Harvard's New Startup Class Has AI Clones of Real Professors Grading Your Pitch

What's actually being offered

Harvard Business School runs a program called HBS Foundry, an eight-week bootcamp for people who want to learn how to start a company. It costs $699. Alongside the normal live classes with real teachers, the program now also includes AI avatars — essentially digital video clones — of some of its instructors, built using a company called HeyGen that specializes in creating realistic AI-generated video of real people.

Students can practice pitching their business ideas or running a mock board meeting to one of these AI avatars and get feedback, the same way they might practice in front of a real mentor, except this "mentor" is available any time and doesn't need to sleep.

Meet the digital professor

One of the avatars featured in the program is a digital recreation of Jeff Bussgang, a co-founder of the venture capital firm Flybridge Capital and a real HBS instructor. Students can pitch him — or rather, his AI copy — their startup ideas and get critiqued.

A reporter from The New York Times tried this out herself, pitching a joke business idea she called "Uber for bananas" to both the real Bussgang and his AI version. Both were critical of the idea, which is probably the correct reaction to "Uber for bananas." But she noticed something a little uncanny about the AI version: it kept a "noticeably frozen smile" on its face the whole time, even while delivering pointed feedback — a small but telling reminder that you're talking to a digital simulation, not the actual person.

Why they built it this way

The program's director, Katharina Rings, said the AI avatar idea didn't start out this polished. Originally, they planned something closer to a basic chatbot you'd type questions into. But when students tried an early rough version, they said they wanted something that felt more like an actual structured practice session — pitching out loud and getting real spoken feedback — rather than just typing messages back and forth. So the team built out the more elaborate avatar system in response to what students actually asked for.

Mixed feelings, including from the professor himself

Even Bussgang, whose likeness was used to create the AI version, admits it's a little "creepy" seeing an AI clone of himself giving advice to strangers. But he also says his actual students seem to genuinely like it, giving him positive feedback about the experience.

That mirrors a broader tension happening in education right now: some college students have pushed back against AI being used in their coursework, worried it undermines real learning or feels impersonal. But in this case, at least according to the people running the program, participants who actually tried the AI avatars came away with a positive impression, treating the tool more like a helpful practice partner than a replacement for real mentorship.