Ramon E. Peralta, Jr. is a social entrepreneur, Ted Speaker and Author of Launch Your Own Brand, The Fastest Way to Supercharge Any Business. He also serves as Founder and Creative Director at Peralta Design, an award winning, mission-driven digital marketing agency headquartered in Shelton, CT, serving a wide range of clients in over 30 US states and several countries. Peralta Design’s slogan “We Launch Brands®,” reflects their mission to launch, grow and scale new companies, products, and services in the digital space through creative branding, custom websites and digital marketing strategies that educate, engage, and convert.
Ramon’s passion for entrepreneurship was first planted as a seed by his father, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic who ran his own auto repair business in Providence, RI, where Ramon grew up. Ramon jokes that his first car was a 1966 Red Chevy Tow Truck because being the oldest of five, he had no choice but to work at the family business as a kid. Working for his dad taught Ramon the value of a dollar but watching him struggle with the backend of the business also made him aware how important financial literacy was. Fast forward to 1998 and it was while serving on Jay Walker’s original startup team behind priceline.com that Ramon’s passion for launching brands really began to blossom. It was at Walker Digital that Ramon first witnessed how a simple idea can be developed into a major success story, one that still is thriving today. Ramon spent 10 years working alongside Jay and the team at Walker Digital hoping to strike lightning in a bottle twice until the Great Recession of 2008 created a tidal wave of layoffs that sent Ramon packing and marching fearlessly into the unknown world of entrepreneurship.
In many ways, it was that defining moment that provided the spark that ignited the flame that is still burning to this day. After some serious soul searching, Ramon decided to take his severance package and begin what is known today at Peralta Design. For the last 15 years, Ramon has grown his digital agency from a home-based business to a 3,000 square foot Class A office with 10 full time employees. The mission of Peralta Design is to help other entrepreneurs and startups launch their brands. The combination of business savvy, creative design, and MVP (minimum viable product) launch strategy make Peralta Design unique in the digital space.
At this point in the company’s development, Ramon has been able to dedicate more time for Brand Marketing, waving the PD flag while serving on many non-profit boards, paying it forward to the community and most recently delivering a Ted Talk and publishing his first book, Launch Your Brand, the Fastest Way to Supercharge Any Business. The book was born from the many BrandU (Brand University) workshops that Ramon has presented, and the Ted Talk was inspired by many of his own mistakes and failures along the way of his own entrepreneurial journey.
It is every business owner and entrepreneur’s responsibility to give back and reach back to the next generation of entrepreneurs. If each one would teach one, we’d all be able to not only leave our mark but leave the world just a little bit better than we found it.
