Harvard Innovation Labs: Startups & Entrepreneurship

Harvard Venture Stories - Abridge News

Wed, 14 Oct 2026 04:49:00 -0000

Laura Carpenter's company, Abridge News, makes it easier for people to explore a range of opinions on a current news topic. The idea behind the multiple opinions, Carpenter says, is engaging with what she calls the “empathy problem” in contemporary discourse.

Uploaded 11-06-18

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Almost Married Off at 12. Now She’s Changing Thousands of Lives. | Aria Mustary, Mai Soli Foundation

Wed, 14 Oct 2026 04:00:00 -0000

At 12, Aria Mustary was nearly forced into marriage.
Now she’s helping thousands of girls rewrite their futures.

Uploaded 07-05-26

Aria Mustary (Harvard Graduate School of Education ’24), Co-Founder and President of the Mai Soli Foundation, turned her lived experience into a mission.

Mai Soli equips girls with financial literacy, leadership skills, and confidence—already helping prevent over 500 child marriages and scaling that impact globally.

A finalist in the 2024 Harvard President’s Innovation Challenge, Aria is building a future where every girl has agency.

“If we save one girl, her entire lineage is changed.”

Film by Kieran Kesner

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Value Props: Create a Product People Will Actually Buy

Wed, 14 Oct 2026 03:00:00 -0000

One of the top reasons many startups fails is surprisingly simple: Their value proposition isn’t compelling enough to prompt a customer to buy. Maybe they have too many other competing priorities. Or the existing solutions, while imperfect, are “good enough.” Whatever the reason, the product doesn’t provide enough value to spark customer action and sustain a business. Nailing your value prop – the benefit you provide to whom and how you do it uniquely well – can make or break your startup.

Uploaded 01-04-23

In this workshop, originally presented in-person at the Harvard Innovation Labs, Michael Skok, founding partner of Underscore VC, will guide you through a series of frameworks to articulate and validate your value prop to ensure that it’s highly compelling to customers.

About the Speaker:

Michael Skok is a founding partner at Underscore VC, a Boston-based firm investing in bold B2B software founders. Since starting his first software business as a teenager, Michael has spent 21 years as an entrepreneur and the past 18 years as a venture investor. During this time, he has founded, worked with, and invested in startups, and created thousands of jobs and billions of dollars of value.

As an entrepreneur and an investor, Michael has focused on breakthrough technologies and disruptive business models including Open Source, Cloud, IoT, and emerging domains such as Blockchain, Virtual/Augmented Reality, and Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning. He has served on or is active on many private and public boards such as Acquia, Demandware (now a Salesforce company), Mautic (acquired by Acquia in 2019), Salsify, and Zaius. He has also held leadership roles in many industry groups such as the Software Publishers Association, where he served as chairman for many years.

In 2015, Michael co-founded Underscore VC to help founders create enduring companies through the power of community. He has a passion for helping the next generation of entrepreneurs succeed by not only backing them with capital but bringing the resources and commitment of an aligned community around them to propel their success. To help achieve this, he has mentored and taught for over 10 years at Harvard University, where he is an Entrepreneur in Residence, and created the Startup Secrets series.

Want to dive deeper into Startup Secrets? Explore the interactive Startup Secrets Sandbox for frameworks, insights, and tools to help you build and scale your startup: https://bit.ly/3Cwv0nK

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President's Challenge Presentation Revolving Fund Pharmacy

Wed, 14 Oct 2026 02:00:00 -0000

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Uploaded 04-06-12

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard i-lab | 2013 Deans' Health and Life Sciences Challenge -- TraumaLink

Wed, 14 Oct 2026 01:00:00 -0000

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Uploaded 24-06-13

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

VC Fundraising Advice for Black Founders

Wed, 14 Oct 2026 00:00:00 -0000

As a capstone to the 2023 NextGen Accelerator, a founder bootcamp for early-stage student founders from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and universities in Sub-Saharan Africa, four leading Black venture capitalists shared their perspectives on the fundraising landscape for Black founders.

Uploaded 22-08-23

The panel featured Kofi Ampadu, partner at a16z; Daniel Acheampong (Harvard Kennedy School MPA 2020), founder and general partner at Visible Hands; Eunice Ajim, founding partner at Ajim Capital; and Javier Grevely, Boston Chapter co-lead at BLCK VC and an investor at Wellington Management.

Their discussion was wide-ranging, from why only one percent of venture capital money goes to Black founders to what they look for as they decide whether to invest in a startup.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard President Alan Garber Remarks | 2026 President's Innovation Challenge

Tue, 13 Oct 2026 23:00:00 -0000

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Uploaded 01-06-26

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The “Spermpocalypse,” A Problem No One Was Solving | Khaled Kteily, Legacy

Tue, 13 Oct 2026 22:00:00 -0000

Male fertility is declining—but no one was talking about it.
Khaled Kteily (Harvard Kennedy School ’16) decided to change that.

Uploaded 07-05-26

After experiencing the stigma and discomfort of fertility testing firsthand, Khaled saw a problem hiding in plain sight. As founder and CEO of Legacy, he’s helping men better understand their fertility and health—serving tens of thousands of patients.

A finalist in the 2019 Harvard President’s Innovation Challenge, Legacy is reshaping how we think about reproductive health.

“We helped take the burden off just the female partner—and gave couples more control.”

Film by Kieran Kesner

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard i-lab | Food Truck Day and Tour of the i-lab

Tue, 13 Oct 2026 21:00:00 -0000

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Uploaded 04-05-12

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard i-lab | Why You're Over-Thinking Your UI/UX with Rohan Puri and Cristoforo Magliozzi

Tue, 13 Oct 2026 20:49:00 -0000

In this workshop we take you through the steps in thinking about (and preempting) user interaction and user experience design. Then we outline ways in which we can evaluate, test, and analyze interactions to pivot designs leanly. This session is highly interactive and uses examples from real startups.

