my name is Peter coral very happy to be
here today amongst a group of
distinguished speakers I’m looking
forward to hearing them too but first
before I begin I’d like to thank the
organizers and the team behind the event
arthur mallory julie all the rest of the
team that i have had a chance to meet
over the past day perhaps we can give
all of them a quick round of applause so
it wasn’t actually too long ago that I
was in a venue like this sitting where
you’re sitting today and listening to
speakers trying to figure out what it is
that I wanted to do for the rest of my
life and to be up here you know several
years later you know makes me think what
a difference just a few few years can
make a little bit of my background I’m a
three-time entrepreneur I’ve been
heavily involved in the university
entrepreneurship space and my
experiences are geared towards
entrepreneurship education nonprofits
and all of these things have positioned
me to serve and the CEO and Founder role
of circuitry which is now the fastest
growing network for entrepreneurial
students and alumni with over a hundred
plus institutions that have adopted the
platform to best support their
entrepreneurs on their journey there’s
tens of thousands of students on the
platform now and will be soon hitting a
hundred thousand-plus so our team’s very
excited about the impact we’re going to
be making moving forward but in looking
back at what has brought me here today
still in my 20s living my dreams I’ve
realized that breaking the boxes we
often find ourselves in is the key
concept that has occurred all throughout
and every step of the way and this is
something that I believe for all of us
to reach our full potential that we need
to be constantly doing
I’ve also realized that its most optimal
to develop and to grow within the box
that we’re in as that provides us with a
safe environment to grow make mistakes
try new things experiencing things which
best positions us for success moving
forward and to kind of give an example
of how this all begins you know we’ll
take it back to the beginning and our
Guardians when we’re young for me this
would be my parents in this case when
we’re little and don’t know any better
they’re the ones you know setting up
these boxes for us to create safe
boundaries and safe environment for us
to explore grow try new things you know
whether it be in the arts you know music
sports and you know that’s how we learn
and develop over time and within the
safety net that our guardians have
provided you know if we fail we can
quickly pick ourselves back up again and
you know try again and again until we do
succeed and then as you grow you start
breaking out of you know those boxes and
you start moving on to bigger and bigger
ones you’re exposed to more experiences
as you start school you know start
interacting with peers others around you
once again it’s within an environment
that has been creative for you and the
pace of how quickly you develop is often
predetermined based on perhaps your age
your grade etc but as you get older you
start having greater influence on how
quickly you can break through and you’re
increasingly in control of how much you
develop as you move into the future so
which brings us to here so typically
when you turn 18 parents Guardium a get
tired of you and send you off to college
and university at least that’s what
happened with me and so you’re exposed
to a seemingly endless number of
opportunities activities that are taking
place on campus from classes internship
you know
school projects all of these things and
now with your increased independence
it’s up to you to determine which ones
you will be participating in moving
forward and this is a box that many of
you here I believe find yourself in
today and I can’t understate the value
and the benefit pursuing these things at
a university and how it’s a perfect
place to grow you know within the
environment with it with the resources
that are all around you and that
includes you know faculty members and
you know others who are really good at
what they do and can serve as mentors as
you move forward for me to failing with
my early ventures as a student founder
carried a lot less risk than if I were
to have waited you know for graduation
to hit and gone off to the real world
and attempted my first venture then I
get calls all the time you know a few
days ago from a friend in London you
know trying out and launching his
venture for the first time telling me
how difficult it is to gain the
resources and network that he needs on
this journey so really this environment
here is something anyone who wants to
try something entrepreneurial should be
taking advantage of so the lessons that
I learned allowed me to break through
even through the failures and be in the
position in the successful position that
I am here today and but instead of
speaking broadly let’s take a look at
how this can play out in real life and
so for me my ability to continue
breaking out of boxes and develop in the
university setting really was greatly
influenced by one person in particular
and I believe he is in the audience over
there and that person is Dan Cohen and
first I need to make it clear that he
did not know he was going to be part of
this presentation
so you did not give me permission he’s
you know seeing these flights for the
first time just as you are so he’s
probably a little surprised but because
they on has played such an integral part
in my development to not you know bring
Dan into this presentation would be not
telling the entire story so Dan I hope
you’re okay you know I’m doing what
entrepreneurs do ask for permission
later so now many of you here I believe
recognize Dan as the entrepreneurship
director at Wake Forest prior to that he
led many entrepreneurship initiatives at
Cornell University including the ELab
accelerator and as well as teaching many
of the Entrepreneurship classes I’ll
footnote I’ve taken all of his classes
highly recommended
so I’m fir Dan – he had to take a chance
step out of the box and first hiring me
for the role that I initially had within
elop when everyone up to that point who
served in the fellow fellowship role
where you know highly experienced you
know much older than I was
MBA students he took a chance brought me
into the fold on that set you know the
next subsequent steps to come and
brought me here to where I am today so
him thinking out of the box gave me my
official start in the university
entrepreneurship setting he quickly
became my most trusted mentor but he
also continued to create opportunities
for me every time I proved myself within
the boundaries of the set role so
eventually I was little elevated to the
Assistant Director position avila and
the boxes I operated with and continued
to get bigger and bigger it’s how I got
connected to Zach Schulman who hired me
for a role within entrepreneurship at
Cornell and as I continued to break
through I found myself position to
become the e hub director when the new
Entrepreneurship space came online that
all of these experiences the network the
resource
came through all of my involvement with
ELab yet see we have and life-changing
laughs those were the things that I was
able to take to start circuitry and
breaking out of the boxes from the
inside out is something actually you can
apply and use to your benefit when
you’re launching a venture as well so
inside of Ceres case it’s what what
allowed our team to have the focus we
needed in terms of solving true pain
points experimenting testing out
hypotheses with much less risk than if
we were to have operated outside the box
or gallon or sorry outside of that
environment so once we’re ready to step
out and expand we move on to bigger
boxes working with 10 20 50 hundred plus
institutions all over the world and now
we’re in a position where even
non-university entrepreneurship programs
are reaching out to us from Brazil
Poland Australia and other other issue
programs that are supporting veterans
military veterans pursue any ship
business owners locally throughout the
region so that’s really exciting stuff
but we had to start once again in a
smaller box and work our way set bicep2
the position we’re in right now so what
I just shared
I want to strongly emphasize is
something that any one of us here can do
as I mentioned at the side of this talk
I was in your exact shoes not too long
ago and the key to breaking out of each
box that you might find yourself in at
any given time is about the people you
know and the resource you gain access to
every step of the way
so step out of your comfort zone
proactively seek out resources
opportunities meet new people find your
mentor find your Dan Cohen and I
challenge everyone here to break out of
the box you’re in currently after this
event you know talk to one person that
you haven’t met
four and start to expand your network I
believe there’s a reason that all of you
here are here right now on a Saturday
you could be doing something else so I
would love to see everyone here make the
most of the opportunity that this event
provides this is how you can you know
grow to realize your full potential
achieve success in ways that you can’t
imagine at this time I certainly could
not have imagined being on this stage
still in my 20s living my dreams working
with the people I enjoy working with day
in and day out gets me up in the morning
and also being in the position to
influence and positively impact tens of
thousands of entrepreneurs all over the
world could not have imagined that so
remember to never say stop breaking out
of the boxes in your life because once
we stop that is when we limit our
ceiling falling short of our full
potential and if everyone in this room
were to reach their full potential we
would see some amazing things happen and
perhaps more ideas worth spreading thank
you everyone for your time if anyone
would like to connect reach out here’s
my email also we can connect online
happy to support you as you continue on
your journey thank you [Applause]