Students, faculty, and entrepreneurs gathered at the third TEDxHarkerSchool event on Saturday, held in the Nichols Auditorium and Atrium from 8 a.m to 2 p.m.

The event featured experienced Silicon Valley business leaders as speakers and mentors for attendees and was hosted by emcees Jeton Gutierrez-Bujari (11) and Shannon Hong (10).

Each speaker was given 18 minutes to impart personal advice to aspiring entrepreneurs; a wide variety of mentors also answered questions during an informal lunch with students.

David Girouard, CEO and founder of Upstart and Google’s former President of Enterprise, spoke first at the event. He implored students to leave the realm of “cubicle-dwellers” in favor of pursuing entrepreneurial ambitions.

Stanford lecturer and product and strategy consultant Rashmi Menon offered “personal suggestions” rather than “tactical steps” on how to become a successful entrepreneur.

“Ask for help,” she said. “Admit what you don’t know. Then, you can do something about it.”

Menon recommended that potential student entrepreneurs branch out, instead of focusing solely on internships with small startups: gaining any work experience, according to her, is valuable.

Current senior Arjun Mehta spoke next about the entrepreneurial process he went through with the rise of his startup Stoodle. Mehta approached CK12 founder Neeru Khosla for funding and support, after which the company took off.

Covering the integration between business and school, Arjun explained how he balanced the two.

“Your startup has to become the extracurricular,” he said. “You’re going to have to make quite a few sacrifices.”

Ariel Tseitlin, a VC at ScaleVP and the former Director of Cloud Operations at Netflix, opened his talk by examining a series of French cartoons from the 1900s predicting innovations in 2000. He explored the rise of technology with inventions such as PacMan and early computers.

“There’s a really interesting and philosophical conversation to have around what happens when computer capacity exceeds the capability of the human brain, and we have machines that are capable of more complex thought than people are,” Tseitlin said in response to a question regarding the applicability of Moore’s law.

What is Moore’s law?

After hearing Tseitlin speak, the crowd left the Auditorium to attend the mentor luncheon in the gym. Each table seated one or two corporate professionals as well as five or six attendees, in order to maximize the mentor-to-student ratio. Around 25 mentors were present at the event.

Co-curator Glenn Reddy (11) believes that the mentor luncheon is the most important part of the event.

“That’s what’s really unique about it and it’s something that isn’t present at any other TED event,” Glenn said. “It’s an opportunity for the students not just to listen to the speakers, but it’s actually a chance for them to interact on a more personal level with all of these business professionals.”

See the full list of mentors

The luncheon was followed by the last two keynote speakers, Ronda Beaman and Lata Krishnan.

Ronda Beaman, Chief Creative Officer at PEAK Learning, spoke about the importance of neoteny, or retaining youthful traits in adulthood. She dispensed red clown noses among attendees, emphasizing the value of a childlike spirit.

She encouraged students to always carry two things with them at all times: a childhood picture and a crayon to remind themselves of their potential.

Ending the event was Lata Krishnan, CFO at Shah Capital Partners, who spoke about her own personal entrepreneurial experience and gave practical advice to students seeking futures in business.

“It’s pride in your work and in your work ethic that fuels what you want to do everyday,” Krishnan said.

Attendees ranged from Upper School students to high schoolers from around the Bay Area to college students, especially from California Polytechnic State University where Beaman is a Clinical Professor.

Jiarun Chen, a sophomore at John F. Kennedy High School in Fremont, Calif., thought the experience was “absolutely awesome.”

“[My favorite part] would be a battle between getting to know some of these really amazing individuals in our community and gaining that new perspective about being aware and having that passion and drive for entrepreneurship,” Jiarun said.

The TEDxHarkerSchool team began preparing early this school year, according to Curator Brian Tuan (12). Starting in October or November, a team of ten sought out speakers and mentors to populate the event.

“It was fantastic, and much smoother than all of our other years,” Brian said. “We had a great attendance and a great show this year.”

Glenn will step up as the sole curator for TEDxHarkerSchool 2015. He believes this year’s experience was educational and has prepared him to run the next event.

The Atrium housed corporate booths set up by different companies that displayed innovations relating to social entrepreneurship. During breaks, students were able to mingle with speakers and mentors and explore different products.

Questions from the audience were solicited using the service sli.do, where students were able to rank popular questions by voting them up or down. The questions with the most votes were asked and answered first.

The TEDxHarkerSchool program is advised by Juston Glass, Director of Business and Entrepreneurial Programs. The 2014 team is comprised of the following students: Aashika Balaji, Jeton Gutierrez-Bujari, Shannon Hong, John Nicolas Jerney, Adele Li, Manthra Panchapakesan, and Sophia Shatas.