HUB TSP 2025 – Day 1 Comprehensive Notes

Program Introduction & Logistics

• First meeting of HUB TSP 2025 (Harvard Undergraduate Virtual Technology & Startup Program).

• Host Caleb gave opening talks; Prof. Paul Bottino gave the main speech; then came program introduction and Lecture #1 “What is a Startup & Why Startups Fail”.

• Big idea: The program is not just “summer school”; it helps you build your “founder muscle” throughout your life—this is your ability to create new things in a fast-changing world of new ideas.

Program Logistics & Resources (Caleb’s Introduction)

• Leaders: 3 Program Directors – Caleb Klein, Arhaan Chhabra, Renee Somavar.

• Team: Program Leads (for groups), Project Managers (for internships), Resident Mentor (Yvonne – a founder who started and sold a company, then made it public on the stock market).

• Daily plan: 1. Lecture (90 min, 30 lessons total). 2. Section (60 min, interactive, led by Program Leads). 3. Workshops (how to write cold emails, resumes, etc.). 4. Internship teams (work on real startup projects; meet founders). 5. Guest Speaker Series (around 7:00 PM ET).

• Overlapping weeks: Caleb teaches Session-1 (10:30 AM) + Session-2 (12:00 PM). Later, times will change.

• Slack = main communication app; recordings sent after each lecture.

Upcoming Guest Speakers (some names)

\text{Week 1}

• Ratnakar Lavu (CIO Elevance; used to be Nike’s Chief Digital Officer).

• Saeed Amidi (Plug & Play).

• Lila Snyder (CEO Bose).

• John Capodilupo (Co-founder Whoop).

• Chris Barton (Co-founder Shazam).

\text{Week 2 – maybe}

• Mark Cuban, Josh Silverman (CEO Etsy), Thomas Kurian (CEO Google Cloud), Ted Sarandos (co-CEO Netflix) …

Prof. Paul Bottino’s Ideas: Building the Founder Muscle

• 20 years at Harvard creating a system for new ideas and business building; helped start courses, contests, places for new companies (“TECH” – Technology & Entrepreneurship Center, 1999-).

• Works every semester with about 20 founders which equals about 40 per school year + former students in summer. Thousands of stories from founders show common patterns.

• Founders come from non-profit, for-profit, arts, science—“the range of creativity is endless” (human brain has about 10^{11} brain cells with about 5\times10^{4} possible connections each, leading to about 5\times10^{15} ways to connect).

• Main point: People are what they do every day. To know someone (or yourself), look at their daily habits.

From School Thinking to Founder Thinking

• School: take in information and then give back the correct answer.

• Startups: no right answers; always unclear; learning by doing; asking questions without fear; write down important ideas AND new ideas (thoughts, things you’re curious about) and then follow those ideas.

• Journey of finding out about yourself + telling your story: match your values, who you are, your story and then create a set of beliefs that others (co-founders, then employees, then customers, then investors) can join.

Focus on the Problem First

• Your energy should come from the problem you’re trying to solve, not from loving just one solution.

• Solutions change, shift, or fail; a strong problem lasts and keeps you going.

• Examples: rancher who grew up on an Australian cattle farm and then created virtual fences and smart collars; family in dental supplies and then created an AI sales coach which later became a customer relationship manager (CRM) for distributors.

Strong Beliefs, Held Loosely

• Great founders are bold and opinionated but also ready to change quickly when facts show their ideas are wrong.

• Main Quality #1: Really care about the problem.

• Main Quality #2: Can change their strong beliefs (won’t take advice from outsiders, but can still be flexible).

Knowing Yourself & “Quarter-Life Crisis”

• Don’t listen to outside voices (parents, teachers, etc.)—find out why you want to build something.

• Bottino’s “why”: Grandfather (Italian immigrant mechanic) invented tools but never owned the rights to them (IP); law career felt like being “benched” for new ideas so he left law and built TECH to help creators own their ideas/products instead of just working for others.

Big-Institution Not Seeing What's Next

• Even important organizations (Harvard, big companies) often don’t see the next big thing (Internet 1.0, blockchain, AI).

• Your job: get past the “naysayers” who say no; find opportunities for change inside big, slow organizations.

• Plan: Know yourself is connected to looking at changes around you, and then put the two together, then act.

Q & A Highlights with Prof. Bottino

• Sign of success: truly focusing on the problem + “strong beliefs held loosely”.

• Rule for breadth vs. depth: keep one deep area of knowledge; add other related knowledge; practice thinking about your own thinking (every three months: what topics keep getting my attention? Why?).

