# John Allison

> John Allison is a New York-based software engineer and entrepreneur who co-founded Customer.io in 2012 and led its technology organization as CTO until August 2020. Working with co-founder Colin Nederkoorn, he helped turn a five-customer private beta into a durable, globally used customer-engagement platform. His public technical record shows a pragmatic builder confronting scale directly: by 2015, Customer.io had collected six terabytes of event data for more than 55 million users and Allison had moved the platform toward a purpose-built mix of distributed databases. He remains associated with Customer.io as a board member and CTO emeritus and is identified in 2026 securities materials as CTO of MakeLoveNotPorn.

- **Role:** CTO at MakeLoveNotPorn; Co-founder, Board Member and CTO Emeritus at Customer.io
- **Organizations:** Customer.io, MakeLoveNotPorn, ChallengePost, GoodCrush, Gilt Groupe, weplay, Ruckus Wireless, IBM, Acxiom, iProv, LLC
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Mathematics, Ouachita Baptist University
- **Known for:** Co-founded Customer.io in 2012 and served as its first CTO through August 2020., Led Customer.io's early technology decisions and engineering organization through its transition from a five-customer beta to a globally used SaaS platform., Designed and explained a polyglot distributed-data approach that handled six terabytes of event data for more than 55 million users by 2015.

## Career timeline

- **2000-2004** — Studied computer science and mathematics at Ouachita Baptist University; his LinkedIn profile also lists the varsity golf team, academic honors and Eta Alpha Omega.
- **2004-2010** — Worked through a sequence of programming, software-development and contracting roles, including iProv, Acxiom, IBM, Ruckus Wireless, weplay, GoodCrush and Gilt Groupe.
- **2010-2012** — Served as head of engineering at ChallengePost, where he worked alongside future Customer.io co-founder Colin Nederkoorn.
- **2012-04** — Started working full time on Customer.io with Nederkoorn; the private beta began with five companies paying $10 per month.
- **2015** — Described a distributed, polyglot data architecture supporting six terabytes of analytical event data for more than 55 million unique users.
- **2020-08** — Concluded his tenure as Customer.io's CTO after leading technology decisions and the engineering organization since 2012.
- **2020-present** — Continued with Customer.io as a co-founder, director/board member and CTO emeritus.
- **2024-2026** — Public securities materials for MakeLoveNotPorn identify Allison as CTO while noting that he remains a Customer.io board member.
- **2025-09** — Customer.io crossed $100 million in annual recurring revenue; the company credited its 2012 founding vision of making communication people wanted to receive.

## Achievements

- Co-founded Customer.io in 2012 and served as its first CTO through August 2020.
- Led Customer.io's early technology decisions and engineering organization through its transition from a five-customer beta to a globally used SaaS platform.
- Designed and explained a polyglot distributed-data approach that handled six terabytes of event data for more than 55 million users by 2015.
- Authored the original Customer.io Ruby API client and is credited as the author of the customerio RubyGem.
- Helped establish the technical foundation of a company that later crossed $100 million in annual recurring revenue and delivered 64 billion messages in a twelve-month period.
- Remained involved with Customer.io after the CTO transition as a director, board member and CTO emeritus.

## Latest updates

- **2026-06** — A MakeLoveNotPorn securities filing identified Allison as CTO and noted his continuing Customer.io board membership.
- **2026-04** — Customer.io co-founder Colin Nederkoorn marked fourteen years since he and Allison began working full time on the company on April 1, 2012.
- **2025-09** — Customer.io crossed $100 million in annual recurring revenue, with more than 8,000 customer companies and 64 billion messages delivered in the preceding twelve months.
- **2024-03** — Allison publicly supported MakeLoveNotPorn's equity crowdfunding campaign and its proposed educational expansion.

## Links

- Website: http://jallison.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnrallison
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/jrallison
- GitHub: https://github.com/jrallison

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/john-allison
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-09-27