Mississippi App Guru Sheena Allen to Appear in New Documentary ‘She Started It’

Women create only 3% of tech startups, receive less than 10% of venture capital funding, and run only 4% of Fortune 500 companies.

Those are the opening words to the trailer for the upcoming documentary She Started It by French journalist Nora Poggi and Insiyah Saeed, a journalist and documentary producer based in Silicon Valley. The film will focus on women tech founders in the U.S. and Europe and aims to highlight successful role models for young women, to encourage more girls toward entrepreneurship in the technology industry.

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Now enter Sheena Allen, founder of Sheena Allen Apps. Despite her eponymously-named app, when it comes to tech founders, she’s completely off the radar. She says so herself.

“I am a triple–whammy when it comes to tech. I’m female, I’m black, and I’m southern,” says Allen, 26, who double majored in film and psychology at the University of Southern Mississippi. “I have a southern accent so just imagine–when I’m in Silicon Valley they are like ‘Who are you and where are you from?’ [I guess] you are just not supposed to be from Mississippi and create a tech company with 2 million downloads.”

But while she doesn’t fit the mold of the average tech founder, she’s also breaking barriers outside of being a black founder. Black Enterprise host Paul Brunson said it best on his #MentorMonday Spreecast: “Sheena Allen is the exception to EVERY rule when it comes to creating a tech company.”

First, she’s a woman in a world of companies founded by men. Next, she’s a solo founder when most tech companies have two or more. She’s nontechnical, when most tech founders have a background in computer science or some type of coding experience. She hasn’t raised any money from investors and she didn’t attend an Ivy League school.

But what she has done is launch a company, which has been profitable right out the gate. The filmmakers saw her speaking at the Lean Startup conference and asked if she would be willing to be a part of the film. Even though they were wrapping everything up, they decided to add Allen after hearing her story and learning about her six apps and millions of downloads.

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BlackEnterprise.com interviewed Allen to get the scoop on how she’s come to find so much success despite the odds, why she decided to stop flying under the radar, and why diversity in tech is elusive to so many.

BlackEnterprise.com: You have over 2 million downloads. What is the key to that type of success?

Allen: My first app had, like, 50 downloads. It wasn’t until my third app, Dubblen, that I had success with downloads. Dubblen got so big on iPhone that people would e-mail me saying, ‘We want Android.’ Within three months of the Android app launch we got half a million downloads.

It was all word of mouth. That’s the best advertising. I

think a lot of times people try to go too big too quickly. I did the bare minimum. I bootstrapped and didn’t have funding. There are people who take time get a million dollars to put out an app and no one wants it. I didn’t put all the bells and whistles right out the gate. I wait for feedback. I put out the basic and learn from my audience to tell me what they like and don’t like.

How did you learn the process of bringing an app to market?

The apps I made with Sheen Allen Apps were like my teachers. I built that company through trial and error. Now, I consult with companies. What I learned and what I can show you doesn’t come from a book or a degree. It comes from experience and you can’t buy that.

What do you look for in a mentor?

My first year I didn’t have a mentor. I was very frustrated. I felt like nobody understood. I came across the Capital Factory website. I emailed one of the guys and gave him a quick story of what I was doing. He said I can’t help you but Josh Kerr, might be the guy for you.

Josh taught me how to build a community. My experience was through trial and error. He helped me polish what I already started. He said ‘How soon can you get to Austin, Texas?’ I said ‘Tell me when you want me to be there and I’ll be there.’ I packed my bag and within two weeks I moved to Austin.

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What was the most challenging part of your journey?

The biggest mistake I made was taking the time to look at what other people were doing. I would get discouraged. They had 100,000 downloads and secured $500,000 in funding. People who hadn’t achieved half of what I did were getting funding and I wasn’t. I decided to learn the proper way to pitch and step up my game.

Just when I was about to give up and get a nine-to-five I got an email from a girl in Ohio. She said she was in middle school and had used my app. She was amazed because her favorite app was created by a girl. It came at the perfect time because I was thinking of quitting. It showed me I was on the right path. I thought that was stupid dope.

For years no one knew who you were, why did you decide to stop flying under the radar?

In the past I couldn’t care less if no one knew who I was. I realized someone needed to step up for the younger generation and show people that technology is cool. I’m willing to be that person. Now, I’m getting ready to keynote for Black Girls Code in New York.

What was it like being a part of the documentary “She Started It?”

I had cameras in my face all of the time, which I’m not used to. They filmed some in New Orleans for New Orleans Entrepreneur’s Week, and a little more with the Tech808 conference in Oakland. I had an opportunity to go back to Mississippi and visit my high school. Going to that school was a step in the right direction, because it was about tech and that is not what Mississippi is about. If I can take the things I’ve done and make a difference in Mississippi it will be huge.

Is there a tech startup presence in Mississippi?

I’m trying to be the one to start it. I am finishing up a proposal to do an innovation hub in Jackson, MS. I left Jackson because there were no mobile app companies there to provide mentorships or internships. I’m sure other people have left the state for the same reasons.

What do you think is the answer to the lack of diversity problem in the digital workforce?

I tell people the lack of diversity falls back to the lack of knowledge and nobody points that out. The average 9^th grader knows music and sports. But if you ask them about the difference between and PHP and ASP they’ll look at you like ‘What are you talking about?’ It’s hard to blame somebody for what they don’t know.