My name is Pete, and this is my second Kiva Zip loan. My personal story hasn’t changed much since I raised my first $5,000 with Kiva Zip last year -which I paid back a year early! I am still an entrepreneur in love with bread. And running Philly Bread is the only thing I can see myself doing.
Starting ventures must be in my DNA. As a young boy, I would set up yard sales with whatever I could scrounge up – matchbox cars, lamps, cards, etc. Around the same time in my life, I had a tendency to invent and market unusual frozen candy bars. Then, in the 6th grade, my parents gave me a CD burner so I could create and sell mixtapes to my peers. Beginning in my sophomore year of high school, I represented my high school peers as the class president. My entrepreneurial spirit kicked in again, and I hosted several concerts that raised thousands of dollars for my school.
In college, I was at it again. I designed my own college major titled Globalization and Entrepreneurship. With the help of my professors, I wrote and received two grants to study and implement urban agriculture in Springfield, MA. In the last 18 months of college, I successfully created an employment training program called New Growth Gardens, which installed mid-sized community gardens with youth workers.
Bottom line, I live to “make it happen”. I have always been an entrepreneur, and now I run a bread company in Philadelphia called Philly Bread.