like I expected we would, our plane flew North to the North Pole, and then South down to China. Here’s a photo of what the map looked like from the video monitor on the plane seat. What an interesting way to view the Northern Hemisphere.

So after flying over Canada, the North Pole, Siberia, Russia, and Mongolia I landed in Beijing at 4:30pm this afternoon. I got into my hotel around 5:30pm and although tired decided I’d go out. I decided to go see Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City and walk around a bit.

Here’s where the scam begins.

Walking right in front of the Forbidden City, two English speaking Chinese students came up to me and asked if they could practice their English with me. Having seen plenty of pickpocketing during planned distractions throughout travels in Europe (especially in front of the Coliseum in Rome), I was very aware and was skeptical of what these two young girls were after. They were dressed conservatively, so it didn’t seem like they were trying to sell themselves.

I said sure to them practicing their English. They explained they were in Beijing for two weeks studying English and had decided to come out to see Tiananmen. They asked lots of questions and gave lots of compliments. After about fifteen minutes of talking and them explaining the Festival of the Laterns and their backgrounds they frankly had gained my trust. Seemed like they were actually two 22 year old college students named Jing Li and Ling studying English. Since I didn’t have anything to do until the morning I said yes when they asked me to get tea with them.

We walked for about ten minutes and ended up at the Si Zhu Xiang Tea House at 15 Nan He Yan Street in the Dong Cheng District. We were led into a room where 10 very small sample teas (less than an ounce) were poured (without ever being provided a menu). When I got the bill for my tea, it was of course in Yuan. I foolishly didn’t know the exchange rate. So I paid the bill thinking to myself, OK 10 small tea samples adding up to about one full cup of tea, this can’t be more than US$20.

When I got back to the hotel, I checked the exchange rate and found out $1 was equal to 6.7 Yuan. They had charged me 2112 Yuan or in U.S. Dollars, $308.90 for the tea.

I then Googled the name of the place, Si Zhu Xiang Tea House and found that I wasn’t even close to being the first to get taken by the now infamous Beijing Tea Ceremony Scam. Those “friendly college students wanting to work on their English” are paid by the tea house. It seems that ‘entrepreneurship’ is alive and well here.

Yep, I was taken on my first night in Beijing. In the very first hour too. Here’s to Visa’s fraud protection.

And hey, I even got a picture with Jing Li in front of the Forbidden City. Here she is, the girl who scammed me with a victory sign…

At least I’ve got a good story now. :-). Here’s to the Festival of the Laterns and to “becoming a more experienced traveler.”

Tomorrow, the real work begins.

LocalTechWire Article on Nourish International Wine Tasting

WRAL’s LocalTechWire ran a nice article today promoting the Nourish International “World Wines & Global Poverty” fundraiser. The Nourish International Event is Friday night (tonight) at 8pm with speaker Dan Ariely, author of Predictably Irrational.

If you’re in the Triangle, you should come!

Here’s an excerpt from the LTW article…

Nourishing Socially Responsible Entrepreneurship is Appetizing Goal for iContact CEOby Rick Smith

Durham, N.C. — Nourish International, a growing network of college students and entrepreneurs devoted to what they call “sustainable development,” has become a passion for Ryan Allis, chief executive officer of fast-growing e-mail marketing firm iContact.

Allis is one of many young tech executives who have embraced the concept of ‘giving back” to the world in which they live rather than take for personal gain. And Friday night at UNC-Chapel Hill, Allis will be among the hosts for a “World Wines and Global Poverty” fund-raiser.

To give back has been a calling for Allis, co-founder of Durham-based iContact, since his days as a youth. He and Aaron Houghton, iContact’s co-founder and chairman, launched the company as friends and students at UNC-CH. They recently were honored as entrepreneurs of the year by Ernst & Young, and their firm has won numerous awards while establishing an international customer base.

Allis and Houghton share a commitment to philanthropic efforts as well. And Allis told Local Tech Wire in an interview that Nourish strikes him as an especially appealing cause.

“Nourish International teaches entrepreneurship to college students who raise money through ventures to contribute and then visit social entrepreneurial projects that work to reduce hunger and poverty in the developing world,” he said “It’s a unique and effective model that Nourish is perfecting and then scaling to have a global impact. They need a bit of initial support in order to ’start-up’ so many chapters at once until the point where the chapters are profitable. They have chapters at 23 college campuses now–and it all started right here in Chapel Hill!”

