HBS Awards Over $300k to Student and Alumni Start-Ups

Harvard student and alumni teams were awarded a total of $315,000 at the finale of the 29th annual Harvard Business School New Venture Competition. The event featured 12 finalist teams and drew hundreds of students, faculty, and affiliates to Klarman Hall last Thursday.

The competition divided finalists into three tracks: the Student Business Track, the Alumni track, and the Student Social Enterprise Track. The winner of each track won $75,000, with the runner up receiving $25,000. Three crowd favorite groups, which were voted for electronically by members of the audience, were each awarded $5,000.

The winner of the Student Business Track was Argus Systems, a company that scales training data collection and labelling for artificial intelligence. Argus Systems was founded by Lisa Yan and Drew Borenstein, who both plan to work for their company Argus Systems after graduation this spring.

The pair said that they aim to use their $75,000 winnings to purchase robots and open their first office space. Argus Systems is a firm that sells sensor data to produce robots.

“We’re gonna buy at least one robot,” said Borenstein. “If not one, two.”

“We’re gonna lease some space in San Francisco and start collecting data,” he added.

Yan and Borenstein’s classmates and professor, who were in attendance at the event, had long been supportive of their start-up journey with Argus Systems.

“When we went into class the next day, we got a shout out, which was really fun,” Borenstein said. “That just shows how much our professors are supportive of us participating.”

The winner of the $75,000 Student Social Enterprise prize was Lexi — a firm that is developing an AI software to translate conversations in medical care.

Lexi was founded by Linh Pham and Siddharth Umarani Rajavelu, who are graduating with master’s in design engineering this spring and plan to work at their start-up full time.

“We spend a lot of time talking to patients, provider health systems, and we’re building around a very diverse team to really think through every single aspect of the venture,” Pham said.

Lexi has previously raised funds through equity sales and investors, but this prize marks its first non-dilutive funding.

“The money couldn’t come at a better time, because now that we have done all the research, we know exactly what to build,” Pham said. “The money can just come in and really help us focus on building up and refining, hopefully launching our early pilots in the next few months.”

The winner of the $75,000 Alumni prize — which was awarded to a start-up founded by a HBS alumnus — was Noolie. The child health supplement firm was founded by Claire Wu, who was inspired to create a company that could tackle malnutrition in Southeast Asia.

Wu presented to the audience via pre-recorded video.

Vishesh Mehta, who won the Student Social Enterprise prize last year, said the impact of the winnings and opportunities the competition provides was one of his driving factors in applying to HBS.

“The journey of our startup is very much tied with Harvard, and a part of me wanted to come back to this campus as well to be able to see what resources I can leverage,” Mehta said.

—Staff writer Sarah F. Silverman can be reached at sarah.silverman@thecrimson.com.

—Staff writer Graham W. Lee can be reached at graham.lee@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @grahamwonlee.