Uploaded 25-09-13

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard i-lab | Smaller, Lighter and Ubiquitous: The Next Generation of Fitness Trackers

Tue, 13 Oct 2026 20:00:00 -0000

We are in the midst of a revolution in how athletes train, perform, and heal. Advances in mobile technology, AI, Big Data, sensors, GPS, and more have allowed humans to stretch the limits of their athletic capabilities and have merged the worlds of statistics and sports in manners unimaginable just a decade ago.

Uploaded 10-03-17

With unprecedented teamwork from those who have achieved success in the athletic arena to those whose achievements occur behind the closed doors of research labs, hospitals, and beyond, we are able to use data collected from the human body to monitor, measure, and predict athlete training and performance like never before.

During this event, the Harvard Innovation Labs, together with the Sports Innovation Lab and the OneTeam Collective, will explore the future of this dynamic, cross-industry, and fast-growing sector of sports technology.

Learn more about the Harvard Innovation Lab at http://i-lab.harvard.edu/ and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/innovationlab and like us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/harvardinnovationlab.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard i-lab | "Green Card Strategies and New Opportunities for Foreign Entrepreneurs"

Tue, 13 Oct 2026 19:00:00 -0000

Jeff Goldman an Immigration Lawyer from Boston taught a workshop entitled "Green Card Strategies and New Opportunities for Foreign Entrepreneurs," in April 2012 at the Harvard innovation lab.

Uploaded 04-09-12

In his presentation, Goldman discussed how the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services has announced that the H-1B nonimmigrant and National Interest Waiver immigrant visa categories will now be more friendly to foreign national entrepreneurs who are creating jobs in the US. This interactive workshop helped to clarify the viability of this new initiative; offered foreign national entrepreneurs a road-map which may make all the difference when filing immigration petitions; and helped start-up companies understand where they are heading when they have key personnel who have immigration considerations. Goldman shared strategies for documenting "significant impact in the field" required for National Interest Waivers; how an entrepreneur with his/her own start-up can prove a legitimate "employer—employee" relationship that is required for H-1B; and the best timing for filing immigration petitions.

You can learn more about Jeff on his website http://jeffgoldmanimmigration.com/jeff-goldman-esq/ and contact him here http://jeffgoldmanimmigration.com/contact-us/

Learn more about the Harvard Innovation Lab at http://i-lab.harvard.edu/ and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/innovationlab and like us on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/harvardinnovationlab

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard i-lab | Startup Secrets Part 5: Wrap Up | Michael Skok and Geoffrey Moore

Tue, 13 Oct 2026 18:00:00 -0000

Presenting to a full house, renowned author, Geoffrey Moore, and Michael Skok took a closer look into gaining an unfair competitive advantage as an entrepreneur. The event commenced with a recap of observations and learning from the previous five workshops, followed by insights from Geoffrey Moore into the secrets of entrepreneurship and business building, including a preview of Moore's latest book, Escape Velocity. The lecture concluded with a book-signing, lunch and networking with fellow entrepreneurs.

Uploaded 27-07-12

You can read more about Michael Skok, and his Startup Secrets on his website: http://mjskok.com/ and follow him on twitter at http://twitter.com/mjskok

Learn more about the Harvard Innovation Lab at http://i-lab.harvard.edu/ and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/innovationlab and like us on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/harvardinnovationlab

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard i-lab | Startup Secrets Part 3: Business Model - Michael Skok

Tue, 13 Oct 2026 17:00:00 -0000

In Part 3 of Michael Skok's Harvard i-lab lecture series, "Startup Secrets: An insiders guide to unfair competitive advantage," Skok helped students to think thorugh the three aspects of business model creation—identifying your C.O.R.E. value, finding Multipliers for growth and Levers for cost economies. This allows you to have much better odds of building a company that returns value disproportionally to all of its stakeholders.

Uploaded 07-05-12

You can read more about Michael Skok, and his Startup Secrets on his website: http://mjskok.com/ and follow him on twitter at http://twitter.com/mjskok

Learn more about the Harvard Innovation Lab at http://i-lab.harvard.edu/ and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/innovationlab and like us on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/harvardinnovationlab

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard i-lab | 2013 Deans' Health and Life Sciences Challenge -- Healthy Motives

Tue, 13 Oct 2026 16:00:00 -0000

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Uploaded 24-06-13

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pagliuca Harvard Life Lab

Tue, 13 Oct 2026 15:00:00 -0000

The Pagliuca Harvard Life Lab is a state-of-the-art wet laboratory and co-working space for high-potential biotech and life science ventures at Harvard.

Uploaded 15-09-25

Learn more here: https://innovationlabs.harvard.edu/labs/pagliuca-harvard-life-lab

Videography by Owen Mack
www.cobrandit.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Turning Ideas Into Impact: ArtLifting

Tue, 13 Oct 2026 14:00:00 -0000

Get inspired by ArtLifting's innovation journey since their time at the Harvard Innovation Labs. Founded by Liz Powers '10, ArtLifting is a social enterprise that champions artists impacted by disabilities and housing insecurity. Learn more at artlifting.com.

Uploaded 02-05-24

Videography:
Aaron James Sanchez
Patrick Fogarty
Samuel Mironko

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard Innovation Labs | Imagine

Tue, 13 Oct 2026 13:00:00 -0000

Experience the Harvard Innovation Labs - a unique ecosystem where community and resources lead to serendipitous, transformative ideas.

Uploaded 29-05-25

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard Venture Stories - Nix Biosensors

Tue, 13 Oct 2026 12:49:00 -0000

A venture funder turned entrepreneur, Meridith Unger has used her experience on both sides of the pitch table to become an expert on selling her company to investors and competition judges alike. Unger's Harvard Launch Lab-based venture, Nix Biosensors, is developing wearable hydration sensors for the consumer and military markets.

Uploaded 24-05-18

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Muhammad Yunus: How to Approach Social Business

Tue, 13 Oct 2026 12:00:00 -0000

On April 19, 2012, sponsored by the HBS Social Enterprise Initiative, Harvard innovation lab, HBS Healthcare Initiative, Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus came to Harvard Business School campus to speak. This is an exerpt.

