HBS Rock Center for Entrepreneurship

Very helpful Harvard Business School faculty research trip. New blog post: 'AI: Five Pieces of Advice for My Students.' https://lnkd.in/da72CyhG

Relive the inspiring journeys of past winners from the Harvard Business School’s Alumni New Venture Competition (aNVC) as they share their entrepreneurial insights and lessons learned. Hear from: Janvi Shah, MBA 2022, Co-founder & CEO of Hue. 2023 Boston Regional Winner & Global Runner-up Romi Savova, MBA 2012, Founder & CEO of PensionBee UK PensionBee US 2016 European Regional Winner Alex Sambvani, MBA 2017, Co-founder & CEO of Slang.ai 2020 NY Regional Winner These founders are shaping industries, disrupting norms, and embodying the entrepreneurial spirit. Whether you're starting your own venture or looking for inspiration, their stories will resonate. Watch the replay: https://lnkd.in/e_2euieh #HBSEntrepreneurship #AlumniNewVentureCompetition #ANVC

Yesterday, we celebrated our last day of class for Startup Operations Cohort '24. Every year, I am struck by how much learning and progress our students make in just a few months together. 50% of this year's cohort launched their ventures during the term and the other 50% are well on their way to do so! You can check out what they (and other SO alumni) are all working on here: https://lnkd.in/ekHdNpNi Meanwhile, here are some key takeaways from our wrap-up session: Operating a Startup 💪 Execution: Focus on experiments to better test user adoption and validate user behaviors. 👂 Adapting to Feedback: Differentiating between “nice-to-have” and essential pain points to address. 👯 Role Definition: Effectively delegating tasks and defining roles. ⬆️ Goal-setting and True North: Improved processes by setting a clear vision and defining milestones. 💰 Money: Conservative about raising capital and selecting good investment partners. (~40% of the class is pro-bootstrapping) 🥜 Strategic Narrowing: Overcoming the tendency to spread efforts too thinly (peanut butter!). On Co-founders and Teams: 🤗 Alignment: Realizing the benefits of aligning team members’ interests and skills with their work-streams. ⚖️ Balanced Workload: Needing to balance roles and responsibilities in and outside of work. 📈 Process Improvements: Effective communication, disambiguation and "painting done" (Brené Brown) led to better outcomes. Personal & Professional Reflections: 😎 The Role of the Founder: Extremely hard work and accountability, but if aligned with personal interests, so much fun! 💡 The Role of the Joiner: Fresh set of eyes, expertise and opinions. Aspiring founders also developed greater empathy for their future joiners. 🧠 Growth Mindset: Significant personal growth through navigating challenges such has having hard conversations, handling pivots and experiencing failure. 💞 Community Support: Recognizing how this is an essential element in adapting to the startup environment. Finally, students were asked to define what success meant to them on the first day of class and then to reflect on this again on the last day. Most remarkable was the shift from a focus on financial outcomes and public recognition to the importance of meaningful projects that make an impact on people and the world. 🌎 💝 Looking forward to watching them all continue to grow and prosper! Harvard Business School #startups #entrepreneurship #aftertheidea

Looking forward to reconnecting with the Harvard Business School community to discuss the wonderful (and occasionally nail-biting) journey of entrepreneurship!

Last week over 800 Harvard Business School (HBS) alumnae gathered on campus for the Women’s Leadership Summit: Celebrating and Advancing Women Leaders. https://lnkd.in/gUkbNWrJ    During Thursday’s session, Getting Personal with Trailblazing Fempreneurs, co-hosted by the Rock Center, the hub for entrepreneurship at HBS, we had the opportunity to get advice, encouragement, and insights from three entrepreneurs: Alexandra Wilkis Wilson, MBA ’04, Co-Founder and Managing Partner Clerisy, Nina Vaca, CEO, Founder, and Chairman, Pinnacle Group and Lara Hodgson, MBA ’98, Co-Founder, President and CEO of NOW Corp.   Through a series of fireside chats, we heard about three different entrepreneurial journeys. First Laurie Stach, MBA ’11, Project Director of the HBS Foundry, spoke with Alexandra who shared about the challenges and upside of shifting from a founder to leading corporate innovation to now being a venture investor. Then Selena Cuffe, MBA ‘03 sat down with Nina who inspired the crowd with her stories of resilience on the way to building the largest Latina owned workforce solutions company. Finally, Tasneem Dohadwala, MBA ’09, chatted with Lara who talked about being 100% in on whatever you are doing at the moment and she shared a new take on attributes for successful team members.    Thank you to Tasneem and Selena as the HBS alumnae organizers of the session. Also thank you to our speakers, and attendees who helped make this such a dynamic and stimulating experience. Elise Bates Laurie Bishop Mary Rose Saint-Cyr Virginia Shannon #HBSEntrepreneurship #ActivateYourIdeas #BuildYourVenture #DriveGlobalImpact

Entrepreneurs, can you compete in the age of AI? Senior Lecturer Jeffrey Bussgang suggests focusing on two key areas to gain a competitive advantage. #ImpactBeyondTheory

Attention HBS alumni early stage founders, join us in a virtual session Dec 5th to hear from past alumni New Venture Competition (aNVC) regional winners about their experiences and the benefits of applying. Our panelists will be: Janvi Shah MBA 2022, Co-founder & CEO of Hue. 2023 Boston Regional Winner and Global Runner-up Romina Savova MBA 2012, Founder & CEO PensionBee UK PensionBee US 2016 European Regional Winner Alex Sambvani MBA 2017, Co-founder & CEO Slang.ai 2020 NY Regional Winner

A thrilling evening at the Harvard Business School Shark Tank event! Klarman Hall was packed full of entrepreneurial energy. Congratulations to all the contestants who made it to the stage, and in particular to Andrew Steen and Kevin Hu from Laptis, who, after 3 tough rounds, emerged victorious to win the $100,000 Mark Diker Investment Prize. Thank you to our Sharks, Kevin O'Leary, Sarah Paiji Yoo, and Matt Higgins, for sharing their valuable insights. Thanks also to the HBS Entrepreneurship Club, especially Jing Li and Hunter van Adelsberg, and Elise Bates at the HBS Rock Center for Entrepreneurship for helping organize this fantastic event! Very inspiring to see Brandon Chi from Crop Diagnostix, last year’s winner, gearing up to launch his business—proof of the lasting impact of such experiences. My comments throughout the evening were primarily directed at the audience and my hope is that each of you learned more about The Founder Mindset and, equally importantly, made a step closer to being on the stage—pitching an idea that you believe in, solving hard problems, trusting and building your judgement and creating something of significance. Beyond the excitement, I hope the audience took away valuable lessons on entrepreneurship, resilience, and innovation, illustrating the power of founder development in shaping tomorrow's leaders. And beware: The Curse of Optionality!

Congratulations to the winners of this year’s Shark Tank event, Laptis! Founded by Kevin H. and Andrew Steen, Laptis is building a platform to streamline connections with trusted substance use treatment, empowering lawyers, clinicians, and peer advocates to better serve their clients. A special thank you to the HBS Entrepreneurship Club, Reza Satchu, Kevin O'Leary, Matt Higgins, and Sarah Paiji Yoo for making this event a success. Catch the replay here: https://hbs.me/sharktank #SharkTank #HBSEntrepreneurship #ActivateYourIdeas #BuildYourVenture #DriveGlobalImpact