Duke professor Dan Ariely, who wrote the New York Times best-seller “Predictably Irrational,” is the guest speaker at Friday’s event, which starts at 8 p.m. in the FedEx Global Center.

LTW asked Allis why he chose to be socially active as an entrepreneur.

“I grew up the son of two social entrepreneurs–an Episcopalian priest and a social worker,” he explained. “I was taught from a young age to care about helping others.

“When I was 17, I took a high school economics class from a teacher by the name of Robert Fletcher. Mr. Fletcher taught from a human and sociological perspective. Instead of focusing on teaching curves and math he often taught economics using stories. I learned from him that year that there were 2.7 billion human beings living on under $2 per day and that 49,000 people died needlessly each and every day from preventable diseases and starvation. Learning these facts got me on the path toward wanting to focus my life on addressing these issues.

“Over the past six years reading books like “The End of Poverty,” “The White Man’s Burden,” “Commonwealth,” “Confessions of An Economic Hitman,” “The Bottom Billion,” “Mountains Beyond Mountains,” and “Banker to The Poor” helped me learn more.

“The passing of Eve Carson in March, who was Co-Chair of Nourish International and such an amazing social entrepreneur to-be, caused me to further examine what I wanted to accomplish during my time here.

“Traveling to Uganda and Ethiopia in July cemented this lifelong focus on social entrepreneurship and making a positive impact in the area of education, healthcare, nutrition, clean water, human rights, and the environment. I am a firm believer that all companies must be socially responsible if we are going to create a sustainable world in which we can all prosper.

“With 3,000 children dying each day from a disease as preventable as malaria it’s hard not to wake up and realize we must work together as one. There is plenty of food in the world to feed everyone, yet more than 800 million people are chronically hungry due to lack of availability of food with adequate nutritious content. It just doesn’t make sense for such a problem (entrepreneurs see problems as opportunities) to exist in world of extravagance, waste, and overconsumption we live in.”

Allis’ service to Nourish International includes acting as its board chairman. He also sits on the board of Leadership Triangle, the Entrepreneurs’ Organization, and the Council for Entrepreneurial Development.

Read the full article and Q&A at Local Tech Wire

View the Nourish Documentary Video

Video: Speaking at CEO 2008

Speaking in front of 1,500 people can be a little scary. Especially when you’re about to pull your pants off and dance in front of them.

When I was 16, I ran for President of the Manatee High School Key Club, a community service organization. I got up to give my speech. My knees knocked. My hands shook. My voice faltered. I lost to Mark Pinto.

Going into college, I was still a nervous public speaker. I tried to imagine the audience in their underwear but that was just awkward and didn’t help at all.

I didn’t get over the fear until my 2nd year when I had to speak to 60 attendees at the UNC Entrepreneurship Club every Tuesday at 6:30pm.

Finally, I could speak to a group of college students without nerves.

But them came speaking to ‘old people.’ You know, those scary adult-people. I didn’t really get over that fear until early 2006. I spoke to 500 economic developers at the Southern Growth Policies Board Conference in New Orleans and then 400 professors and administrators in Orlando at the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship Educators.

In 2007, I ended up speaking in front of about 3,000 people over the course of many different events. In 2008, I spoke in front of 8,000.

But none larger than the speech on November 8, 2008.

I had already introduced Robert Kiyosaki to the group the day before–one of the great honors of my entrepreneurial life. His book Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing planted the seed in my mind and provided the path at 17 to “build a company and take it public.”

I had been the emcee of the conference along with Gerry Hills for the past two days. It was my 7th time at the Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization conference. I knew my audience. I was them–just four years removed.

But it was still scary. 1500 people.

What if I messed up? What if I fell while running onto the stage? What if too many clothes came off while ripping my dress pants off to reveal track pants for the Soulja Boy dance? What if, what if?

After practicing “Finding The Purpose of Your Life in 6 Lessons” all the way through in front of Jenna and some amused caterers, I was fired up and ready to go.

Here’s the video… (The dance to Soulja Boy’s Bird Walk is in part 3 at 1:20)

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Celebrating 5 Years at iContact

The team at iContact celebrated the company’s 5th anniversary and reaching over 100 team members on Friday afternoon at our offices in Durham. We had BBQ from Thrills from the Grill underneath two large tents in our parking lot with bluegrass band Second String Fiddle adding to the sounds. Aaron and I went up in a hot air balloon to unveil our new sign on the building as the team sang “Happy Birthday” below. Magicians, balloon makers, bouncy castles, dunk tanks, and a few gusty winds added to the excitement.