• Purpose vs. Action: You don’t need to have your purpose fully clear first; purpose becomes clear as you act + think about it.

• What you leave behind: Focus on living your values and helping others; let others decide what your legacy is.

• Personal Failure Story:

  • Dot-com crash (2000) meant the Dean made TECH change focus to biotech; lost 6 years + missed the time when Facebook started (Zuckerberg era).

  • Helped start a TB drug non-profit with a charming self-centered person which was a hard lesson: spot and avoid self-centered partners (few long-term friends; try to “destroy” anyone who disagrees).

• Common problems:

  • Looking for “right answers” from experts instead of gathering facts from the ground up.

  • Fear, not believing in yourself.

• Single piece of advice: “Be a learner who is always open-minded.”

Ethical, Philosophical & Practical Points

• Owning vs. Working for others: in a system like capitalism, owning ideas/assets (shares in a company) gives you more power; just working for pay does not, which was inspired by Bottino’s grandfather.

• Helping others vs. Getting rich: new companies start “for us” but grow into an obligation “for customers.”

• Big company slowness & change: large groups can’t see every new idea coming so being smart and active within a company (intrapreneurship) is a duty to society.

• Team feelings: Spot harmful people (like self-centered ones) early; save your energy and keep the team culture healthy.

• Just doing it: Your purpose often shows up as you do things, not by planning everything first.

Lecture #1 – What is a Startup & Why Startups Fail

1. Main Definition (Steve Blank)

“A startup is a short-term group made to find a business plan that can be repeated and grown big.”

• Short-term means it should become a stable company or stop.

• Find means always testing ideas when things are very unclear.

• Repeatable + Grow big means it can get and serve customers many times, with costs that don’t rise too much as it grows.

1. Breaking Down the Definition

3. Example: Airbnb (2009) vs Hilton (100-yr old)

• Airbnb was testing: Will strangers pay to stay in stranger’s homes? Needed reviews, safety, payments.

• Hilton was already running a known hotel business plan.

• When Airbnb’s way of doing business could be repeated all over the world and went public on the stock market (2020), it became a “company,” but still keeps some of its testing-focused culture.

3. Startup vs. Small Business vs. Project

5. Common False Ideas — Corrected

6. Need a big technical team which is False. Instagram (2 people), Spanx (one person, not tech).

7. Must be perfect before starting which is False. Reid Hoffman: “If you’re not a little ashamed of your first version, you started too late.”

8. Startups = only tech which is False. Warby Parker (glasses sales/brand), Daily Harvest (food), Duolingo (education tech). Tech helps, but isn’t the main thing.

9. Great idea guarantees success means doing things well and learning is more important than just having an idea.

10. Top Reasons for Failure (data from CB Insights)

11. No one needed it – 42\%

12. Ran out of money – 29\%

13. Wrong team – 23\%

14. Lost to competitors – 19\%

15. Pricing/cost problems – 18\%

16. Bad product – 17\%

17. No business plan – 17\%

18. Bad marketing – 14\%

19. Examples of Failures

• Vine – popular 6-second video app; failed because: (i) creators couldn't make money; (ii) didn’t add new features, so users went to Instagram/TikTok.

• Quibi (short, high-quality streaming videos) – didn’t understand how people use mobile phones (wanted payment for 8-minute shows).

• Theranos – product didn’t work + did something wrong: the technology failed, but they said it worked.

5. Key Numbers & Formulas

• Runway: \text{Runway (months)}=\dfrac{\text{Money You Have}}{\text{Money Spent Each Month}}

• MVP (Minimum Viable Product): the smallest set of features needed to test your main idea.

• TAM/SAM/SOM: Total, Serviceable, Obtainable market (will be taught in later lessons).

5. Risk, Failure & Growth Thinking

• Failure = information. Use what you learn to change faster than others.

• Eric Ries: “The only way to win is to learn faster than anyone else.”

• Have a growth mindset: skills and results get better with effort, good plans, and feedback.

Student Actions & Summary

Things to Do for Students

1. Check Yourself: Write down your values, problems that excite you; look at this every three months.

2. Problem Diary: When lectures give you ideas, write down both information & new thoughts; try to follow up on them.

3. Small Tests: Launch very basic versions of products (MVPs); don’t be afraid to be a little embarrassed; gather real information.

4. Connect Smartly: Guest speakers + other students = future co-founders/investors; set up quick coffee chats.

5. Don’t Aim for Perfect and Do Nothing: launch, then learn, then improve.

6. Know Your Runway: start tracking how much money you **spend