National entrepreneurial honor could be next for iContact’s co-founders

Durham, N.C. — California, here they come, their eyes set on perhaps being named national entrepreneurs of the year.

Aaron Houghton and Ryan Allis, co-founders of iContact, motored to Charlotte on Thursday not expecting to win an award at the annual Ernst & Young entrepreneur of the year awards for the Carolinas. After all, they had been told that first-year nominees seldom win.

Both executives – Houghton is chairman, Allis is chief executive officer – were therefore quite surprised when they were recognized as E&Y’s “emerging entrepreneurs.”

They also found the experience humbling, but now the two who founded iContact five years ago as students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, are planning to attend the E&Y national awards event in November.

In a Q&A with WRAL Local Tech Wire Editor Rick Smith, Houghton and Allis discussed what the E&Y honors means to them and their company. They also offer some advice to people who want to build their own business.

Please describe your feelings about winning the award.

Aaron: It's humbling to be recognized among this A List of the entrepreneurial world. Joe Schmidt of Canvas on Demand and I chatted at the opening reception about the fact that all three companies in the Emerging category were headquartered within five miles of each other in RTP. Joe and Tom from Canvas on Demand and Jerry from Virtual Heroes are building great companies and I'm excited that our category so strongly represented the technological innovation that the Triangle is producing right now.

Ryan: It was quite a surprise to win. We were very pleased to win the award. It is truly the hallmark of Entrepreneur of the Year programs and we're very glad to be able to play a part and go to the national awards in November.

What does entrepreneurship mean to you?

Aaron: Entrepreneurship is the conduit that connects real world problems and innovation. Entrepreneurial companies succeed by riding the balance between a market's demand for improvement and the resistance of common practice. For me, entrepreneurship is a call to create, driven by the reward of the positive impact it may ultimately have on people, businesses, and technology.

Ryan: To me, the definition of entrepreneurship is rearranging resources to change the world in a positive way.

What’s the best advice you can give to others seeking to be entrepreneurs?

Aaron: Bringing an entrepreneurial solution to a point where it can serve the needs of entire markets or populations requires the force and scale of an entrepreneurial company. Entrepreneurial companies provide their solutions through technology and process which ultimately boils down to a team of people who make it all happen. For this reason, leadership is the single most important quality that growth focused entrepreneurs must master. Certainly persistence is required but the ability to inspire and direct a team toward a common goal will always be the entrepreneur’s most valuable secret weapon.

Ryan: Dream big, take a positive action toward your dreams every single day, and never sell yourself short.

As you share this honor, what do you think it says about the relationship between the two of you both professionally and as friends and colleagues?

Aaron: As a great company is built through the support of a team, great leaders also cannot stand alone. For nearly six years now Ryan and I have acted to each other as counselors and coaches in each of our areas of strength. In running a company that delivers solutions through software our combined knowledge in technology and marketing has allowed us to build the right solution and get it into the hands of the right customer.

Ryan: Aaron has been a great partner for the past 5.5 years and I'm very glad to have met him at UNC so many years ago. Our skills complement each others very nicely and we're truly a dynamic duo.

How often do you meet and discuss directions, goals, strategy and next steps for your firm?

Aaron: Our standard management schedule ensures that we get together with our management team in an intense discussion on strategy at least once every two weeks with special focus sessions at various levels occurring several times per year. Among the larger team, our open door availability often leads to impromptu discussions of opportunities to exceed our own expectations. But a lot of the real fun comes from the off-hour heated debates at a local Starbucks or on someone's back porch. It's not uncommon for Ryan or I to call meetings with each other on short notice at the oddest hours of the night to present a burning new idea that we cannot let wait. Looking back, the results of many of these discussions have made it into the strategies we've executed in nearly pure form.

Ryan: As Aaron mentioned, we meet twice per month at the Executive Meeting and Brainstorming Lunch and then ad hoc whenever needed to discuss ideas or thoughts.

I understand you were both eager to tell your employees about having won the honor.

Aaron: As iContact has continued to scale, the tactical achievements of the company are less in the hands of Ryan and I than ever before. The strategies we choose to implement are often the collective work of participants from a wide variety of roles and levels among the team. I believe that the most successful business leaders harness the collective intelligence of the best and brightest whether they are senior management or the newest name on the payroll. I follow the management philosophy that by highlighting and announcing the accomplishments of our team members the resulting rising tide will lift all boats. Awards for entrepreneurship are most easily given to the leaders of a company and Ryan and I are glad to accept them on behalf of our entire team. In most cases we bring as many of our team members as is financially feasible to celebrations honoring our success. For instance, we took 22 people to CED's Entrepreneurial Excellence awards dinner last week where iContact was awarded the distinction of Growth Company of the Year for 2008.

Ryan: Our team is the singular reason we've been able to acheive what we have to be able to win the award. We were excited to share the honor with them.

As you near the fifth anniversary of the firm and growth continues, what are the most crucial lessons you believe you have learned?

Aaron: Hire smart people who are internally motivated to succeed. Define success for the company as a whole but allow each contributor or team to reach that success through their own path.

Ryan: 1. Hire people smarter than you; 2. Give them guidance; 3. Let them do their jobs