The big Idea Episode: Ryan Allis: Co-founder of iContact

Ryan Allis is a technology and social entrepreneur from Chapel Hill, NC. Ryan has been an entrepreneur since he started Allis Computing at age 11. Today, Ryan is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of iContact, the leading global provider of email marketing services to small and mid-sized businesses.

Ryan has built North Carolina-based iContact from its start in July 2003 to its current size of more than 210 employees, 65,000 customers, and $38 million in annual sales. iContact has raised $18.3M in investment from NC IDEA, Updata Partners, and North Atlantic Capital.
iContact has twice made the INC 500 list. In 2008, iContact was named the fastest growing software company in North Carolina by INC Magazine and in 2009 the "Software Company of the Year" by the North Carolina Technology Association.
In 2008, Ryan won "Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year Award for the Carolinas" with iContact co-founder, Aaron Houghton. In 2009, Ryan received recognition as one of the "Ten Outstanding Young Americans" by the United States Junior Chamber.
Ryan is the author of Zero to One Million, published by McGraw-Hill in February 2008, which reached the Wall Street Journal Bestseller list. Ryan is now working on Dare Mighty Things for publication in 2011.
Ryan is an active angel investor in socially responsible entrepreneurs in East Africa and North Carolina.
Ryan is the Chairman of Virante, Inc., a web marketing consulting firm based in Durham, NC, and an investor in VillageEnergy, EvoApp, Unblab, Polly's, and SchoolHouse.

Ryan is currently the Board Chairman for Nourish International, a non-profit organization based in Chapel Hill, NC, which has chapters at 23 colleges across the United States. Nourish teaches entrepreneurial skills to college students and uses the net profits from student ventures to invest in social entrepreneurs and community-based organizations in the developing world focused on sustainable development and eliminating extreme poverty and hunger in our lifetime.

Ryan attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was an Economics major and a Blanchard Scholar. He is currently enrolled in the EO/MIT Entrepreneurial Masters Program (EMP).