Five years ago, junior Enzo Coglitore stood in shock after meeting the famous founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg. It may seem crazy for most people to be able to meet such an icon, but Coglitore’s father, Giovanni Coglitore, worked with Zuckerberg at Facebook in the role of senior director of hardware engineering.

He is the CEO of a promising network and storage startup called RStor. In May of 2017, The Information, an online news source, reported that Cisco had made an $80 million investment into the startup. Previously, Mr. Coglitore worked at other well-known companies like Google and Yahoo, when they were starting up.

His father had to put in many long hours of hard work before reaching his position today, Enzo said. Due to his father’s long work hours and frequent business trips, Enzo said he didn’t really see his dad that much when he was younger.

“It’s gotten better now. As he’s getting older, he’s kind of made his success,” Enzo said. “But especially when he first started off, there were a lot of long hours that I didn’t really see him.”

At the time, Enzo felt sad that he couldn’t see his dad as often, but now “feels blessed” at his dad’s success and understands the sacrifices his father has made.  

With such a successful parent, Coglitore has been offered various opportunities and privileges that aren’t necessarily available for everyone.

For instance, private school was an option for Enzo, but his parents valued the experience and overall environment offered by public schools and decided to have him attend public schools instead.

Enzo believes that his experiences at school and his daily life haven't really been affected by his father’s success.

“No one treats me differently,” Coglitore said. “No one makes me feel different or judges me because of my dad.”