Harvard Grid

Last night, we hosted Shardule Shah, PhD, MBA, Co-Founder and CEO of Lime Therapeutics (focusing on innovative cancer therapies), and Wenbo Shi PhD, Founder and CEO of Singularity Energy (decarbonizing the grid with AI). They shared their incredible entrepreneurial journeys, from the initial spark of their ideas to navigating the world of startups. As Wenbo wisely advised, “If you think you want to start a company, start as early as possible.” Both speakers emphasized the importance of being persistent in the early stages from fundraising to networking. The co-founders of Lime met by chance at a networking night. Both recognized the importance of receiving that first check, no matter the size. For Lime, this was the Allston Venture Fund and for Singularity this was the Grid Accelerator (formerly the Harvard Office of Technology Development (OTD) Physical Sciences and Engineering Accelerator). #HarvardGrid #ToughTech #Research #Innovation #Entrepreneurship

Dive deeper into Harvard's innovation ecosystem! #OTD's FY24 Impact Report showcases faculty stories, research breakthroughs, and successful startups emerging from the university.

🔄Throwback Thursday Great discussions had during the Navigate a Warming World panel back in June for #HarvardClimateActionWeek 🌎! Panelists from across Harvard shared their innovative research on mitigating climate change - fascinating to hear about solutions for emissions reduction & adaptation. #ClimateAction #Sustainability #Harvard #HarvardGrid #Innovation

For the second consecutive year, Harvard Grid hosted eight student-led start-ups from the University of South Africa/Universiteit van Suid-Afrika (UNISA) as part of an international student exchange program in Boston designed for leaders and executives that want to make an impact in the world by solving complex societal challenges through entrepreneurship. During the innovation immersion week, students were exposed to the exciting Boston innovation ecosystem by visiting numerous accelerators and universities. During their visit at Harvard Grid, students shared their projects and had a lively discussion on topics ranging from minimum viable product to sustainable business models. Thank you to Basanda Pongoma for your efforts in organizing the visit, we hope to see you and your students again next year!

Harvard Grid hosted the Harvard Medical School MEDscience Moonshot Visionaries cohort at The Node this week. This group of high school students from around the country learn the design-thinking process and build working prototypes that are evaluated by industry professionals. Students employ computer science, artificial intelligence, surgical robotic design, and engineering, and the experience sets them a path to become big impact healthcare innovators. During a design break, they toured the Science & Engineering Complex and saw first-hand how Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences researchers are building and deploying soft robots in myriad applications. The final design competition is Friday, July 26. From fast ideation whiteboarding and exuberantly creative dialog, we know judging will not be easy! Best wishes to each amazing team. #STEMEducation #YouthInnovation #VenturingatHarvard #HarvardGrid

Huge shoutout to our amazing panelists and all the students and researchers who came out yesterday to mingle, network, and fuel their innovative fire. We were lucky to have two incredible Harvard alumni share their wisdom: Travis Busbee, co-founder and CEO of Voxel8, reminded us to "Choose a business goal that if accomplished will make you feel like you did something real to help the world." Dr. Jill S. Becker, founder and CEO of 02139 Inc., offered invaluable insights and said, "Trust your gut and go for it!" It was an inspiring afternoon filled with brilliant minds and a shared passion for turning groundbreaking research into real-world solutions. #HarvardGrid #ToughTech #Research #Innovation #Entrepreneurship

