RECAP: HBSANC New Venture Competition and Networking Night | 3.6.2025
2025 HBSANC New Venture Competition and Networking Night | 3.6.2025
On the evening of March 6, HBSANC held our annual alumni New Venture Competition at The Foundry, SF. This event boasted close to 200 attendees including entrepreneurs, investors, judges, and the general public. It was a great evening of food, drinks, entertainment, and a competitive pitch competition which culminated in announcing the Western Regional New Venture Competition Winner.
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The evening started off with a great spread of food and a cash bar, and networking to background music from the Bridgerton series. Next, we had an amazing speech by Chris Yeh, who was also a finalist judge at the event for a second consecutive year. Chris discussed "How to Unlearn the Lessons from the Past When they No Longer Serve You."
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Congratulations to Soteri Skin, 2025 Western Regional NVC Winner! Soteri Skin, a startup focused on transforming skin, will represent the Western Region in the Global HBS Finals on March 25.
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"Participating in Harvard Business School’s New Venture Competition (NVC) was an incredibly valuable experience. It offered significant exposure for Soteri Skin within the HBS Alumni and Angel Investor communities, helping to expand my network and connect with key individuals who can play a pivotal role in advancing the business. The experience also provided invaluable feedback, which has been crucial in refining both our pitch deck and storytelling, as well as enhancing our go-to-market strategies. I highly recommend the HBS NVC to any aspiring entrepreneur seeking to take their business to the next level." - Lama Mansour, Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer |
Congratulations also to Phaxtec, Inc., our 2025 Western Regional NVC Runner-Up, a startup focused on making food service paper packaging circular.
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“It was an honor being selected as one of the four Western Region finals, and the entire NVC pitch program was top-notch. The best part about it was the night’s positive energy—from casual interactions with the audience to formal questions from the judges—everyone willed each finalist to participate to the best of our abilities. I am most appreciative of the insightful questions that demonstrated impressive awareness of particular markets that may be unfamiliar to each judge, and preparing all of us to think on our feet. Most of all, the experience provided Phaxtec a constructive opportunity to continue calibrating our story in pursuit of plastics substitutes made from sustainable materials at affordable prices." -Rick Kjellberg, CFO |
The NVC serves as a launch pad for innovative new ventures from HBS alumni, and provides access and exposure to potential investors, mentors, and advisors. Previously, HBSANC has hosted the NVC Regional Finals for Northern California. This year, however, we hosted the Regional Finals for the entire Western US Region, which included startups from Northern and Southern CA, Colorado, Washington, and Canada. Unlike other regions globally, we expanded our NVC locally to include alumni founders from all of Harvard and MIT - not just HBS. Four startup finalists were chosen to pitch out of 25 Harvard, MIT and HBS alumni-founded participating startups. These startups include Prifina, Hydra Hydration, Phaxtec, Inc., and Soteri Skin.
Thank you to our judges for the evening - Chris Yeh, Randy Haykin, and Deidre Paknad. Thank you also to our volunteers and our preliminary judging committee that narrowed our 25 startups to our four finalists. This included Cathy Benko, Judging Committee Chair, Jean Kovacs, Steve Shray, Steve Payne, Adi Gamon, Joe Grimes, Vince Lane, Tony Lazar, and Patricia Liu. Finally, thank you to Perkins Coie, Unusual Ventures and 5th Line Capital for their generous cash sponsorships without whom we could not have made this event possible!
Looking forward to another exciting entrepreneurial competition in 2026!
-Maya Krish and Vince Lane, 2025 NVC Co-Chairs
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS
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