Interview With Ryan Allis – Founder of iContact
Ryan Allis, $25million turn over in 2009!
OK Folks, another great interview for you.
CHECK OUT THE INTERVIEW HERE:
Interview With Ryan Allis – Founder of iContact
Some fantastic answers – like:
You have managed to build a company to $1 Million in sales by 21, now 24 you expect to do over $25 million in sales this year from your web business iContact, what advice would you give a entrepreneur trying to earn money from their website?
I want to sincerely emphasize that when you are becoming an entrepreneur and are about to start a company, anything is possible. You never know how far it’s going to go until you give it your maximum effort. It can sometimes take up to fiveyears to successfully start a business, so make sure you’ve got the passion and the drive to see your idea through to the end.
If you create a company without any initial monetary investment or financial backing, then you are doing something called bootstrapping. In this situation, you can expect to work 70+ hour weeks for a year or more without a salary. You also need to be very creative and learn how to improvise to extend what little cash you may have at the very beginning.
When Aaron and I were starting iContact , he told me that I should be ready to be the “Chief Executive Officer, Chief Executive Painter, and Chief Executive Janitor.” My first official office headquarters was on the 6th floor of my dorm at UNC. For a long time when iContact first began, we lived off of Ramen Noodles, and went dumpster-diving to find $50 rebates for office supplies. It’s very important to have a “whatever it takes” attitude when it comes to your company’s finances, especially if you are not initially backed by venture capital.
10 comments so far… Leave a reply
used tires
March 11, 2009 1:48 pm
Wow I am impressed with Ryan, One of the keywords he said there that I grasped was "maximum effort", alot of times, if people just gave it their true "maximum effort" then their projects and ventures would go much further. Till then, Jean
Eddie Gear
March 11, 2009 7:07 pm
Interesting!
Robby G
March 11, 2009 7:28 pm
Very cool interview, inspired me to get even more involved in my goals. While reading this, it gave me an idea for a post on my blog, I hope you don't mind if I use a quote Ryan said in this interview. I'll linkback to this blog of course. Cheers.
Play Games Win Prizes
March 12, 2009 5:26 am
Younger and younger each time :) -Mike
Agent 001
March 13, 2009 5:29 am
Nice interview. Inspriring.
online marketing blog
March 14, 2009 8:26 pm
Bootstrapping is defiantly the way to go - it will let your business evolve into a financially responsible company because of the things you learnt how to do with little or no money.
hdtv
March 15, 2009 2:38 pm
Love the chief executive painter/janitor comments....oh so true! Thanks for the interview.
Marketing Man
March 19, 2009 12:24 pm
That's the joys of doing it for yourself summed up nice and tight. Learning to be thrifty is not a bad thing, and managing expenses conservatively can really serve to improve your bottom line. Remember $100 saved every month adds up to $1200 over a year, which is a tidy little sum of cash.
Remote Data Backup
March 25, 2009 2:58 am
Inspiring story, truly. How many times do we hear the words "Ramen Noodles" in articles about young entrepreneurs just starting out? ;-)
Sammyspam
March 29, 2009 1:01 pm
A great interview and an even greater story.