Startup Resources at Harvard

Table of Contents

General Harvard resources: https://linktr.ee/harvard

University Programs

  • Harvard Grid - Startup org supporting Harvard researchers to transform ideas into impact
  • Technology and Entrepreneurship Program Harvard - Advancing the and practice of entrepreneurship through experiential education by initiating student projects.
  • Harvard Office of Technology Development (OTD) - Advancing science, fostering innovation, and translating inventions at Harvard into products available to society.
  • HBS Entrepreneurship Center - Resource for HBS students interested in company formation.
  • Harvard Innovation Lab (i-Lab) - Innovation ecosystem and physical workspace that exists to support Harvard students and select alumni in their quest to explore the world of game-changing entrepreneurship.
  • StartupTree - A new platform to help social innovators find relevant teammates, funding, resources, and events across Harvard and MIT. This network is exclusive for Harvard and MIT students and alumni.
  • Harvard Law Entrepreneurship Project (HLEP) - HLEP provides legal advice to entrepreneurs at Harvard and MIT, free of charge, by matching entrepreneurs with teams of Harvard Law School students and attorney advisors from top startup-focused law firms in the U.S.
  • I-Corps Program - I-Corps program participants learn, through customer discovery, how to identify valuable opportunities that can emerge from academic research.
  • Tech Fellows Program at HBS - Enables a group of 10-15 outstanding Harvard College sophomores and juniors (from any College concentration) to build knowledge, skills, and a community, putting them on a path to launch and lead innovative endeavors.

Student Groups

Harvard Incubators

Harvard Funding

Harvard Social Impact

Harvard-affiliated Hackathons and Competitions

Harvard Notable Courses

Funding

  • Allston Venture Fund - An investment collaborative administered by the i-Lab focused on providing pre-seed support to both for-profit and nonprofit ventures.
  • Contrary - University-focused venture fund investing up to $2M in emerging startups launching from the university scene around the US.
  • Dorm Room Fund - First Round Capital's pre-seed investing branch providing up to $20k to student startups.
  • RDV - General Catalyst's pre-seed investing branch student team building a large network of student founders.
  • Launchpad - Network of active angel investors building individual portfolios with an emphasis on science and tech startups.
  • Hub Angels - Provides investments to young tech and life science companies.
  • Boston Harbor Angels - Business leaders investing within high-growth, early-stage companies.

Specific Funding Programs

  • Pillar Moonshot - $1MM to seed-stage Harvard/MIT startups
  • PearX - Pear VC's program offering uncapped SAFE notes to student-led startups, along with mentorship and resources.
  • NFX FAST - NFX's Founder-friendly, Application-driven, Software-enabled, and Transparent funding program
  • EntrepreneurFirst - A talent investor that helps individuals find co-founders, develop ideas, and fund pre-seed startups.
  • Soma Fellows - A $100k Uncapped SAFE fellowship program providing funding, mentorship, and resources to student-led startups.
  • NVIDIA Inception - A $100k credits program that nurtures AI startups

Grants

  • OSV Grants - $100k grants to change the world
  • Emergent Ventures - A grant program for moonshot ideas from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.
  • Magnificent Grants - $100k grants to drop out and improve the world
  • Thiel Fellowship - A fellowship program offering $100,000 grants to young people who want to build new things instead of sitting in a classroom.

Non-Harvard Resources

  • Nucleate - Nucleate is a student-led organization that represents the largest global community of bio-innovators.
  • Activate - For two years, Activate supports fellows with a full-time living stipend, mentorship, an entrepreneurial education, access to funders and industry experts, and funding to access the facilities they need to turn their research into a first product.
  • Greentown Labs - A climatetech startup incubator, founded by entrepreneurs.
    • Go Build 2023 program - Areas of interest include companies extending product life cycles, furthering alternative raw materials, revalorizing waste, or acting as other enabling technologies.
  • MassChallenge - MassChallenge connects startups, experts, corporations, and communities to grow and transform businesses and economies. Accelerating high-impact startups with bold, disruptive ideas from non-traditional backgrounds.
  • UMASS M2D2 - The Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center (M2D2) is a lifeline for the state's smaller medical device companies, offering inventors and executives easy, affordable, and coordinated access to world-class researchers and resources.
  • DRIVe - The Division of Research, Innovation, and Ventures (DRIVe) was established by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to fund early stage companies for life saving innovation.
  • MassVentures Acorn Innovation Grant - The Acorn Innovation Grant supports Principal Investigators at Massachusetts research universities who seek to demonstrate the viability of their technology. Awards could be used to: 1) further develop a prototype, 2) gather additional data or 3) obtain data to compare the technology.
  • MIT The Engine Blueprint - Blueprint is a nonresident program for graduate students, postdocs, research scientists, faculty members, and their teams, to explore the commercial opportunities of their discovery.