Uploaded 01-06-12

Social Business—New Models for Providing Sustainable Services to the Poor
Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

Professor Muhammad Yunus is widely known for his work in establishing the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh in 1983. Join us for a discussion regarding his recent efforts that focus on building social businesses and healthcare initiatives in Bangladesh. Professor Yunus is the author of Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty, Creating a World without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism, and Building Social Business: The New Kind of Capitalism That Serves Humanity's Most Pressing Needs.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard i-lab | Startup Secrets Part 2: Company Formation - Michael Skok

Tue, 13 Oct 2026 11:00:00 -0000

In Part 2 of Michael Skok's Harvard i-lab lecture series, "Startup Secrets: An insiders guide to unfair competitive advantage," Skok argues that ideas aren't worth much without great people to back them up. It's human capital that makes the difference between good and great companies, which is why attracting and retaining the right people and getting them dialed into the right vision is utterly essential for the burgeoning venture.

Uploaded 07-05-12

You can read more about Michael Skok, and his Startup Secrets on his website: http://mjskok.com/ and follow him on twitter at http://twitter.com/mjskok

Learn more about the Harvard Innovation Lab at http://i-lab.harvard.edu/ and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/innovationlab and like us on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/harvardinnovationlab

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard i-lab | Low-Fidelity Data Mining for Customer Insights

Tue, 13 Oct 2026 10:00:00 -0000

How can we mine survey, sales and customer data to uncover new insights into the lives and needs of our users, without a strong background in statistical analysis or code development?

Uploaded 04-12-14

In this session, Almighty CSO Ian Fitzpatrick will walk through approaches to finding anomalies, commonalities and outliers in data sets — with a focus on using these to drive better qualitative research that shapes a great brand, product or service experience. Particular emphasis will be placed on combining private and public data sets to uncover hidden patterns and opportunities.

The workshop itself is designed to be highly-participatory and hands-on. Participants are encouraged to bring both a laptop or tablet computer and an eagerness to collaborate with others.

Learn more about the Harvard Innovation Lab at http://i-lab.harvard.edu/ and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/innovationlab and like us on Facebook athttps://www.facebook.com/harvardinnovationlab

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard i-lab | "A Debate: Business is Essential to Effectively Deliver Public Services to the Poor"

Tue, 13 Oct 2026 09:00:00 -0000

HKS Professor Lant Prichett and HBS Professor Michael Chu debated the most effective mechanisms to alleviate poverty in a debate moderated by The Fletcher School's Nicholas P. Sullivan. The emerging social finance space and other market-based solutions were challenged by more traditional philanthropic approaches to solve poverty. This debate offered a great cross-campus initiative that enhanced a broader understanding of the current "hot topics" around how the Business and the International Development players can work together in addressing services delivery barriers to the poor.

Uploaded 02-05-12

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard i-lab | Startup Secrets: Go to Market Strategies

Tue, 13 Oct 2026 08:00:00 -0000

Find out why it can be twice as important to get your Go-to-Market right, even if you've engineered a great product. Get to understand the strategic and tactical frameworks needed to enter a market and occupy a dominant position. Learn how to develop your "brand essence" and integrate other key marketing assets so that you can pursue an impactful sales and marketing approach.

Uploaded 03-01-13

Learn more about the Harvard Innovation Lab at http://i-lab.harvard.edu/ and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/innovationlab and like us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/harvardinnovationlab

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard i-lab | Grand Opening

Tue, 13 Oct 2026 07:00:00 -0000

The Harvard Innovation Lab was opened on November 18, 2011. During our celebration, Joseph B. Lassiter III, Senator John Heinz Professor of Management Practice in Environmental Management, and Faculty Chair, Harvard Innovation Lab, Dean Nitin Nohria, Harvard Business School, President Drew Faust, Harvard University, and Mayor Thomas M. Menino, City of Boston, spoke and welcomed the i-lab as a new and innovative initiative that fosters team-based and entrepreneurial activities and deepens interactions among Harvard students, faculty, entrepreneurs, and members of the Allston and Greater Boston community.

Uploaded 28-03-12

Learn more about the i-lab at http://i-lab.harvard.edu

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President's Challenge Presentation Zoom

Tue, 13 Oct 2026 06:00:00 -0000

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Uploaded 04-06-12

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard i-lab | Harvard Launch Lab Promotional Video

Tue, 13 Oct 2026 05:00:00 -0000

The Harvard Innovation Lab (i-lab) is excited to continue to grow the resources around entrepreneurship for Harvard students, and Alumni. Following three years of growth, and more than 500 unique ventures, the i-lab is opening a “OneHarvard” inspired prototype co-working space adjacent to the i-lab for high potential Harvard Alumni startup ventures, called the Harvard Innovation Launch Lab.

Uploaded 03-12-14

Learn more about the Launch Lab from Jodi Goldstein, Director, and hear from the inaugural class of startups in residence at the Launch Lab!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard i-lab | Artist as Entrepreneur: A Conversation with Wynton Marsalis

Tue, 13 Oct 2026 04:49:00 -0000

"Artist as Entrepreneur" A Conversation with Wynton Marsalis

Uploaded 15-02-12

The i-lab hosted a conversation entitled "Artist as Entrepreneur" with Wynton Marsalis, and HBS professors Nancy Koehn, Rohit Deshpande, and Mukti Khaire, moderated by Mihir Desai on February 7, 2012.

This conversation was open to the Harvard community and members of the public.

Wynton Marsalis, internationally acclaimed musician, composer, bandleader, educator and a leading advocate of American culture.

