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

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

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.

Two More Interviews on Entrepreneurship

Here are two more recent podcast/radio interviews on entrepreneurship done by Dr. Alvin Jones and Start-Up Spark. Enjoy!

Dr. Alvin Jones Radio Interview with Ryan Allis - (9min 17sec, WMA file) - A March 26, 2008 radio interview on WCBQ-AM 1340 and WHNC-AM 890 with Dr. Alvin Jones from the Paradise Radio Network about:

• Starting in business
• Going to UNC
• Being the son of a priest
• What iContact does
• The quote about taking action by Scottish Mountaineer W.H. Murray
• Setting big goals
• Understanding the entrepreneurial system
• Evaluating business ideas
• The three questions to ask prospective buyers
• Accessing the world of equity capital

Start-up Spark Interview with Ryan Allis (17 min 38 sec) - A discussion with Shannon Cherry from Start-up Spark about:

• Growing up in Florida
• Advantages/disadvantages of young entrepreneurs
• The MAR system
• Bootstrapping and living in the office
• Doing whatever it takes to keep expenses low
• How we hired our first employee
• Using equity initially to reduce cash burn
• The importance of systems and building a team when scaling
• How to avoid creating a job for yourself
• Why hiring people smarter than you is critical
• The definition of an entrepreneur
• Figuring out the purpose of your life
• What will motivate you to get through the hard times
• The mission of The Humanity Campaign

Podcast Interviews on Entrepreneurship

Here are two recent podcast interviews on entrepreneurship done by Written Voices and Daxle. Enjoy!

Written Voices Podcast Interview With Ryan Allis (17min 38 sec) - A discussion with Allan Hunkin from Written Voices about:

• Building a team
• My personal motivation
• The importance of finding mentors
• An overview of Zero to One Million including opportunity evaluation, raising capital, marketing and creating sales, giving back, and setting goals
• Finding your core motivation
• Focusing on providing a great product
• Social responsibility
• The Entitlement Generation vs. The Enlightenment Generation
• The Enlightened Entrepreneur
• Finding Your BHALG - Your Big Hairy Audacious Lifetime Goal

Daxle Interview with Ryan Allis (17 min 02 sec) - A discussion with Brian Oates from Daxle about:

• The entrepreneurial itch
• Finding a partner
• Evaluating entrepreneurial opportunities
• Ensuring demand for your business idea
• The value of teamwork
• How internet sales are different from door-to-door sales
• Generating leads from the web
• Bootstrapping and doing what it takes to keep expenses low

CEO Profile on Carolina Business Connection

Jonathan Yeomans from Carolina Business Connection came on out to my office last week to do an interview. You can check out the interview at http://carolinabusinessconnection.com/cbc/editorial.html?id=95.

Fortune Small Business Cover

I found out this evening that my mug made the cover of the February 2007 issue of Fortune Small Business Magazine.

Magazine covers mean nothing… only the positive impact on society you make does… but exposure like this does help spread the message.

Credit on this one goes out to our awesome Director of Corporate Communications Chuck, the rockstar team at Broadwick who have made building Broadwick not only possible, but an absolute joy, to my business partner Aaron, and to the family and friends who have supported me along the journey!

Here’s the cover…

And the Contents Page…

You can read the full issue online. The article is on page 31.

Digg This Story!

In the Wall Street Journal

On Tuesday a quote from me made it into the Wall Street Journal on page B5 in Kelly Spors’ column on entrepreneurship and search engine optimization. Here’s a link to the PDF.

Need Your Vote for BusinessWeek’s Top Entrepreneur Under 25

Hey everyone. I have made BusinessWeek’s list of the Top 25 Entrepreneurs Under 25. Now I need your vote to be named the #1 Entrepreneur Under 25 by BusinessWeek.

Please check out their listing and vote for me at http://images.businessweek.com/ss/05/10/young_entrepreneur/source/22.htm on BusinessWeek’s site.