# Eli Allen

> Eli Allen is the co-founder and chief technology officer of Curtsy, the San Francisco-based clothing resale marketplace that began as a dress-rental experiment at the University of Mississippi. A computer scientist and former FedEx analytics intern, Allen left graduate school to build Curtsy full time, wrote the original iOS app, and helped turn a campus network into a national marketplace used by millions.

- **Role:** Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at Curtsy
- **Organizations:** Curtsy, Y Combinator, University of Mississippi, FedEx
- **Education:** Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, University of Mississippi, Graduate study in Computer Science; left to work on Curtsy, University of Mississippi, Summer 2016 batch, Y Combinator
- **Known for:** Built Curtsy's original iOS application as its technical co-founder., Helped grow Curtsy from an Ole Miss dress-rental network with roughly 3,000 initial users into a nationwide clothing resale marketplace., Participated in Y Combinator's Summer 2016 batch with Curtsy.

## Career timeline

- **2012-2015** — Held teaching, research and systems-administration roles at the University of Mississippi.
- **2014** — Worked as a technical analyst intern on FedEx's data analytics team.
- **2015** — Joined the student team building Curtsy, received support from the Rebel Student Venture Fund and became the company's technical co-founder.
- **2016** — Left graduate school to build Curtsy full time; Curtsy entered Y Combinator's Summer 2016 batch and expanded beyond Ole Miss.
- **2021** — Curtsy's founding team appeared on Forbes' 2021 30 Under 30 list for Retail & Ecommerce; the company announced an $11 million Series A led by Index Ventures.
- **2023** — Returned to the University of Mississippi with the Curtsy founding team to speak at the REDe Entrepreneurship Summit.

## Achievements

- Built Curtsy's original iOS application as its technical co-founder.
- Helped grow Curtsy from an Ole Miss dress-rental network with roughly 3,000 initial users into a nationwide clothing resale marketplace.
- Participated in Y Combinator's Summer 2016 batch with Curtsy.
- Named with Curtsy's co-founders to Forbes' 2021 30 Under 30 list in Retail & Ecommerce.
- Helped Curtsy reach more than two million users and more than $45 million in seller earnings, as reported by Curtsy.

## Latest updates

- **2023-11** — Spoke with Curtsy's founding team at the University of Mississippi's REDe Entrepreneurship Summit and served as a judge for the Servin' the South Business Model Competition.
- **2023-10** — Reflected publicly on the university grant and Oxford startup community that helped Curtsy move from a spare-time project to full-time work.

## Links

- Website: https://curtsyapp.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eli-allen-311b2367
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/curtsy_
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/curtsyapp

---

Profile page: https://yespress.io/eli-allen
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-09-28