On Day 1 of #HarvardClimateActionWeek, Harvard Grid featured four extraordinary scientist-entrepreneurs who are enhancing our planet’s ability to thrive. Paul Hayre, Executive Director of Harvard Grid, spoke with them to showcase their groundbreaking work that is lighting the way for a more sustainable future: Ben Schafer, Applied Physics PhD ’24, captivated the audience with his research on the photophoretic effect, which he is using to develop self-levitating mesospheric devices for communications, sensing, and other applications.   Alex Berkowitz, Master’s in Landscape Architecture ’23, shared her personal story of resilience after Hurricane Sandy devastated her community. She has since patented and is developing wave mitigation devices that not only protect shorelines but also generate electricity. Alex recently signed a LOI (Letter of Intent) with a town on Cape Cod to combat seashore erosion.   Corey Pedersen, PhD candidate in Environmental Science & Engineering, discussed his innovative work on designing and characterizing stratospheric organic aerosols to reflect partial sunlight back into space, aiming to mitigate the effects of global warming.   Maxwell Leef, a second-year MBA candidate, lower down in the earth’s troposphere, entertained the audience with his discussion on cows! (more broadly: sustainable agriculture). His solution involves creating virtual fences to track and induce behavior modifications in grazing livestock, currently being piloted in Australia, which help sustainably manage land and food supplies.   The Grid selected these four entrepreneurs as exemplars of how Harvard science and engineering contributes to environmental preservation, human sustainability, and planetary stewardship. Alex, Ben, Max, and Corey are driving positive change, helping sustain a habitable planet, and inspiring optimism for the future.   #HarvardClimateActionWeek #SustainableInnovation #ClimateAction #FutureLeaders #HarvardGrid #VenturingatHarvard 

Big shoutout to the four GRID-advised teams that recently pitched at the Nucleate Boston Activator Demo Day! These innovative projects are pushing the boundaries of healthcare technology... Karyo: A catheter-based device enabling early detection of pre-cancerous biomarkers in the fallopian tubes to screen for and prevent ovarian cancer. Team: Allie Stasior, Chris Grimestad, Ricky Cordova RhinUS: A minimally invasive device designed to combat biofilms and treat chronic rhinosinusitis. Team: Alec Creta, Ana Trapero Martín Four-Forty: Revolutionizing skin visualization for both patients and physicians. Team: Anthony Mei, Yuxiao (Michelle) Wei Lybra Bio.: Non-invasive microneedle technology to restore skin equilibrium in severe autoimmune diseases. Team: Núria Puigmal Domínguez, Samar Shanazarov Congratulations to all teams for their groundbreaking work and presentations! #venturingatharvard #harvardgrid #Nucleate #toughtech #innovation

Harvard Grid's Paul Hayre engaged with David Cohen-Tanugi (Venture Builder, MIT Proto Ventures and co-founder, Embr Labs) and Rob Devlin (co-founder and CEO, Metalenz) in a fascinating conversation around tough tech venturing during last week's Lab-to-Launch Lounge event... David and Rob recounted their unique experiences dealing with various investor and early adopter demands. In the case of Embr, despite fervent interest from early adopters, David's team took the time to identify the best customer segment for long-term product-market-fit committing to a product vision, a design, and a go-to-market strategy.  Similarly, with Metalenz, Rob and his team faced large appetites yet varied demands from strategics and investors, prompting them to step back to critically evaluate the best initial application for their technology. David on why he embarked on his entrepreneurship journey - "I felt stuck by the politics of climate & clean energy, but no one could stop me from inventing a technological solution with impact." Rob also reflected on his role as Co-founder and CEO - "Even as a researcher, you are always selling your research. While there is more jargon involved at conferences, ultimately you are communicating your idea to colleagues so that they realize why it's important." Thank you David and Rob for the candid discussion, insights, and walk-in-your-shoes journey into the many early and high stakes decisions you made and how you navigated each. #HarvardGrid #Venturingatharvard #ToughTech

Last week, Adam Slavney, Co-founder and CEO of Pascal, and Tianyang Ye, Co-founder and CTO of Axoft, marqueed Harvard Grid's Lab-to-Launch Lounge. The Grid's Paul Hayre had the thrill to thread the conversational needle in cahoots with a particularly lively audience. Adam offered many lessons learned during his transition from academia to business, launching Pascal, which eliminates greenhouse gasses from HVAC systems, after his postdoc. Adam offered, "More important than what you are trying to do is having the ability to tell that story in a really succinct way that gets people excited." Tianyang guided us along his journey as a PhD founder and how he and the team determined how and when to launch Axoft's therapeutic soft brain implants from the lab. Tianyang addressed the crowd, "Knowing that 99% of startups fail and that succeeding is a miracle, you must be mentally prepared to fail. Only then can you actually succeed by not being afraid to take risks through decisiveness in terms of company growth." Many thanks to Tianyang and Adam for walking us through the journey from Harvard labs to leaders of VC-funded start-ups that are pioneering their research. #VenturingatHarvard #deeptech #Innovation #Startups #HarvardGRID