Virante CEO Ryan Allis discussed with the TechJournal South about his success in this January 2006 article.
Young Entrepreneur Shares the Secrets of His Success
January 4, 2006
By Dale Mason
Ryan P.M. Allis wanted to head a multi-million dollar company by age 21. “I missed it by 19 days—not too bad,” the CEO of Durham, N.C.-based Broadwick Corp. says.
Broadwick, founded in 2003, sells email marketing and surveying software IntelliContact, used by more than 3,600 clients, including International Paper, Re/Max, and Super 8 Motels. Broadwick adds clients at the rate of 300 a month with monthly sales over $130,000.
In February, Broadwick plans to launch IntelliCampaign aimed at larger companies.
Allis, a serial entrepreneur, is also founder, CEO and president of Virante Inc., a Web marketing and search engine optimization firm based in Chapel Hill, where he studies economics at the University of North Carolina (UNC) when he can fit it in around writing, speaking engagements and creating and running companies. He met his current partner at Broadwick, Aaron Houghton, through the Carolina Entrepreneurship Club at the UNC in 2002.
Houghton, who provides technical software expertise, and Allis developed the Broadwick product and Allis dropped out of UNC for the first time to develop the company. He later went back for a year, then dropped out again. “That puts me ahead of Bill Gates,” Allis says. “He only dropped out of Harvard once.”
Recently named to “BusinessWeek” magazine’s list of the top 25 entrepreneurs under 25, Allis has built three firms to an income of $1.5 million or more in annual sales. He started his first company at age 11 because his parents wouldn’t buy him the brand name shirts he wanted for 7th grade.
“I basically asked myself what I was good at,” he says. The answer? Computers. He printed cards offering “Computer Help for $5 an hour,” and distributed them to local businesses. Enough took him up on the offer to spark his continually successful career thus far.
At 14 he began offering Web design services and at 16 Web marketing and search engine optimization. His consulting services grew into the still thriving Virante.
As a senior in high school at 17, he met a man who had a nutraceutical product helpful for arthritis but virtually zero sales. Using Web marketing, Allis helped grow the company, to nearly $1 million in sales within a year.
The experience led to Allis’ book, “Zero to One Million,” published in October 2003, which he markets on the Web, naturally, at www.zeromillion.com. Already a mentor and good corporate citizen at 21, Allis speaks internationally on entrepreneurship, email marketing and search engine optimization. Many of his speeches and ebooks are available free on his Web page, www.ryanallis.com.
Apart from business, Allis says he’s interested in globalization, finance, psychology, international travel and soccer. His longterm goal is starting a foundation that promotes human and economic advancement in developing countries. And taking his company public.
Broadwick, which currently employs 23, added four full-time employees in the last month and a half, is looking for five or six more people, including several software developers, a support rep, and a quality assurance engineer. The company recently upgraded its space in Durham’s Meridian Office Park from 6,000 to 9,000 square feet.
Allis says the company started with $5,000 from a friend and a $10,000 SBA loan and since then has funded itself from within. “My partner and I worked for sweat equity the first year and a half. Right now we’re talking to venture capitalists and private investors, seeking additional funding to invest in marketing and development.
“Back in 2003, being 18 with a partner who was 21 at the time, we had difficulties raising a significant amount of funding. Now that we have a track record and a positive monthly cash flow from over 3000 customers, I think it will be a different story.”
