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At first glance, Harvard Business School senior lecturer Jeff Bussgang<\/a> looks normal on the screen. He is smiling and eager to listen to a student\u2019s startup idea in a video call.\u00a0<\/p>\n But there\u2019s a catch. The student isn\u2019t speaking to Bussgang; they are talking to his AI video avatar. Bussgang is one of several Harvard faculty members who have agreed to let the university use their AI clones as part of a new eight-week entrepreneurship bootcamp. According to a recent report from The New York Times<\/em><\/a>, Harvard has tested the $699 course, called HBS Foundry, with more than 100 universities across the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n The real Bussgang told the Times<\/em> that he knows the simulation is a little \u201ccreepy.\u201d Still, \u201cmy students love it,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n HBS Foundry aims to expand entrepreneurship education beyond the 900 MBA students Harvard admits every year.\u00a0<\/p>\n The program takes participants step by step through launching a company, from sharpening an idea to pitching investors and customers. The virtual platform combines HBS materials with a peer community and AI tools.\u00a0<\/p>\n Participants can also practice pitches, sales calls and boardroom scenarios in video call simulations with AI avatars, including one modeled on Bussgang.\u00a0<\/p>\n Founders, investors and Harvard Business School faculty host live weekly sessions. But the portal\u2019s main job is to help students use the school\u2019s startup resources and AI tools as they build their companies.\u00a0<\/p>\n When the Harvard team began developing Foundry in 2024, they envisioned a simple ChatGPT-style chatbot for entrepreneurs, said project director Katharina Rings. Student feedback from an October trial pushed the team in a different direction: Users wanted more structure. The school released the more guided version in April.<\/p>\n Since then, at least 760 founders have taken the course.\u00a0<\/p>\n HBS Foundry worked with AI avatar maker HeyGen<\/a> to create AI clones of professors. The response was overwhelmingly positive, which took the program leaders by surprise.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was just so clear from what the users were telling us and what the numbers were saying,\u201d Rings said. \u201cIt seems like people actually much prefer the AIs, and they actually trust more, if it is based on one specific person\u2019s input.\u201d<\/p>\n Another entrepreneurship educator, Harold Solomon, said that the HBS Foundry course gives academics the ability to serve more founders. \u201cI can have 20, 30 meetings a week, but beyond that, I literally can\u2019t,\u201d Solomon, a principal at the Georgia Institute of Technology, told the Times<\/em>. \u201cWe can\u2019t service the class, let alone the campus, in person constantly. So we need a way to scale.\u201d<\/p>\n Solomon added the HBS Foundry program to a 12-week entrepreneurship course offered by the Georgia Institute of Technology this summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n Tom Eisenmann, a faculty co-chair for the HBS Foundry project, told the Times<\/em> that despite the platform\u2019s AI tools, its community forums have emerged as one of its biggest draws. The spaces let founders connect directly with other entrepreneurs in the program.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re using the AI; they\u2019re learning a lot,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it keeps coming back to humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n At first glance, Harvard Business School senior lecturer Jeff Bussgang<\/a> looks normal on the screen. He is smiling and eager to listen to a student\u2019s startup idea in a video call.\u00a0<\/p>\n But there\u2019s a catch. The student isn\u2019t speaking to Bussgang; they are talking to his AI video avatar. Bussgang is one of several Harvard faculty members who have agreed to let the university use their AI clones as part of a new eight-week entrepreneurship bootcamp. According to a recent report from The New York Times<\/em><\/a>, Harvard has tested the $699 course, called HBS Foundry, with more than 100 universities across the country.\u00a0<\/p>\nWhy they added AI avatars<\/h2>\n
Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n
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