Harvard Business School launches $699 startup bootcamp featuring AI avatars of instructors

Harvard Business School has launched HBS Foundry, an eight-week, $699 entrepreneurship bootcamp that utilizes AI video avatars of its faculty to scale its educational reach. Developed with startup HeyGen, these digital clones provide personalized, rigorous feedback during simulated pitches and board meetings. While instructors like Jeff Bussgang admit the technology is slightly creepy, students and partner universities like Georgia Tech welcome the 24/7 availability to practice business presentations.

HBS Foundry bootcamp structure

• ▪HBS Foundry features video call simulations for practicing pitches, sales calls, and board meetings with AI avatars representing instructors.
• ▪HBS Foundry combines weekly live sessions led by experienced founders, investors, and Harvard Business School faculty with hands-on work in a virtual workspace.
• ▪Harvard Business School launched HBS Foundry, an eight-week entrepreneurship bootcamp priced at $699.
• ▪Harvard Business School tested the HBS Foundry product with more than 100 universities across 50 states.

HeyGen avatar technology

• ▪HBS Foundry project co-chair Tom Eisenmann stated that the program's AI agents were intentionally programmed not to be obsequious and to evaluate startup ideas strictly.
• ▪HBS Foundry project director Katharina Rings initially planned the AI component as a simple chatbot in 2024, but transitioned to a guided avatar format after a trial release in October.
• ▪The AI video avatars utilized in the HBS Foundry program were developed in collaboration with the AI avatar startup HeyGen.

Student reactions to avatars

• ▪Boston University Ph.D. candidate Pranav Sultania and INIA Biosciences founder Dragana Savic used the HBS Foundry AI avatars to practice pitches and board meeting simulations.
• ▪HBS Foundry participants responded positively to the AI avatars, noting that the digital mentors were available at any time to help focus their pitches.

Instructor feedback on clones

• ▪Flybridge Capital co-founder and Harvard Business School senior lecturer Jeff Bussgang acknowledged his AI clone is a little creepy, but noted that his students love it.
• ▪New York Times reporter Sarah Kessler tested the system by pitching an 'Uber for bananas' concept to the AI avatar of Jeff Bussgang, which responded with a frozen smile.

AI scaling in education

• ▪Harold Solomon of Georgia Tech's entrepreneurship program Quadrant-i incorporated HBS Foundry into a summer workshop to scale services for more student founders.
• ▪Harvard Business School aims to use HBS Foundry to scale its educational offerings far beyond the approximately 900 MBA students it admits annually.