Allen Clary

Allen spent more than two decades working for others and climbing the corporate ranks where he eventually rose to COO and then CEO. But something was always missing along the way and he often felt fundamentally unhappy, unfulfilled, and ultimately disillusioned.

So he ‘Quit to Start’ more than once on his journey, sometimes well, sometimes not so well. He lived the life of a solopreneur and a tech startup founder. He learned a lot about what to do and what not to do, a lot about investors, scalability, and the end game to wealth and freedom.

Allen now speaks regularly on the topic of entrepreneurship and his first book Quit to Start - How to Discover Your Best Idea, Gain the Confidence, and Plan Your Escape. In his book he covers topics such as The Solopreneur's Trap, the Quit Zone, the Entrepreneurial Ceiling, Entrepreneurial Wealth & Freedom, Scalability, the Gravity of Death, and how working for corporate can be just as risky as a startup. He also talks about the Deeper Why of entrepreneurship and how you don't necessarily need confidence to be a successful entrepreneur.

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And not all startups are created equal. Some are more structurally invest-able than others. Some have the structural ability to create more wealth and freedom than others - beyond just your ability and quality of your idea. You need to know these key structural elements before you set out. Make the right choices early on to match your life goals and put yourself in position to achieve the outcomes you are hoping and striving for. Too many entrepreneurs do not know how the game really plays out, only to learn too late.

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Allen teaches entrepreneurship at the University of South Florida and is a co-founder in one of the largest, longest running startup accelerators in the United States. He advises many early stage founders and leads a peer group in an organization that counts as members some of the most successful self-made entrepreneurs in the world.