Nancy Koehn, James E. Robison Professor of Business Administration
Harvard Business School

Rohit Deshpande, Sebastian S. Kresge Professor of Marketing
Harvard Business School

Mukti Khaire, Associate Professor of Business Administration
Marvin Bower Fellow
Harvard Business School

Mihir A. Desai
Senior Associate Dean for Planning and University Affairs
Mizuho Financial Group Professor of Finance
Harvard Business School

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard i-lab | A Deep Bench: Elite Athletes and the Expanding Marketplace for Sports Technologies

Tue, 13 Oct 2026 04:00:00 -0000

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard i-lab | What: What is Cultural Entrepreneurship? What does the Challenge Entail?

Tue, 13 Oct 2026 03:00:00 -0000

Mukti Khaire, Associate Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and Marvin Bower Fellow, led a workshop discussing how entrepreneurship can be used as a tool for expanding the role of the arts in society and supporting arts and artists in a sustainable manner. Her talk answered the question: 'what exactly is a cultural entrepreneur' and also gave an overview of how the Deans' Cultural Entrepreneurship Challenge seeks to support entrepreneurial ventures that also serve a cultural purpose. Professor Khaire covered how your proposal will be judged and discussed what elements to address in framing your ideas and hypotheses. She also addressed team composition, implementation, financial and regulatory viability, as well as guidance on how to measure the impact of these projects. Following the workshop, attendees had the opportunity to mingle, network, and form teams based on common interests.

Uploaded 10-02-13

Learn more about the Harvard Innovation Lab at http://i-lab.harvard.edu/ and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/innovationlab and like us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/harvardinnovationlab

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President's Innovation Challenge Takeaways

Tue, 13 Oct 2026 02:00:00 -0000

The Harvard Innovation Labs invites student founders from all 13 Harvard schools to apply for the President's Innovation Challenge (PIC) by December 5 for a chance to win a share of $515,000 in funding for their ventures, thanks to the ‪@BertarelliFoundation.

Uploaded 03-12-24

This year’s theme, Redefining What’s Possible, celebrates the bold, ambitious work happening across campus as student founders tackle complex problems, build impactful solutions, and create better futures.

Learn from previous PIC winners as they share their tips and tricks in this video.

Applications close 12/5: https://innovationlabs.harvard.edu/pic

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What It Takes: Vision, Mission and Culture

Tue, 13 Oct 2026 01:00:00 -0000

Human capital separates great companies from good ones; ideas are worth very little without the right people to drive them forward. That’s why attracting the right people while unifying them behind an inspiring vision and mission is essential to any significant venture.

Uploaded 18-03-23

In this workshop, originally presented in-person at the Harvard Innovation Labs, Michael Skok, founding partner at Underscore VC, will share how to develop your venture’s mission and vision – while ensuring you can execute on both.

About the Speaker:

Michael Skok is a founding partner at Underscore VC, a Boston-based firm investing in bold B2B software founders. Since starting his first software business as a teenager, Michael has spent 21 years as an entrepreneur and the past 18 years as a venture investor. During this time, he has founded, worked with, and invested in startups, and created thousands of jobs and billions of dollars of value.

As an entrepreneur and an investor, Michael has focused on breakthrough technologies and disruptive business models including Open Source, Cloud, IoT, and emerging domains such as Blockchain, Virtual/Augmented Reality, and Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning. He has served on or is active on many private and public boards such as Acquia, Demandware (now a Salesforce company), Mautic (acquired by Acquia in 2019), Salsify, and Zaius. He has also held leadership roles in many industry groups such as the Software Publishers Association, where he served as chairman for many years.

In 2015, Michael co-founded Underscore VC to help founders create enduring companies through the power of community. He has a passion for helping the next generation of entrepreneurs succeed by not only backing them with capital but bringing the resources and commitment of an aligned community around them to propel their success. To help achieve this, he has mentored and taught for over 10 years at Harvard University, where he is an Entrepreneur in Residence, and created the Startup Secrets series.

Want to dive deeper into Startup Secrets? Explore the interactive Startup Secrets Sandbox for frameworks, insights, and tools to help you build and scale your startup: https://bit.ly/3Cwv0nK

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard i-lab | 2013 President's Challenge Presentation -- Sightline Productions

Tue, 13 Oct 2026 00:00:00 -0000

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Uploaded 24-06-13

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard i-lab | Deans' Food System Challenge Kickoff

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 23:00:00 -0000

Join HLS Dean Martha Minow and keynote speaker Ayr Muir, founder and CEO of Clover Food Lab, in officially kicking off the 2015 Deans' Food System Challenge. The Challenge invites creative and entrepreneurial students to develop innovative ideas to improve the health, social, and environmental outcomes of the food system in the United States and around the world.

Uploaded 03-12-14

Students will have the opportunity at the Kickoff to network with other like-minded folks at Harvard and begin exploring ideas and partnerships to apply to this challenge in one of four categories:
Producing Sustainable, Nutritious Food
Innovating in Food Distribution and Markets
Improving Our Diet
Reducing Food Waste
The Challenge is co-sponsored by Dean Martha Minow of Harvard Law School and Dean Julio Frenk of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

A variety of workshops and networking events will offer participants numerous opportunities to strengthen their idea, team, and ventures throughout the Challenge timeline. More information on the Challenge and programming can be found here.

Learn more about the Harvard Innovation Lab at http://i-lab.harvard.edu/ and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/innovationlab and like us on Facebook athttps://www.facebook.com/harvardinnovationlab

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President's Challenge Presentation SPOUTS of Water

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 22:00:00 -0000

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Uploaded 04-06-12

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard i-lab | Entrepreneurship 101 with Gordon Jones

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 21:00:00 -0000

Did you know about the multi-million dollar facility for students interested in entrepreneurship and innovation? Want to learn about the Harvard innovation lab? Interested in entrepreneurship and want to know about programs and resources available to you? Hear Gordon Jones, the Managing Director of the Harvard Innovation lab, and Jodi Goldstein, the Director of the Harvard Innovation Lab, describe all the ways the i-lab can help students take their ideas as far as they can go.

