Harvard Innovation Labs: Startups & Entrepreneurship

The sound on this video has been improved and a later version can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pKW-ehL7dU​

Uploaded 07-05-12

In Part 1 of Michael Skok's Harvard i-lab lecture series, "Startup Secrets: An insiders guide to unfair competitive advantage," Skok laid out one of the first stages of creating a company: defining the value proposition.

You can read more about Michael Skok, and his Startup Secrets on his website: http://mjskok.com/ and follow him on twitter at http://twitter.com/mjskok

Learn more about the Harvard Innovation Lab at http://i-lab.harvard.edu/ and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/innovationlab and like us on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/harvardinnovationlab



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How do you design organizing principles that endure as an organization scales? How do you seek out partners and employees that share your notions of purpose and can relate it to building a better product or service? How do you stay plugged in to the human needs of the end user in the face of pressures to expand your efforts?

Uploaded 08-12-14

In this fireside chat, PillPack CEO TJ Parker talks with Almighty CSO Ian Fitzpatrick about the ways in which his online pharmacy has evolved to build both a product and service experience rooted in an understanding of basic human needs, and the ways in which the PillPack organization has been challenged to maintain this design ethos as it scales.



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In our recent Harvard Innovation Labs podcast, i-lab advisor, Phil Green, shares which startup myths are still holding founders back in 2025, and what to do instead.

Uploaded 11-08-25

Let us know what you think in the comments. Should we add anything to this list?

Read more here: https://innovationlabs.harvard.edu/how-to/startup-myths-to-leave-behind-in-2025

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Learn more about the Harvard Innovation Lab at http://i-lab.harvard.edu/ and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/innovationlab and like us on Facebook athttps://www.facebook.com/harvardinnovationlab

Uploaded 03-03-17

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Imagine you are pitching your startup to investors. You open with: "We're an AI-powered platform that leverages machine learning to optimize..."

Uploaded 19-12-25

Phones out. Eyes glazed. Gone.

Everything you've built. The breakthrough, the team, the vision. All of it hanging on a story you aren't telling.

After 45 years as a founder, investor, and educator, building many unicorns, Michael Skok has seen tens of thousands of pitches personally and hundreds of thousands have been shared at Harvard. His Startup Secrets sessions have surpassed 11 million YouTube views. His articles in WSJ, Forbes, and HBR have reached millions more. The pattern is unmistakable: The best founders often don't get the attention they deserve. Not because the opportunity isn't compelling. Because the story isn't.

But here's what those decades revealed: The same simple structure runs through Aristotle, Pixar, TED stages, and billion-dollar raises. Once you see it, you can use it for every key hire, and in every investor pitch, partner, and customer meeting.

You can learn it in minutes and reuse it for life.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

⏱️ CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Introductions
01:43 - The Pitch Falls Flat
04:40 - The Real Problem
07:00 - STORY Framework - Deliver Forwards
12:23 - Meet the Audience - Why are you here?
15:58 - Investor’s Perspective - Getting to Yes
20:04 - STORY Arc
22:37 - ABC Framework - Designing Backwards
28:52 - Workshop Activity - Act: Know Your Ask
34:09 - Believe: Build a Bridge
38:01 - Care: Start with Feeling
41:32 - Workshop Activity - Fleshing out the ABC’s
48:40 - Interlocking Frameworks - How They Connect
54:58 - Reviewing STORY
01:00:36 - Workshop Activity - Tell Your STORY
01:11:00 - Final Summary - The Transformation

━━━━━

📚 WHAT YOU'LL MASTER:

→ ABC Framework: Design backwards from the YES you want
→ STORY Arc: Deliver forwards through what they FEEL
→ The 5 mistakes that make investors and customers check out
→ Why logic loses to emotion (and what wins instead)
→ How to disappear from your own pitch (and why that works)

━━━━━

🚀 THIS IS FOR YOU IF:

→ Raising seed, Series A, or social capital
→ Recruiting co-founders or key hires
→ Selling to enterprise customers or partners
→ Pitching at demo days or investor meetings
→ Your product is great but the response isn't

━━━━━

🔗 RESOURCES:
📖 Download the Storytelling Framework:
https://coda.io/d/_dqDyOX97fb9/STORYtelling_suo8Lw1t
💼 Startup Secrets:
https://bit.ly/44FVBcS

━━━━━

💬 What's the hardest part of your pitch? Drop it in the comments. Michael reads each one.



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Michael Greeley, General Partner, Flybridge Venture Partners and President of the National Venture Capital Association presented a broad overview of the evolving funding landscape in Boston and beyond.

Uploaded 01-05-12

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Uploaded 04-06-12

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During the Demo and Judging Day, the finalist student teams showcased their projects to the Harvard and local communities and presented their pitches to the final round judges. At the conclusion of the judging period, the judging committee picked the winner and runners-up.

Uploaded 11-05-13

To learn more about the contest, and the winners, check out the Harvard Gazette article:
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2013/05/innovation-in-the-arts/

Learn more about the Harvard Innovation Lab at http://i-lab.harvard.edu/ and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/innovationlab and like us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/harvardinnovationlab



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We are in the midst of a revolution in how athletes train, perform, and heal. Advances in mobile technology, AI, Big Data, sensors, GPS, and more have allowed humans to stretch the limits of their athletic capabilities and have merged the worlds of statistics and sports in manners unimaginable just a decade ago.

Uploaded 10-03-17

With unprecedented teamwork from those who have achieved success in the athletic arena to those whose achievements occur behind the closed doors of research labs, hospitals, and beyond, we are able to use data collected from the human body to monitor, measure, and predict athlete training and performance like never before.

During this event, the Harvard Innovation Labs, together with the Sports Innovation Lab and the OneTeam Collective, will explore the future of this dynamic, cross-industry, and fast-growing sector of sports technology.

Learn more about the Harvard Innovation Lab at http://i-lab.harvard.edu/ and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/innovationlab and like us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/harvardinnovationlab.



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The Harvard President’s Innovation Challenge celebrates alumni and student founders from all 13 Harvard schools who are turning ideas into impact. On May 6, Harvard’s most innovative ventures won a share of over $500,000 in funding, courtesy of the Bertarelli Foundation.

Uploaded 11-05-26

Learn more about the President's Innovation Challenge and meet this year's finalists: https://innovationlabs.harvard.edu/presidents-innovation-challenge



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