Getting iContact to 106 employees and 29,000 customers would not have been possible without a supportive Triangle community, our wonderful team, investors who believed in us when few others would at NC IDEA, and our wonderful Series A backers Updata Partners. Thank you to everyone who has helped make iContact what it is today. Here’s to the future and the opportunity and many challenges ahead.

Thanks especially to Christina Jaromin and Chuck Hester and to our team members who helped organize the event!

Picture courtesy of We Love Durham NC Blog

Great Office Space in Durham

If you’re looking for cheap short to mid term office space (with furniture included) a company in our building is currently making two suites available on the first floor. It’s class A office space at a very reasonable price that includes utilities, taxes, etc, probably the best value available in the Triangle area right now. The building address is 2635 Meridian Parkway, Durham, NC 27713. The suites are sized 1,333 sq. feet and 1,124 sq. feet and may be available individually. For more information please contact Aaron’s assistant Kelli Connors at 919-459-1394 or kelli[at]preation.com and she can get you the information you need.

Ernst & Young Carolinas’ 2008 Entrepreneur of the Year

Aaron and I won the Ernst & Young Carolinas’ 2008 Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the Emerging Category tonight at the ceremony in Charlotte. We were up against Virtual Heroes and Canvas on Demand, both from RTP.

The winners will be going to Palm Springs, California in November for the Ernst & Young 2008 National Entrepreneur of the Year Awards to compete against the other regional winners.

We’re really glad, and humbled, to have won. We are very appreciative of the support North Carolina and the Triangle community has given us the past six years and have to thank our family at iContact and our families at home. We have a lot lot lot more work still to do.

The full list of winners is below.

Ernst & Young Carolinas 2008 Entrepreneur of the Year Winners

Lifetime achievement. O. Temple Sloan. General Parts, Inc.

Financial Services
Robert Hatley
Paragon Commercial Bank

Health Services
Willam Cobb
JM Smith

Industrial Products
Christopher Kearney
SPX Corporation

Real Estate Hospitality Construction
Patricia Rodgers
Rodgers Builders

Retail and Consumer Products
Thomas Millner
Remington Arms

Emerging
Aaron Houghton
Ryan Allis
iContact

Software and IT
Matthew Szulik
Red Hat

Telecommunications
Eugene Johnson
FairPoint Communications

iContact Wins CEDs Growth Company of the Year

Last night iContact was honored by the Council for Entrepreneurial Development as the 2008 Technology Growth Company of the Year at Bay 7 at American Tobacco Campus.

Aaron and I accepted the award on behalf of the iContact team. You can watch a video of the award announcement.

On ‘The Big Idea With Donny Deutsch’ CNBC 10pm Tonight

Hey everyone. I was in New York today visiting with partners and customers and filming for The Big Idea With Donny Deutsch. I was glad to be on the show again for the first time since I was on last May 31. I’m told the episode will air tonight at 10pm on CNBC.

I think I’ll be on for about 3-4 minutes about halfway through the show around 10:30pm. The topic of the show will be ‘how to prepare your children to be driven, be passionate, and follow their dreams.’

They have an expert from NYU Dr. Harold Koplewicz and a guy named Troy with seven kids who debate the various methods of encouraging and supporting children and then bring on Kimberly Burleson Spinks co-author of the book ‘Prepare to Be a Teen Millionaire‘, me, and 25-year old artist Amanda Dunbar.

Hey everyone. I was in New York today visiting with partners and customers and filming for The Big Idea With Donny Deutsch. I was glad to be on the show again for the first time since I was on last May 31. I’m told the episode will air tonight at 10pm on CNBC.

I think I’ll be on for about 3-4 minutes about halfway through the show around 10:30pm. The topic of the show will be ‘how to prepare your children to be driven, be passionate, and follow their dreams.’

They have an expert from NYU Dr. Harold Koplewicz and a guy named Troy with seven kids who debate the various methods of encouraging and supporting children and then bring on Kimberly Burleson Spinks co-author of the book ‘Prepare to Be a Teen Millionaire‘, me, and 25-year old artist Amanda Dunbar.

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