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,
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