The Harvard College Innovation Challenge is known on campus as i3 for invent-imagine-impact.

I3 is where student startups get their start. Students compete for project grants and incubator space to help them realize their innovative visions.

I3 is a year-long program that cultivates, coaches and showcases Harvard’s rapidly growing group of student entrepreneurs. Last year alone, the number of students participating doubled to over 200. Students formed 84 teams, were from 44 different concentrations and represented all 12 houses and 4 class years.

Now beginning its 5th year, i3 has provided over $550,000 worth of grants, incubator space and professional services to students pursuing commercial and social startups on campus, online and internationally. Please join us and fellow alumni and friends in supporting this effort.

Paul Bottino
Executive Director, TECH

Jim McKellar
CEO, HSA

Ali Evans ‘13
Director, i3

Harvard Student Agencies

Harvard Student Agencies was founded in 1957 on the ideal of financing education through student employment. The words of the charter still ring true: "...To conduct and supervise enterprises for the benefit of students of Harvard University who are in need of financial assistance to defray the expenses of their education; to provide opportunities for such students to be gainfully employed; to study, cultivate, promote, and encourage new business ventures; to afford additional employment opportunities for such students; to provide experience for its members."

Today, HSA employs more than 300 students, Let's Go publishes over 50 titles, and The Harvard Shop sells more than 900 products. A team of student managers, responsible for budgeting, sales, and everyday operation, independently run each agency. Our permanent staff provide advice and assistance in managing the corporation.

For many, the HSA experience is a part-time job; for others it is significant managerial experience; but, for the College at large, HSA remains a hub of innovation, a place for entrepreneurial students to bring their visions to life.

The Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard (TECH)

TECH's mission is to advance the understanding and practice of innovation and entrepreneurship through experiential education— by initiating, advancing, and informing student projects. TECH helps faculty create and deliver innovation and entrepreneurship project courses, provides students with project support and sponsors, and advises student groups working to build the Harvard innovation community.

Socially useful and commercially viable advancements require the right mix of scientific and engineering knowledge, entrepreneurial know-how, and worldly perspective. Accordingly, TECH is based on the belief that boundaries -- between disciplines, people, organizations, and ideas -- need to be crossed to facilitate the insights that lead to innovations.

TECH enables this holistic exploration by serving as a crossroads of innovation education. Operating from within the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences — an interdisciplinary science and technology institution that draws from its close connection to Harvard's undergraduate liberal arts tradition and its graduate schools — TECH sponsors and supports many opportunities for the innovation community to gather and exchange knowledge, including courses, study groups, mentorships, and special events.

"In this technology-driven age, one of the most important missions Harvard has is to help its students transform the products of their imagination into products that make our lives and world a better place. Harvard needs to inspire innovators and entrepreneurs for the 21st century, just as it has for the previous four centuries. That's what TECH and its partnership with HSA are all about. We should help grow it into one of the greatest centers on campus, because it serves a mission that will keep Harvard the greatest of universities."
- Walter Isaacson

"Since graduating, I've had the opportunity to live, work and travel to countries all over the world, first for the World Bank and more recently for Google. Through my travels I've seen that special spark of excitement that inspires innovators to try something new and am thrilled that Harvard is doing more to encourage students with such aspirations. I am happy to support a center that embodies the philosophy of learn-by-doing and strives to connect students to resources that will enable them to try to build their ideas. I wish they existed when I was on campus!"
- Sara McKinley

"i3 is a wonderful collaboration between HSA and SEAS that serves Harvard College by fostering an ecosystem where student entrepreneurs can launch their new business concepts in a constructive environment with other like-minded students. The Innovation Space is designed for the students' needs, is always open and right in the middle of campus. It is a unique way to support Harvard students and entrepreneurship."
- Michael Cronin

Financial Support

In addition to the non-monetary support outlined below, i3 provides cash prizes. This seed money has allowed competition winners to grow and has given students the ability to work on their startups full time. Last year, we awarded more than $55,000 in grants.

The Innovation Space

The central hub of i3 is the Innovation Space. Located in the heart of Harvard Square, on the fourth floor of Burke-McCoy Hall at 67 Mount Auburn Street, the Innovation Space boasts 2,100 square feet and 24-hour access with a student ID card.

A permanent location adds legitimacy to a growing student business by providing office space, a permanent mail address, and a guaranteed meeting place.

The Innovation Space puts Harvard students on the level with their peers at such top tier schools as Yale, Stanford, Oxford, MIT, Dartmouth, Brown, Cornell, and Duke— all of which provide similar student startup space.

Most of all, the Innovation space fosters a sense of community among student entrepreneurs. It has been a home to countless organized workshops and informal brainstorms. This physical space mirrors the larger goals of i3: if you give students the room to explore, they produce amazing work.