Uploaded 11-02-13

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard University President's Innovation Awards Ceremony - May 2, 2018

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 20:49:00 -0000

The seventh annual President's Innovation Challenge Awards Ceremony was a memorable evening. We celebrated innovation and entrepreneurship. We said farewell to President Drew Faust and thanked her for creating the Challenge and the One Harvard spirit of cross-disciplinary collaboration that inspired the creation of Harvard Innovation Labs. We heard pitches from 15 remarkable venture teams. And, of course, we handed out some big checks.

Uploaded 17-05-18

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Turning Ideas into Impact: Chaku Foods

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 20:00:00 -0000

Get inspired by the impact @ChakuFoodsis having on farmers in Africa since winning the Harvard President's Innovation Challenge in 2021.

Uploaded 02-05-24

Videography:
Aaron James Sanchez
Patrick Fogarty
Samuel Mironko
Misper Apawu (Ghana)
Dennis Nipah (Ghana)

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard i-lab | Keynote: Why Should Society Care About the Quantified Athlete?

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 19:00:00 -0000

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to Come up With a Startup Idea

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 18:00:00 -0000

Coming up with a startup idea isn’t about waiting for lightning to strike — it’s about tuning into the world, and your own reactions to it, with greater clarity. Rebekah Emanuel, Senior Advisor for Social Impact and Climate at the Harvard Innovation Labs, shares practical strategies you can use to spark meaningful, viable ventures and turn ideas into impact.

Uploaded 01-10-25

Follow us:
LinkedIn: /harvard-innovation-labs
TikTok: /harvardinnovationlabs
Instagram: /harvardinnovationlabs

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard i-lab | Deans' Health and Life Sciences Challenge Kickoff

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 17:00:00 -0000

Join us to kick off the 2015 Deans' Health and Life Sciences Challenge Kickoff with Katrine Bosley, CEO of Editas Medicine. She will share her thoughts on the key factors of leading successful companies and advice on how to build effective teams and execute strategies to commercialize technologies that will ultimately impacting patients and their care.

Uploaded 03-12-14

Also joining us will be Aldatu Biosciences to share exciting updates on their progress since winning the Deans' Health and Life Sciences Challenge last year and provide advice on how to best take advantage of the i-lab and its resources to take your idea as far as it can go.

Students and fellows will also have the opportunity to network with other like-minded folks at Harvard to begin exploring ideas and partnerships to apply to this challenge in one of four categories:

Diagnostics and Population Health Management
Devices and Materials
Health IT and Wearables
Prevention and Safety

The Deans' Health and Life Sciences Challenge is co-chaired by Dean Jeffrey Flier (HMS) and Dean Nitin Nohria (HBS). This initiative provides Harvard students and fellows the opportunity to develop solutions that address unmet needs in health and life sciences.

A variety of workshops and networking events will offer participants numerous opportunities to strengthen their idea, team and plan prior to the February application deadline. Finalists are announced in March and awarded $5000. Winners of the Bertarelli Foundation Prizes, totaling up to $60,000, will be presented at Demo Day in May 2015.

Katrine Bosley is the CEO of Editas Medicine and has been in the biotechnology industry for over 20 years. She was recently the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Broad Institute and a review committee member for the Translation Fund at the Wellcome Trust. Prior to that, Katrine led Avila Therapeutics as its CEO (acquired by Celgene) and was VP, Business Development at Adnexus Therapeutics (acquired by BMS). Earlier, she held several positions at Biogen Idec in business development, commercial operations and portfolio strategy in the U.S. and Europe.

Learn more about the Harvard Innovation Lab at http://i-lab.harvard.edu/ and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/innovationlab and like us on Facebook athttps://www.facebook.com/harvardinnovationlab

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Muhammad Yunus: Social Business

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 16:00:00 -0000

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Muhammad Yunus: Microfinance vs. Conventional Banking

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 15:00:00 -0000

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2023 Harvard President's Innovation Challenge Awards Ceremony

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 14:00:00 -0000

We’re incredibly proud of all our ventures who are chasing dreams and blueprinting a better tomorrow. The participants in the Harvard President’s Innovation Challenge are a prime example of the perseverance and agility required to do this work. Our awards ceremony was attended in-person and virtually by over 2,000 innovators from across the globe. With the generous support of the Bertarelli Foundation, winning teams took home a share of $515,000 in prize funding to propel their ventures even further, faster. Watch it all unfold here.

Uploaded 08-05-23

WINNERS
- RockFix, Penguin.ai, InConfidence, PatientFirst.ai, and InGel Therapeutics, Inc. took home $75,000 each.
- MelaninDoc, Stochastic, BonePixel, Thermaband, and Aperture Bio took home $25,000 each.
- Pacto Medical, Webquity, Halo Braid, and S.A.L.Tech took home $2,700 in Ingenuity Awards for early-stage ventures.

https://innovationlabs.harvard.edu/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Designing a Customer-Centric Business Model

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 13:00:00 -0000

Simply defined, a business model is how you deliver value to customers and how you make money in return. The most successful business models capture value in concert with the customer. In this session, originally presented in-person at the Harvard Innovation Labs, you’ll learn how to do just that. Michael Skok, founding partner at Underscore VC, will share how to identify your core business value and align your business model to your customer’s success.

Uploaded 25-03-23

About the Speaker:

Michael Skok is a founding partner at Underscore VC, a Boston-based firm investing in bold B2B software founders. Since starting his first software business as a teenager, Michael has spent 21 years as an entrepreneur and the past 18 years as a venture investor. During this time, he has founded, worked with, and invested in startups, and created thousands of jobs and billions of dollars of value.

As an entrepreneur and an investor, Michael has focused on breakthrough technologies and disruptive business models including Open Source, Cloud, IoT, and emerging domains such as Blockchain, Virtual/Augmented Reality, and Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning. He has served on or is active on many private and public boards such as Acquia, Demandware (now a Salesforce company), Mautic (acquired by Acquia in 2019), Salsify, and Zaius. He has also held leadership roles in many industry groups such as the Software Publishers Association, where he served as chairman for many years.

