Biography of Ryan Allis

Ryan has built Durham-based iContact from its start in July 2003 to its current size with over 100 employees, 25,000 customers, and $15 million in annual sales. In 2005, Ryan was named by BusinessWeek as one of the “Top 25 Entrepreneurs Under 25.” He is the author of the book Zero to One Million: How I Built a Company To $1 Million in Sales and How You Can Too, published by McGraw-Hill.

Ryan is a social entrepreneur and an entrepreneur based in North Carolina. His lifetime focus is to work to reduce poverty and human suffering at home and in developing nations while building stronger communities and encouraging access to technology, healthcare, education, and nutrition. He currently serves on the Boards of Directors for Advocates for Grassroots Development in Uganda, Nourish International, Leadership Triangle, and Junior Achievement of Eastern North Carolina.

Ryan has been a keynote speaker at conferences from Los Angeles to London on the topics of building companies, finding and following your passion, raising venture capital, email marketing, search marketing, and social entrepreneurship. He speaks to over 3000 people per year to share his passion for helping aspiring entrepreneurs set, pursue, and reach their dreams.

As a team leader with the Lead America Entrepreneurship Conference, Ryan traveled the United States teaching entrepreneurship to high school students and as a speaker with the Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour he has traveled to colleges across the country. Ryan has been featured on ABC News and The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch and in Fortune Small Business, Success Magazine, Entrepreneur, Investors’ Business Daily, the Daily Times of India, and Young Money Magazine.

Ryan is the founder of The Humanity Campaign, the founder of the entrepreneurship resource Zeromillion.com, and a member of EO Raleigh-Durham. Ryan’s long-term goals include being a U.S. Senator and starting a foundation that works to reduce poverty and improve healthcare and education in developing nations. Ryan attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was an economics major and a Blanchard Scholar.