EP 34: How App Guru Sheena Allen Earned 3 Million Downloads With No Coding Experience

Today in the guest chair we have a woman I consider the queen of apps. Her name is Sheena Allen and she is a tech entrepreneur. She started her first company in 2011 as a senior at the University of South Mississippi. At the time, she had no tech background and was a psychology and film major and on a whim decided to launch a mobile application company.

Giving herself a year to see if she would see any success with her company, Sheena Allen Applications, she eventually found that success with app #3, Dubblen. In fact, three months after launching the app for Android, Dubblen received over 500,000 downloads. That year, 2013, Sheena made the decision to leave Mississippi and move to a tech-hub to find mentor and increase her knowledge in the tech space.

Since then, she has gone on to experience frustration with raising money and the predatory lending practices in Silicon Valley, Sheena decided to fight back through the launch of a second startup, CapWay. CapWay is financial company that focuses on the unbanked and underbanked. The service offers financial literacy content and onboards unbanked users to get a bank account.

She has been featured in various publications, including Forbes.com, BlackEnterprise.com, and EBONY Magazine. In late 2016, Sheena made her premiere in She Started It, a documentary film that follows five women around on their startup journey.

On this episode, Sheena shares:

• The steps she took to create an app as a non-technical creator
• How and why her third app became so successful
• The challenges of raising money in Silicon Valley as a black women entrepreneur and some tips to overcome it
• Her secret to building a strong and loyal team
• How she is setting her business and brand up for success

 

Listen on iTunes, Soundcloud, Stitcher and Google Play

Links mentioned on this episode:

• Sheena Allen Apps
• Dubblen
• CapWay
• HouseBoxx
• Sheena Allen eBook: Starting Guide to Your First App

 

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