When Madelyn Allor ’19 couldn’t find local fare on a business trip, she saw an opportunity to create Reco, an app for location-based recommendations. That entrepreneurial spirit runs in her family, but she credits UD for encouraging her go-getter attitude.
“I loved UD because I could get involved in the ways I liked to get involved,” Allor said. “Ambitious leadership goals weren’t out of reach.”
Allor studied sales and international business, and participated in a variety of opportunities at UD — Spanish conversation club, Delta Sigma Pi business fraternity, and as a group fitness instructor at the RecPlex. She also worked in the School of Business Administration, managing the school’s social media accounts and creating web content.
“That was my first time running social media accounts, and since then I’ve gotten to run accounts for different companies on the side or when I was laid off for a little bit,” she said. “When I think back, that job was a cool launch pad.”
After college, Allor worked in sales, where she gained confidence in cold calling and pitching. And when she began working on Reco, those skills came in handy as she began pitching her app to investors. Once, Allor advanced through preliminary rounds for Shark Tank before pulling her application to refine her business model. With updates in place, she plans to reapply this fall.
“The thing about me is that I’d rather shoot my shot even if I don’t make it than go through life [wondering] ‘what if,’” she said in a LinkedIn post after a recent pitch during Chicago Tech Week.
Today, she works a 9-5 for Braze, a marketing technology company, but not before clocking into Reco 5-9 a.m. to check in on her three-person team, designing and building her vision.
This entrepreneurial inspiration stems from her grandfather, who started a manufacturing company, Allor Manufacturing; and her father, who ran the business until he recently retired. Still, she sometimes wishes she had tapped UD’s entrepreneurship program or joined Flyer Enterprises, the student-run business network.
“I was very involved, so I don’t think I had any more time ... but Flyer Enterprises is such a unique program; that’s one of my biggest regrets,” she said. “It’s a student-run organization that operates like a business — one of the perks of attending a mid-size school.”
In addition to staying busy with work, she has the heart and hands of a faithful servant, stemming from more than a decade ago when she first volunteered in Guatemala on mission trips with her family. When she became a UD student, she sharpened her Spanish language skills in the conversation club as well as through a summer study abroad program.
Allor continues to work with Guatemalan nonprofits serving families and children, including Niños de Guatemala, where she is a board member. She offers her marketing experience and business fundamentals knowledge, which she gained at UD and refined as a business owner.
“I’ve stepped into recent leadership roles that required more than I knew or could offer at the time because I’ve had the opportunity to learn so much from various roles at UD,” she reflected. “That has really helped shape me as a leader; I always go back to our motto of learn, lead, serve.”