TechWire week in review: Gigabit cities, media layoffs, IBM earnings & more
Here is a rewind of the past week’s headlines as reported by WRAL TechWire.
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iContact
Email marketing firm iContact is sold, to remain in Morrisville; jobs are cut
iContact, an email marketing firm launched in the Triangle 15 years ago, has a new owner and a smaller workforce as a result of the acquisition.
Read MoreYou Sold Your Company… Now What? How to Prepare for Life After Exit
Sunday marked four years since I sold iContact, a company I built based on a web app I whipped up in a few weeks time programming on my futon my sophomore year of college at UNC. It was a decade long ride with some monumental ups and downs but the story ended just like any startup founder could dream it up—with a bunch of hoopla, a big press release and a wire transfer that still doesn’t seem real this many years later. All that boring business stuff aside, I’ve learned since then, that when you sell a company in...
Read MoreThe Startup Community and the ExitEvent House Party
So Tuesday Aaron emailed me before I could get to him (although I was watching the dozens of tweets relaying appreciation to the Houghton family for their graciousness) and he told me how awesome it was and how he’d love to do it again. So maybe we should have all of our veteran entrepreneurs throw house parties once a month, whether under the ExitEvent banner or not. If that’s what it takes to make our community stronger, then I’m all for it. After all, nobody else is doing it. Nobody else but the entrepreneurs...
Read MoreDrinking for the Greater Good
I’m going to level with you. I’ve never really been too sure about what the deal was with Bull City Forward. BCF sprang up at a time when it seemed like every five minutes there was a new super-niche website with a focus on what was going on in Durham. In fact, it got so crowded that I put a fledgling ExitEvent on hold while I went and did other things until, legend has it, a joke brought it back to life one year ago. It’s not that I don’t “like” Bull City Forward, I think it’s awesome. All...
Read MoreiContact heading for Morrisville to get space for growth
Get the latest news alerts: at Twitter. Local Tech Wire MORRISVILLE, N.C. — Growth has iContact on the move from Durham to a 70,000-square-foot space once used by Lenovo. The company, which provides e-mail marketing services to small and medium-sized businesses, foresees its 195-employee work force growing to 500 and does not have space where it is now, co-founder and Chairman Aaron Houghton said. The move is slated to happen in October. CEO Ryan Allis said it’s a good sign. "Our vision is to build a great global company based here in North Carolina," he said. "We started out...
Read MoreiContact expands community ‘give back’ programs with cash, volunteer time
Get the latest news alerts: at Twitter. Local Tech Wire DURHAM, N.C. – E-mail marketing firm is expanding its efforts to “give back” to communities with a variety of new efforts plus more cash. The privately held firm will allow employees to take up to 2.5 paid work days per year for volunteer work at non-profits. iContact also is setting up a foundation that will receive 1 percent of an equity stake in the firm. Plus, non-profits can seek donated e-mail services. Up to 10,000 accounts will be made available. The firm is also matching employee charitable contributions up...
Read MoreIn days of greed and pitchforks, an RTP exec strives to give, not take
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – In these days of reckless greed and President Obama telling bankers the only thing between them and the “pitchforks” of the enraged masses is his administration, along comes some young entrepreneurs as a breath of fresh air who want to give, not just take. For example, last weekend, a group of entrepreneurs known as “The Summit Series” raised more than $220,000 in a day of social media collaboration to help benefit a number of efforts. Ryan Allis, co-founder and chief executive officer of fast-growing e-mail marketing firm iContact, is one of those seeking to...
Read MoreNourishing socially responsible entrepreneurship is appetizing goal for iContact CEO
Nourish International, a growing network of college students and entrepreneurs devoted to what they call “sustainable development,” has become a passion for Ryan Allis, chief executive officer of fast-growing e-mail marketing firm iContact. Allis is one of many young tech execs who have embraced the concept of "giving back” to the world in which they live rather than only taking for personal gain. Friday night at UNC-Chapel Hill, Allis was among the hosts for a . To give back has been a calling for Allis, co-founder of Durham-based iContact, since his days as a youth. He and Aaron Houghton,...
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