In 2015, Michael co-founded Underscore VC to help founders create enduring companies through the power of community. He has a passion for helping the next generation of entrepreneurs succeed by not only backing them with capital but bringing the resources and commitment of an aligned community around them to propel their success. To help achieve this, he has mentored and taught for over 10 years at Harvard University, where he is an Entrepreneur in Residence, and created the Startup Secrets series.

Want to dive deeper into Startup Secrets? Explore the interactive Startup Secrets Sandbox for frameworks, insights, and tools to help you build and scale your startup: https://bit.ly/3Cwv0nK

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard i-lab | Entrepreneurial Ventures in Silicon Valley

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 12:49:00 -0000

The Harvard Innovation Lab led a student trip to Silicon Valley in January 2012. This field-based program provided an opportunity for students to immerse themselves in the entrepreneurial environment of Silicon Valley, with a focus on the consumer internet sector. 36 students from across Harvard participated, with faculty from HBS and SEAS leading the trip.

Uploaded 15-02-12

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard i-lab | What Makes Boston's Start-Up Scene Special? with Jeff Bussgang

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 12:00:00 -0000

HBS Senior Lecturer and Flybridge General Partner Jeff Bussgang joined us to deliver a "What Makes Boston's Start-Up Scene Special?"

Uploaded 11-02-13

Jeff is a former entrepreneur (cofounder/president of Upromise and VP at Open Market), author (Mastering the VC Game - www.jeffbussgang.com), blogger (www.SeeingBothSides.com) and teaches the popular EC class, 'Launching Technology Ventures.' He was Harvard'91 computer science and HBS '95.

Learn more about the Harvard Innovation Lab at http://i-lab.harvard.edu/ and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/innovationlab and like us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/harvardinnovationlab

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Turning Ideas into Impact: Myspeech

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 11:00:00 -0000

Videography:
Aaron James Sanchez
Patrick Fogarty
Samuel Mironko

Uploaded 02-05-24

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard i-lab | Building your Startup Team: Novel Approaches for an Agile World

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 10:00:00 -0000

Building your startup team is different from team building in a large organization. Hint, it's not about titles, roles and experience. Jeffrey Beir will share some tips from awesome entrepreneurs, and some difficult lessons learned as well.

Uploaded 03-12-14

Learn more about the Harvard Innovation Lab at http://i-lab.harvard.edu/ and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/innovationlab and like us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/harvardinnov

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard i-lab | 2013 President's Challenge Presentation -- PlenOptika

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 09:00:00 -0000

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Uploaded 24-06-13

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard i-lab | Dividing The Founder Pie with Jeffrey Beir of seed2A

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 08:00:00 -0000

It's not an easy conversation to have, but you need to have it. Jeffrey presented an approach for having the discussion with your co-founders and suggests a methodology for dividing up the pie. He also spent some time on capitalization and dilution, and what to expect to happen to your ownership as you raise capital.

Uploaded 11-02-13

Learn more about the Harvard Innovation Lab at http://i-lab.harvard.edu/ and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/innovationlab and like us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/harvardinnovationlab

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard Alumni Launch Lab X

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 07:00:00 -0000

The Alumni Launch Lab supports alumni innovators from all 13 Harvard schools, fostering a global ecosystem of entrepreneurs who are truly changing the world.

Uploaded 18-07-25

Learn more here: https://innovationlabs.harvard.edu/labs/alumni-launch-lab

Videography by Owen Mack
www.cobrandit.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard i-lab | Startup Secrets Part 4: Going To Market - Michael Skok

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 06:00:00 -0000

In Part 4 of Michael Skok's Harvard i-lab lecture series, "Startup Secrets: An insiders guide to unfair competitive advantage," Skok describes the fundamentals of building a go-to-market strategy for your business.

Uploaded 07-05-12

You can read more about Michael Skok, and his Startup Secrets on his website: http://mjskok.com/ and follow him on twitter at http://twitter.com/mjskok

Learn more about the Harvard Innovation Lab at http://i-lab.harvard.edu/ and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/innovationlab and like us on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/harvardinnovationlab

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard i-lab | Data Privacy and Security Strategies for Life Science and Tech Startups

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 05:00:00 -0000

Note: There will NOT be a Longwood to ilab shuttle.

Uploaded 02-12-14

Information is a valuable asset to any life sciences or technology venture. This substantive session will help to frame data-related limitations, systems and practices that new companies are likely to encounter. The collection, analysis, storage and disclosure of information is often critical for developing and commercializing products, establishing strategic collaborations, securing regulatory approvals, and completing corporate acquisitions and other transactions.

When information includes personally identifiable information, it is necessary to address special regulatory and contractual considerations in a company’s earliest stages. By pursuing data privacy and security “by design,” startup companies can be prepared for the privacy and security landscape and, hopefully, avoid burdensome “retrofitting” efforts that can disrupt future growth.

You will learn:
- how to navigate the increasingly complex regulatory framework governing personally identifiable information, including the regulation of health-related data
- which key contractual issues affect your venture companies that handle such data through their license agreements, collaborations and sales contracts

This presentation will be led by partners of the WilmerHale law firm to provide an overview of key regulatory and contractual considerations most likely to affect life sciences and technology startup companies.

- Barry Hurewitz, Regulatory and Government Affairs practice
- Jeff Johnson, Technology Transaction and Licensing practice

Learn more about the Harvard Innovation Lab at http://i-lab.harvard.edu/ and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/innovationlab and like us on Facebook athttps://www.facebook.com/harvardinnovationlab

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

i-lab Spotlight | Naya Studios

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 04:49:00 -0000

“Our world is more isolated and lonely than ever before. We need more remote work opportunities and a greater sense of connectedness and meaning. Naya strives to be a digital studio and ecosystem that can facilitate a sense of community, collaboration, and connection across the world at a time when we need it most.” - Saad Rajan and Vivek HV, of @naya__studio

Uploaded 22-04-20

.
To learn more about i-lab venture Naya Studio, check out their profile on our Facebook page or visit www.naya.studio

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard i-lab | Founding a Tech Startup in Silicon Valley -- The Good, Bad, and Ugly with Raj Kapoor

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 04:00:00 -0000

This is a must-see talk and discussion with successful entrepreneur/VC Raj Kapoor (HBS 96). Raj is the Managing Director of the Mayfield Fund, the cofounder/CEO of Snapfish, and now founder of "cofounder.co." He discusses his new model, cofounder.co, which is designed to help new entrepreneurs cofound companies in the Bay Area, giving them the benefit of experience and his broad network.