• 2100 square feet on the fourth floor of Burke-McCoy Hall at 67 Mount Auburn Street.
• A central Harvard Square location, close to the river houses and the Yard.
• This space allows 24-hour access with a student ID.

A Culture of Constant Feedback

i3 promotes a culture of constant feedback for college entrepreneurs.

Office Hours: At least three times per week, we will host office hours at convenient locations around campus. They will provide an opportunity for students to talk out their ideas, navigate the many resources available to Harvard students, and meet for private discussions with experts and potential mentors.

Email Hotlines: WilmerHale has generously provided an email hotline for legal questions so students can ask for basic advice without feeling threatened by talking to a lawyer. We hope to expand this model of feedback in the future.

Weekly Newsletter and Entrepreneurs Email List: In order to promote a sense of community and provide an easy means of communication, we will continue to maintain an email list and begin a regular newsletter to help identify the major events of the week.

Networks of expertise: We hope to provide students with access to the advice and expertise they need. Many alumni and other affiliates have generously donated their time to i3. Please see the list of some of our volunteer advisers below.

The i3 season starts in the fall with teams forming and students attending relevant classes, seminars, workshops and office hours on innovation and entrepreneurship.

Computer Science 50 teaches hundreds of promising programmers to create innovative Internet projects. Soc159 prepares change makers in Social Entrepreneurship; and ES139 delves into the practice of Innovation in Science and Engineering. Startup boot camps, legal, venture capital, and marketing sessions across campus all fill the i3 pipeline.

Students host an elevator pitch contest with alumni judges to get ideas and feedback flowing.

Pitches become project proposals reviewed and scored online by over 50 alumni entrepreneurs and other professionals from Harvard’s extended venture development network. Semi-finalists present their plans and answer questions before a panel of experts and create videos for another review by external judges.

At the spring Harvard Student Startup Showcase and Awards Reception, the community gathers for semifinalist demonstrations and the awarding of the prestigious McKinley Family Grants for Entrepreneurial Leadership and other prizes, including the informal House Innovation Cup, won by Mather 3 years in a row and unseated by reigning Quincy House.

Winning teams receive cash grants and invitations to spend up to 12 months in the Innovation Space incubator in Harvard Square.

Harvard College Innovation Challenge Awards

Commercial, Social, Public and Campus Startups

Over $50K in cash grants and more in space and services is awarded each year to student startups.

• McKinley Family Grants for Social and Commercial Enterprise - first-years, sophomores and juniors are eligible
• Public Sector Innovation Award presented by Accenture for ideas that help government create public value - all Harvard students eligible
• TECH Prize for the best senior team, social or commercial - Harvard College seniors only
• HSA and Undergraduate Council Prizes for commercial or social Campus innovations
• COOP Prize for social entrepreneurship

Judging

Change to During the 2011 – 2012 academic year, our network of judges and advisers for student innovation included:

• Abbie Davies — Founder, MyFirstYoga
• Adam Siegel — Associate, Booz & Company
• Adelyn Zhou — Consultant, Boston Consulting Group
• Alan Gordon — Harvard Technology Development Office
• Alexander Bick – Harvard Medical School Student
• Alexander Taussig — Senior Associate, Highland Capital Partners
• Andrew Bakalar — CEO, One World Virtual, Inc.
• Antonio Oftelie – Leadership for a Networked World
• Brian Feinstein — Analyst, Bessemer Venture Partners
• Charles Baakel — Consultant, The Lucus Group
• Christine Gulbranson — Senior Fellow, Kauffman Foundation
• Daniel Lee — Past President, Harvard Student Agencies
• David Ager — Lecturer on Sociology, Harvard University
• David Sengeh, MIT Media Lab
• Donald Aubrecht — SEAS
• Dwight Hutchins – Accenture
• Erin Solovey — Tufts University
• Gitika Srivastava — Founder, Skyris Networks
• Jim McKellar — CEO/General Manager, Harvard Student Agencies
• Joe Winkler — Founder, Everyday Wireless
• John Fawcett — Founder, Quantopian
• Joshua Fox – WilmerHale
• Konstantinos Papakonstantinou — Analyst, Pices Capital
• Matthew Witheiler — Associate, Flybridge
• Matthias Wagner — Founder, Zthere Corp
• Paul Bottino — Co-founder and Executive Director, Technology & Entrepreneurship at Harvard
• Richard Mairs — COO Falling Pixel
• Robin Mount — Director, Office of Career, Research, and International Opportunities, Harvard College
• Scott Randall — Cofounder and CEO, Yokel
• Tim Creamer — Analyst, Weston Presidio
• Thomas Ward – WilmerHale
• Tom Hadfield — COO LaboGroup