Entrepreneurial Spirit: Keys to Success - from Young Entrepreneur's Perspective

Editor’s Note: Ryan P. Allis, is the 22-year-old CEO of Broadwick Corp., the CEO of Virante, Inc. and the author of the book “Zero to One Million: How to Build a Company to $1 million in Sales.” Ryan is a serial entrepreneur and an international speaker on the topics of entrepreneurship, emarketing, and innovation. Over the past four years, Ryan has built three companies to $2 million or more in annual sales--two as a marketing consultant and one as CEO. Today, Ryan spends most of his time on his latest venture, Broadwick Corp. As CEO he's managed the company from its start in July 2003 to its current size with 43 employees, over 8000 customers, and over $3 million in annual sales. This column is the latest in the Entrepreneurial Spirit series done in partnership between the CED and WRAL Local Tech Wire.

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. - Starting and growing a business can be grueling process for entrepreneurs of any age. So, it may come as a surprise that 22-year-old Ryan Allis has grown three companies to $2 million or more in the past four years. CED recently sat down with Allis to find out what has helped him accomplish so much at such a young age.

What is it like to be a young entrepreneur in the Research Triangle Region?

I think living in the Triangle is an absolutely tremendous asset to entrepreneurs of any age, but especially to a young entrepreneur. The support networks in this area are established and they have been very helpful to me.

I came to the area to go to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill back in the fall of 2002. The first placed that I stopped in the summer of 2002 during my first trip to the area was the office of the Council for Entrepreneurial Development. I started there, meeting with the people at CED and getting to know others in the investment community and the entrepreneurial community. The Research Triangle is a welcoming area where people are willing to help you especially if you are young and trying to work toward something positive.

When I came here, I got involved with a number of organizations at UNC-Chapel Hill, like the Carolina Entrepreneurship Club, and I began taking some classes at Kenan-Flagler. Through UNC-Chapel Hill and CED, I was able to get to know a lot of people in this area that have been extremely helpful to me as a young entrepreneur.

As a younger person in business, sometimes you have to work very hard to gain the respect of people and to have them take you seriously. A lot of times it takes a while to get people to look at you as a peer and as someone that is an entrepreneur that can actually start a business and have employees, customers, office space and all that goes along with it.

But being young has also been very advantageous because it opened so many doors that may not have been opened as quickly or may not have been as easy to open. Just the label “student” for so long really allowed me the opportunity to have lunch or coffee with almost anyone in the area. People are very committed in this area to helping others and to the community.

Being able to connect with the people who built the Research Triangle into what it is today over the past 30 to 40 years, to gain their insight and to receive their help very early on when I was getting started was extremely helpful and very important.

You have experienced much of your success even before completing your undergraduate degree. What would you say your keys to success are?

I believe there are a number of things I have done to put myself on a path toward success. I think the most important thing any entrepreneur can do is have a bias toward action. I see a lot of entrepreneurs that will spend 10 or 12 months writing a business plan or just thinking about what they want to do. Evaluating an idea is truly critical, but putting it on paper and not proceeding with it is what I see a lot of people doing. I encourage a lot of young entrepreneurs to take whatever steps they can each day to meet their goals. Every great achievement begins with a first step.

It’s also important to work hard and consistently for a number of years and see life as a long-term game. You have to understand that you don’t have to try to build a multimillion dollar company in a year or two. Building a successful company takes many years.

It is equally critical as you start a company to see networking as a process of building quality relationships—not just handing out business cards. By seeking out others to network with, you will find many people who you can help and who can assist you in achieving your goals.

What motivated you to become an entrepreneur?

Initially it was my desire to use the skills that I had to help other people that got me interested in business. I’ve been an entrepreneur since age 11. I started out giving computer help where I lived on the west coast of Florida throughout middle school and high school. Then, I didn’t really know that I was an entrepreneur. Eventually I got involved in web site design, then in the web marketing and search engine optimization fields.

What really got me interested in being an entrepreneur was an experience I had when I was 17. I had taken the knowledge I had about web site design and began making web sites for a number of people in the community. I sent out a press release that was picked up by the local news paper. A man in the area saw a story about me in the paper and contacted me. He had developed a product effective in treating arthritis and brought me onboard to do marketing. I worked with him over that year to build the company up to about $200,000 per month in sales. When I realized that through hard and intelligent work, two people were able to make a difference in the world, it inspired my interest in entrepreneurship. I was fascinated as to how a 60 year old man and 17 year old kid could build a company to $1 million in sales in about 14 months,

When I went to UNC-Chapel Hill in the fall of 2002, I knew I wanted to start my own company. So, I incorporated a sole proprietorship in October of 2002 and then met Aaron Houghton through the Entrepreneurship club at UNC. Together we started Broadwick in the summer of 2003.

What continues to motivate me everyday to move toward my goals is a long-term interest in finding ways to reduce human suffering on a global scale. I’m interested in eventually working in the areas of poverty, energy, healthcare and education, both at home and abroad, through entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, and within the realm of politics.

Did you find it difficult to secure funding to build Broadwick?

It was a difficult climate when we were starting the company, so we didn’t really try to pursue outside funding. We knew that we would have to fund the company ourselves. We did receive a $5,000 loan from a friend of ours. About ten months into the business our revenues were up to almost $4,000 a month, making it easier for us to get a loan for $10,000 from Bank of America that was backed by the Small Business Administration.

Once we finally had revenues and a run rate of a few million dollars and proved that we knew how to make a product that people would want to buy, we went out in the fall of 2005 and talked to a number of venture capital firms in the area. After five months we were able to work with a number of local firms who were very welcoming and willing to help us along the path. We closed on funding from NC IDEA last May.

Where do you see yourself in the next five years?

Right now at Broadwick we are working on something very exciting. For a while we have been an e-mail marketing company, and now we’re moving toward becoming a multi-channel e-marketing company. We are trying to change the way online communication works and make it easier to send email newsletters, surveys, RSS feeds, blogs, and much more all through one central application. Right now we’re working on the next step toward that and we will be presenting it at the Southeast Venture Conference.

My main focus remains building Broadwick and revolutionizing online communication. We hope to raise about $4 million dollars this year to continue to speed up our capability to invest in product development and online marketing and further develop the company. We certainly have the potential to be North Carolina’s next big software success story and perhaps become a public company in four or five years. We are looking at that as a real possibility, but we understand that we’ll have to execute well on a lot of our plans to reach that point.

After Broadwick, I’d like to finish my undergraduate degree at UNC-Chapel Hill. After completing the final year toward my economic degree there, I would like to attend Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government to seek a master’s degree in public policy and a master’s degree in business administration. When I’ve earned those degrees I would like to return to the North Carolina to grow more businesses.