Terry, Mississippi native Sheena Allen launched two tech startups in Mississippi; the first one, an app for keeping up with expenses and receipts, she built while still at the University of Southern Mississippi.
After stints in Silicon Valley and Austin, she’s now in New York City. Despite her big-city address, she maintains connections in her home state and, in a blog entry for mentoring network Levo.com, Allen touts the benefits of launching a business outside of Silicon Valley and other large cities.
“People create companies to solve a problem. The problems that those outside of major tech hubs are looking to solve are different than those within most major tech hubs,” Allen writes.
Some of Allen’s work focuses on financial applications for unbanked and under-served communities. She points out that it’s harder to understand those customers’ needs if your startup is founded in a highly affluent California Zip code.
Allen blogs that more places outside of the traditional tech cities are seeing an uptick in venture capital that is available locally, while those places remain less expensive for living and running a business.
“A junior developer in the Bay could cost you $150K+ but could cost you half of that if you operated in a place like Jackson, Miss.,” she writes.
Along with being a Mississippi-native tech founder and CEO, Allen has also recently written a book, The Starting Guide: Your First App + 101 Business Tips.
