EASONS

AT HOME
COMPANY CULTURE: At iDevices in Avon, employees can dine in a café resembling a 1950s diner. “Life’s too short to be
miserable at work,” Allen says.
14
Allen’s insistence that technology be easy and helpful
may stem from the fact that he is a very unusual tech
innovator. Although he invents tech devices and runs
a highly regarded, national tech company, Allen has no
background in computers, coding, or engineering. He
develops products from the consumer’s point of view,
not from a technologist’s perspective. “I don’t believe
in technology for technology’s sake. Technology should
provide value to the consumer. Not everything should be
technologized or ‘smart,’” he states.
Allen was born in West Hartford, where he grew up with
his brother and sister. His father died when he was 5 years
old, and his mother, a former Catholic nun, raised the kids
with good values and a strong work ethic. “I’ve lived in West
Hartford my entire life, except for the three months I went to
college,” he says. Allen is what’s known in the tech world as a
“stopout” (as opposed to “dropout”). The Thiel Foundation,
which offers $100,000 grants to high achievers who want
to leave school and start their own companies, coined the
term. Some famous stopouts are Apple co-founder Steve
Jobs, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Facebook founder
Mark Zuckerberg, Oracle founder Lawrence Ellison, and Dell
founder Michael Dell.
Allen has always been a high achiever, and neighbors
Seasons of West Hartford • SPRING 2017
in West Hartford remember when this successful CEO used
to cut their lawns. “My first job was when I was 9, delivering
papers. Then I mowed lawns. When I was 15, I was a cashier
at a pharmacy and worked at a country club. I used to get up
at 3 a.m. to make bagels when I had a bagel shop,” Allen says.
While still in high school, Allen bought a truck and started
a landscaping business with his buddy, Mike Daigle, who
is now the chief operations officer at iDevices. After giving
college a try, Allen went back to running his landscaping
company for a few years, sold it, and then became a financial
planner and licensed broker-dealer. He opened his own
brokerage after working at Prudential and A.G. Edwards,
sold that, and bought an Allstate insurance agency from one
of his brokerage clients. Then came the economic crash of
2007.
Allen had an idea for a tech device, and with the
financial services sector in free fall, he decided that this was
the perfect time to work on his creation. Allen had invented
one of the first app-enabled devices to hit the market: the
iGrill, a cooking thermometer that communicates through
a smart phone. Allen thought it would be a great tool for
a cook to use when hosting a party. Instead of standing at
the grill, the host can visit with guests and receive a message
when the food is ready to serve. A self-described go-getter,