--- title: Harvard’s $699 startup bootcamp offers AI avatars of its... description: Harvard Business School's eight-week, $699 Foundry bootcamp for entrepreneurs uses AI avatars built by startup HeyGen to give feedback during practice pitches... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/harvard-s-699-startup-bootcamp-offers-ai-avatars-of-its-instructors-it7dmzzpa twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Harvard’s $699 startup bootcamp offers AI avatars of its instructors | daily.dev og:description: Harvard Business School's eight-week, $699 Foundry bootcamp for entrepreneurs uses AI avatars built by startup HeyGen to give feedback during practice pitches... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/harvard-s-699-startup-bootcamp-offers-ai-avatars-of-its-instructors-it7dmzzpa og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/It7dMzZpa.png og:image:alt: Harvard’s $699 startup bootcamp offers AI avatars of its instructors og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Harvard’s $699 startup bootcamp offers AI avatars of its instructors **[TechCrunch](https://daily.dev/sources/tc)** · 1 min read · 3 upvotes · 1 comments ## Summary Harvard Business School's eight-week, $699 Foundry bootcamp for entrepreneurs uses AI avatars built by startup HeyGen to give feedback during practice pitches and mock board meetings, supplementing weekly live instructor sessions. A New York Times reporter tested an AI avatar of Flybridge Capital co-founder Jeff Bussgang and found it gave a frozen smile but similarly unimpressed feedback to the real person. The program director initially planned a simpler chatbot but shifted to avatars after student feedback, and participants reportedly like the feature despite Bussgang calling his own digital copy "creepy." ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What is the HBS Foundry bootcamp and how does it use AI avatars? HBS Foundry is an eight-week, $699 entrepreneurship bootcamp from Harvard Business School that combines weekly live instructor sessions with AI avatars, built by startup HeyGen, that give individualized feedback during practice pitches and mock board meetings. The avatars simulate real instructors and investors, such as a digital version of Flybridge Capital co-founder Jeff Bussgang, to scale personalized coaching beyond what live faculty alone could provide. _Founders weighing AI-driven coaching tools can follow how this kind of feedback loop plays out on daily.dev._ ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@jliter85** · 0 upvotes > The AI avatars are interesting, but I’d want to see how students actually use them. If I could ask an instructor’s AI version questions at midnight while I’m working through an idea, that could be genuinely useful. The technology is cool, but whether it actually improves the learning experience is what matters. ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [I created an interactive digital avatar of myself — and you can talk to it](https://daily.dev/posts/i-created-an-interactive-digital-avatar-of-myself-and-you-can-talk-to-it-trznf7yu1) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Wall Street is paying $25,000 a day for AI trainers who used to work there](https://daily.dev/posts/wall-street-is-paying-25-000-a-day-for-ai-trainers-who-used-to-work-there-xvlhu9wiz) · The Next Web · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Enrollment is open: AI-first Web Engineering Bootcamp \(starts Feb 24\)](https://daily.dev/posts/enrollment-is-open-ai-first-web-engineering-bootcamp-starts-feb-24--vcp769o82) · Flavio Copes · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#edtech](https://daily.dev/tags/edtech) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/harvard-s-699-startup-bootcamp-offers-ai-avatars-of-its-instructors-it7dmzzpa) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Harvard’s $699 startup bootcamp offers AI avatars of its instructors","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/harvard-s-699-startup-bootcamp-offers-ai-avatars-of-its-instructors-it7dmzzpa","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/harvard-s-699-startup-bootcamp-offers-ai-avatars-of-its-instructors-it7dmzzpa"},"datePublished":"2026-08-22T21:51:24.872Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T07:55:35.313Z","description":"Harvard Business School's eight-week, $699 Foundry bootcamp for entrepreneurs uses AI avatars built by startup HeyGen to give feedback during practice pitches...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/9e8ba7e0b97ad0384026ada348d2b5bf?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/9e8ba7e0b97ad0384026ada348d2b5bf?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"TechCrunch","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"TechCrunch","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/tc","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/tc"},"commentCount":1,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/harvard-s-699-startup-bootcamp-offers-ai-avatars-of-its-instructors-it7dmzzpa","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":3},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}],"keywords":"edtech","timeRequired":"PT1M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"TechCrunch","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/tc"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Harvard’s $699 startup bootcamp offers AI avatars of its instructors"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/harvard-s-699-startup-bootcamp-offers-ai-avatars-of-its-instructors-it7dmzzpa","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"The AI avatars are interesting, but I’d want to see how students actually use them. If I could ask an instructor’s AI version questions at midnight while I’m working through an idea, that could be genuinely useful. 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