Uploaded 11-02-13

cofounder.co

cofounder.co is a new innovative entity to help startups and entrepreneurs reach their full potential in the Bay Area. We are a group of experienced partners with founder/CEO and investor experience. Raj Kapoor is the first founding partner (others will be added later) and will work very closely with a few tech startups that either reside in the Bay Area or want to relocate there. With cofounder.co, a partner joins the company as a cofounder at the earliest stages and spends the equivalent of one day a week helping in all areas of the company including financing, recruiting, strategy, product development, and mentoring the CEO. It's a much deeper and focused involvement than most angels, advisors, and accelerators and for a longer period of time. As a minority cofounder shareholder in the company, we bring commitment and more importantly, the valuable experience that high potential entrepreneurs may be missing. See Raj's blog www.vcinme.typepad.comfor for more information and check out his Linkedin profile at http://www.linkedin.com/in/rajil

Learn more about the Harvard Innovation Lab at http://i-lab.harvard.edu/ and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/innovationlab and like us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/harvardinnovationlab

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard i-lab | Startup Secrets: Roadmap to Success

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 03:00:00 -0000

Michael Skok will share his roadmap of what is needed to build a startup, milestones along the way, and how to pull that pitch together to get the venture attention and funding your idea deserves. After the workshop you should have a better understanding of:

Uploaded 01-12-14

The holistic checklist to think through your venture in a business like plan.

What matters to a VC/Investor.

How to think about your roadmap from startup to public company

Joining the workshop is Paula Long, CEO of Data Gravity, to share her insights.

Want to dive deeper into Startup Secrets? Explore the interactive Startup Secrets Sandbox for frameworks, insights, and tools to help you build and scale your startup: https://bit.ly/3Cwv0nK

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard i-lab | "Evaluating Your Startup Career Opportunity" with Eric Paley and Russ Wilcox

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 02:00:00 -0000

The Harvard Innovation Lab welcomed Eric Paley, Managing Partner at Founder Collective, and Russ Wilcox, founder E Ink Corporation for a candid discussion about startups as an alternate career, as well as how to evaluate an opportunity at a startup relative to a more traditional job offer.

Uploaded 07-05-12

Learn more about the Harvard Innovation Lab at http://i-lab.harvard.edu/ and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/innovationlab and like us on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/harvardinnovationlab

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard i-lab | "Mastering the VC Game: How to Raise Your First Round of Capital" with Jeff Bussgang

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 01:00:00 -0000

Jeff Bussgang presented a Skillshare class entitled "Mastering the VC Game: How to Raise Your First Round of Capital" at the Harvard innovation lab on April 3, 2012. Jeff is a Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship at HBS and a General Partner at Flybridge Capital Partners.

Uploaded 26-04-12

Students learned about the startup financing landscape, how to find investors, how to pitch them, how to understand term sheets, and other tips for raising a first round of financing.

The seminar was intended to address questions like:

You've been working on a big idea and need financing to get it going: but how do you go about raising your first round of funding? What's the difference between angel, seed, and VC investors? How do you go about valuing your company and deciding on equity?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard i-lab | Cultural Entrepreneurship in NYC trip video

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 -0000

The Harvard i-lab sponsored a faculty-led Winter Break trip to New York City for 37 students from across Harvard University. The trip focused on cultural entrepreneurship in NYC: new ventures in fashion, food, fine arts, performing arts, music, video entertainment, literary fiction, etc. Harvard students explored how new ventures in the creative arts are launched, and how proximity to NYC's rich ecosystem of established companies, investors, and supporting organizations (e.g., universities, foundations, trade press, industry associations) influences the ventures' evolution.

Uploaded 20-02-13

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard i-lab | Increasing Impact through Measurement and Continuous Improvement

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 23:00:00 -0000

Why do nonprofits, social enterprises and values-driven companies need a measurement and evaluation system? How do you go about measuring the impact your venture has? Chris Addy, a partner at the Bridgespan Group, will help you understand the critical aspects of measurement and evaluation for mission-aligned ventures. The workshop will discuss the reasons for measuring and how it relates to improving your outcomes over time, securing new funds/customers, and being compliant with existing funders/customers. Chris will also help you understand each stage of the performance measurement life-cycle and provide a framework for how to apply these learnings to your own venture:o Defining your outcomes and measurement strategyo Measuring your progresso Learning from what you measureo Acting on those lessons to get better results for society

Uploaded 20-11-14

Learn more about the Harvard Innovation Lab at http://i-lab.harvard.edu/ and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/innovationlab and like us on Facebook athttps://www.facebook.com/harvardinnovationlab

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to Build a Strong Startup Team: Co-founders, Equity, Culture + First Hires

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 22:00:00 -0000

Building the right team is one of the hardest and most important parts of starting a venture. Rym Baouendi, director of alumni engagement, and Peter Gladstone, senior advisor for B2C startups, share practical advice on what founders should keep in mind when it comes to co-founders, teammates, and equity.

Uploaded 09-09-25

Read more here: https://innovationlabs.harvard.edu/how-to/how-to-build-a-strong-startup-team

Follow us:
LinkedIn: / harvard-innovation-labs
TikTok: / harvardinnovationlabs
Instagram: / harvardinnovationlabs

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard i-lab | Mobile Workshop: Social Sharing and Proximity

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 21:00:00 -0000

Technology Track: Mobile Sharing and Proximity with Brett Martin, CEO and Co-founder of Sonar.

