Harvard Business School's Foundry program is putting AI avatars into a startup training product, giving entrepreneurs simulated faculty feedback alongside live instructor sessions.

TechCrunch reports that the eight-week HBS Foundry bootcamp costs $699 and uses avatars made by HeyGen. The avatars are used during practice pitches and board meeting simulations, while the program still includes weekly live sessions with instructors.

The official Foundry site describes the product as an "AI-native digital workshop" for founders and says participants receive personalized AI mentorship modeled on Harvard Business School faculty, plus live sessions with real experts. Its bootcamp page frames the course as a virtual path for turning an idea into a fundable venture and advertises a chance to compete for $100,000 in funding.

The noteworthy part is not just that a university-adjacent program is using generative video. It is that AI replicas are being used in one of the highest-touch parts of startup education: critique. Pitch feedback, investor role-play, and boardroom practice have traditionally depended on scarce human time and reputation.

The conservative read is that Foundry is testing AI avatars as a scale layer, not replacing the course's live instruction. If participants accept the format, it could make simulated mentorship a more common feature in paid entrepreneurship programs, especially where schools want to expand access without adding one-on-one faculty hours.