Uploaded 20-02-13

Social sharing has exploded in recent years and is now rapidly shifting to mobile devices and, in many instances, becoming increasingly implicit. Location is tagged to much of what we share and more and more we've connected networks and set up mechanisms to make sharing frictionless and implicit. How will all of this new data that's being generated create value and personalized experiences for users, who have come to expect certain benefits from sharing. Temporal proximity networks are popping up to connect people and things as they share physical spaces, and dissipating as quickly as they appear. Brett talks about some of the interactions and opportunities presented by proximity, and the two subsets of the social graph that Sonar is focusing on enabling: the proximity graph and the reality graph.

Learn more about the Harvard Innovation Lab at http://i-lab.harvard.edu/ and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/innovationlab and like us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/harvardinnovationlab

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard i-lab | Eric Ries - Startup Lessons Learned

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 20:49:00 -0000

The Rock Center and Harvard i-lab present: Eric Ries speaking about his new book, "The Lean Startup." Rock Center Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Eric Riesis the creator of the Lean Startup methodology and the author of the popular entrepreneurship blog Startup Lessons Learned.

Uploaded 13-03-12

After Ries' talk, Tom Eisenmann, the Howard H. Stevenson Professor of Business Administration in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at the Harvard Business School, and Ries had a conversation about the Lean Startup methodology.

Following the talk with Eric Ries, the i-lab sponsored a reception - the inaugural event - at the Harvard i-lab. The speaking events was co-sponsored by the Rock Center and the Harvard innovation lab.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Disability is Diversity: Stories of Art and Innovation

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 20:00:00 -0000

On International Day of Persons with Disabilities, we had the opportunity to learn stories of inclusive innovation from artists, entrepreneurs, and operators. Featuring @ArtLifting, @Google, @HarvardHBS, and @Harvardilab.

Uploaded 06-12-22

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard i-lab | Startup Secrets: Mastering the Gift of Mutual Mentorship

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 19:00:00 -0000

Are you seeking a mentor but not sure of how best to leverage that relationship? Have you ever been in a mentor relationship and wondered how best to serve the mentee? In this workshop Michael Skok, a serial entrepreneur turned venture capitalist, shows you how to develop best practices and get the most out of mentorship.

Uploaded 07-11-14

Want to dive deeper into Startup Secrets? Explore the interactive Startup Secrets Sandbox for frameworks, insights, and tools to help you build and scale your startup: https://bit.ly/3Cwv0nK

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard i-lab | Harvard Startup Career Fair

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 18:00:00 -0000

This educational and career-focused event allowed students to network with representatives from entrepreneurial and start-up organizations, learn about jobs and internships, and discover exciting opportunities available in the start-up field. Over 100 participating organizations took part in the fair, and over 1000 students from across all the Harvard schools attended the event.

Uploaded 20-02-13

Learn more about the Harvard Innovation Lab at http://i-lab.harvard.edu/ and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/innovationlab and like us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/harvardinnovationlab

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard i-lab | Increasing Your Creative Capacity

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 17:00:00 -0000

Creativity is one of the most essential and vital attributes for being a successful entrepreneur. But how exactly does one increase their ability to think and act creatively?

Uploaded 05-11-14

In this session, award winning educator and artist Art Sherwyn will walk through the creative process and illustrate methods for training the intellect how to gain passage into the world of creative thought; within this world will lie the tools for creative problem solving and invention with focus on using these techniques to drive innovation within your own venture.

Art will also share the unique alignment the arts have with the human side of entrepreneurship and connection to the stability and longevity of your venture and quality of life. This workshop will provide very practical information which is easily adaptable. It is designed to be highly participatory and hands-on.

Learn more about the Harvard Innovation Lab at http://i-lab.harvard.edu/ and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/innovationlab and like us on Facebook athttps://www.facebook.com/harvardinnovationlab

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to Build a Product that Scales into a Company

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 16:00:00 -0000

“Build it, and they will come” is a dangerous mindset in the startup world. Even if you create a great product, building a successful company around it can be nuanced and challenging. In addition to product development, you need to find and prove product-market fit—then repeat and scale through sales and marketing.

Uploaded 05-04-23

About the Speaker:

Chris Gardner is a partner at Underscore VC, a Boston-based firm investing in bold B2B software founders.

Chris is a resident builder, happiest when he’s hands-on with a project. At Underscore VC, that means identifying and investing in uniquely qualified founders, and then helping to build their company in any way needed: networker, salesperson, mentor, coach, psychotherapist, even drinking buddy.

His tinkering and building extend to his personal life, where you’ll find him getting hands-on in any manner of project. Car maintenance? He has a lift in his garage. Music? He’s recording an album in his barn studio. Cooking? His BBQ ribs are the stuff of legend. In short, if he can get his hands on it, he can master it (except golf; don’t ever ask Chris to play golf).

Though he’s known as a FinTech entrepreneur, Chris is a self-professed nerd and technology omnivore who, prior to Underscore VC, spent nearly three decades at companies focused on speech recognition, video streaming, mobile marketing, mobile messaging, e-billing, and document management. His last five roles all resulted in exits that created good outcomes for employees and investors.

Most recently, Chris was an executive at PayPal and led their P2P, PayPal Here, and In-Store payments products after Paydiant, the company he co-founded and built, was acquired by PayPal in 2015. Prior to that, Chris was CMO and head of products at ExtendMedia, a video content delivery and commerce platform software company that was acquired by Cisco in 2010; SVP of Products and Marketing at m-Qube, North America’s leading premium SMS mobile payments provider that was acquired by Verisign in 2006; and VP of Products and Marketing at edocs, Inc., an e-billing, payments, and customer self-service company that was acquired by Siebel Systems in 2004.

Chris earned a BA in Communications from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst a really long time ago.

Want to dive deeper into Startup Secrets? Explore the interactive Startup Secrets Sandbox for frameworks, insights, and tools to help you build and scale your startup: https://bit.ly/3Cwv0nK

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Muhammad Yunus: The Shortcomings of Economic Theories and Systems

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 15:00:00 -0000

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices