High Potential (HiPo)

• A system for progress. Stop guessing what comes next. HiPo’s five stages mirror how real startups grow, from idea → validation → MVP → traction → investor readiness. You’ll always know exactly what to work on, and how to measure if it’s working.
• Proof that travels. Moving through stages isn’t subjective -- it’s evidence-based. When you advance, you earn a visible signal of credibility that investors, partners, and peers understand.
• Stage-matched resources. Get the right mentors, frameworks, and workshops for your exact stage -- not generic startup advice. From customer discovery scripts to MVP test templates to investor readiness guides, HiPo gives you the playbook used by top startup programs worldwide.
• Community + accountability. Join a builder culture: Harvard founders who are shipping prototypes, testing pricing, closing their first customers, and sharing what works. Expect radical candor, shared momentum, and a low-ego, high-ambition environment.
• Visibility and opportunity. Top teams present at the HiPo Investor Showcase, where progress turns into opportunity -- funding, advisors, and partners who can help you scale.

HiPo is designed for Harvard student founders at any early stage of the journey:

• Early-stage builders developing and validating an idea they’re ready to pursue seriously.

• Growth-stage founders who have pilots, customers, or funding and want to refine their model for sustainable traction.

What unites all HiPo founders is momentum — a drive to build, test, and execute with purpose.

HiPo follows a stage-gate model that gives founders clarity and accountability at every step.
You’ll join the stage that fits your current progress and advance as you hit key milestones:

1. Ignition – Define your customer and validate the problem.

2. Problem Validation – Test assumptions and refine insights.

3. Solution Validation – Build and validate your MVP with early users.

4. Early Traction – Acquire customers and develop repeatable systems.

5. Scale – Strengthen operations and prepare for investment or growth.

Founders can apply or advance monthly, with recognition and additional support as they progress.

Read more about the criteria for each stage here.

We review applications on a rolling basis. Please aim to apply to the program at least 2 weeks before the interview date that you'd like to interview. If you're not invited to interview, we will provide feedback on your application. Please make sure that you read the criteria for the first stage of the program before applying, because you'll need to create a pitch deck that addresses those criteria and submit it with your application.

• Friday, 10/24
• Monday, 11/3
• Monday, 12/1

Apply here.

Note: please apply at least ~2 weeks in advance of the date that you intend to pitch. If you are within 2 weeks of a pitch, please apply anyway as we will try our best to invite you to pitch if we have space.

Stage 1: Ignition of a High Potential Idea

• Target Customer. A clearly defined audience with an unmet need. You can describe who they are, what job they’re trying to get done, and why the need matters.
• Problem. A large, consequential problem that is frequent, important, and painful for your target customer. Why Now: early sense of timing — what recent trends, technologies, or cultural shifts make this problem newly solvable or newly urgent.
• Competition / Alternatives. An understanding of how customers address the problem today — workarounds, competitors, or the status quo.
• What You Did to Validate. Early exploration through informal interviews, secondary research, or observations to understand the problem context.
• Insights & Learning. What you discovered from early conversations and research — patterns, surprises, and what you still don’t know. Early Defensibility: unique founder insight, perspective, or access that others might not have.
• Evidence of Pain. Signals that the problem is worth solving (time, money, frustration, or missed opportunities).
• Solution Hypothesis. A short “We believe that…” statement linking customer, job, and desired outcome.
• Business Model / GTM Hypothesis. Initial thinking on who might pay, why, and how value could be captured. First ideas on how you might reach those customers.
• Team. Founders demonstrate commitment and complementary skills to explore the opportunity.
• Key Risks & Assumptions. Critical uncertainties (e.g., customers actually want this, it can be built, it can be marketed cost-effectively).

Stage 2: Problem Validation

• Target Customer. A defined and narrowed segment within your broader market; early personas describing their behaviors and motivations.
• Problem. A well-articulated problem statement, expressed in the customer’s own words and supported by evidence of frequency and urgency. Why Now: proof that urgency or timing is increasing — new regulation, cost pressure, or behavioral shift.
• Competition / Alternatives. A clear picture of what customers currently do — existing tools, substitutes, or manual processes.
• What You Did to Validate. 10 + structured customer interviews, surveys, secondary data analysis, or other discovery work focused on problem understanding.
• Insights & Learning. Patterns that emerged across customers, themes that validate or challenge assumptions, and areas needing further exploration. Early Defensibility: proprietary insights or relationships you’ve built that competitors don’t yet have.
• Evidence of Pain. Quantitative and qualitative signals that the problem is real and important — willingness to talk again, share data, or pay to solve it.
• Solution Hypothesis. Refined “We believe that…” statement plus 2–3 must-have benefits customers care about.
• Business Model / Go-to-Market. Early draft of who pays, how much, and why; outline of potential channels and first go-to-market experiments.
• Market & Competition. TAM/SAM analysis with a bottoms-up rationale for early SOM; awareness of main alternatives and switching triggers.
• Team. Capabilities to conduct discovery, analyze findings, and begin prototyping; identified skill gaps and plans to fill them.
• Key Risks & Assumptions. Remaining unknowns — e.g., whether the problem is acute enough to motivate change or whether the economics work.

Stage 3: Solution Concept Validation

• Target Customer. Confirmed early-adopter profile with direct access for testing concepts and gathering feedback.
• Problem. Re-validated problem framing to ensure continued alignment between need and proposed solution. Why Now: external factors (tech, regulation, market behavior) that support adoption within the next 12–24 months.
• Solution Concept / Hypothesis. A tangible prototype (mockup, storyboard, clickable demo, or simple MVP) that expresses how you intend to solve the problem and what benefits it creates.
• What You Did to Validate. Showed or tested the concept with 5–10 potential customers, gathered reactions, and measured comprehension and enthusiasm.
• Insights & Learning. What customer reactions revealed — strong interest signals, pushback, misconceptions, or refinement opportunities. Emerging Defensibility: early mechanisms that could make your solution hard to copy (data advantage, workflow lock-in, unique expertise).
• Evidence of Fit. Indications that customers believe the solution could solve their problem better than alternatives and would consider adopting it (sign-ups, pilots, LOIs, or pre-orders).
• Business Model / Go-to-Market. Refined pricing hypothesis, willingness-to-pay data, and tested acquisition or conversion experiments.
• Market & Competition. Updated market sizing with data from tests; 2–3 decisive differentiation points validated by customer feedback.
• Team. Demonstrated ability to design, build, and test prototypes; advisors or collaborators covering technical or industry gaps.
• Key Risks & Assumptions. What still needs validation before launch — technical feasibility, cost to deliver, or scalability of demand.

Stage 4: Early Traction

• Target Customer. Ideal Customer Profile clearly defined; real users or customers actively using your MVP. You understand who engages most and why.
• Problem. Confirmed ongoing urgency and importance, supported by usage and satisfaction data demonstrating measurable value creation. Why Now: evidence that adoption is accelerating because of timing, trends, or changing incentives.
• Solution / MVP. Live MVP or pilot delivering the core outcome; success metrics established in advance (e.g., time saved, engagement, or revenue lift).
• What You Did to Validate. Ran pilots or beta programs, collected quantitative usage data, and conducted qualitative follow-ups to assess satisfaction and retention.
• Insights & Learning. What usage patterns revealed about value, usability, and willingness to pay — plus surprises and refinements learned. Defensibility in Action: data assets, workflows, or partnerships emerging as competitive moats.
• Evidence of Traction.
  • B2B: 3–5 active pilots, consistent weekly use, initial paid terms or strong pipeline
  • B2C: ≥ 1 K WAU or 3 K MAU; early revenue or conversion metrics
  • Health/Life Sci: Feasible clinical workflow, early safety/quality signals, partner endorsements
• Business Model / Go-to-Market. Validated pricing and revenue logic; first repeatable acquisition channels with CAC and conversion benchmarks; emerging unit-economics rationale.
• Market & Competition. Documented buyer journeys and channel data showing customers choose you over alternatives; early proof of a defensible position.
• Team. Capability to maintain, iterate, and support a live product; roles filled or planned for product, growth, and operations.
• Key Risks & Assumptions. Remaining uncertainties (scaling channels, retention sustainability, regulatory path) and clear next-step tests or mitigation plans.
• Funding & Next-Stage Plan. A 6–12-month milestone plan detailing traction goals and capital requirements tied to measurable outcomes.

Stage 5: Investment Readiness

• Target Customer. A clearly defined ICP with sustained adoption and strong retention. You can describe who your best customers are, how you acquire them, and why they stay.
• Problem. Evidence that the problem is still large and urgent, backed by traction data (growth, retention, usage) showing customers will pay to have it solved. Why Now: macro and industry tailwinds that make this the moment for your category to break out.
• Solution / Product. A reliable, scalable version of your product delivering consistent value. Product–market fit signals are evident (engagement, retention, NPS, expansion).
• What You Did to Validate. Collected quantitative and qualitative data on performance and customer value creation. Measured key metrics (activation, retention, revenue, CAC/LTV) and benchmarked against industry standards.
• Insights & Learning. What you learned about growth levers, sales cycle, pricing, customer behavior, and scalability constraints — and how this shaped your GTM and fundraising strategy.
• Evidence of Traction. Demonstrable momentum:
  • Growth in revenue, users, or customers (MoM / YoY)
  • Repeat purchases or renewals
  • Positive unit economics or clear path to them
  • Validated acquisition channels with predictable conversion
• Business Model & Go-to-Market. Clear economics for growth and scalability: CAC, LTV, gross margin, payback, and contribution margin. Proven repeatable GTM engine with efficient channel performance and forecast grounded in real data.
• Market & Competition. Updated, data-driven TAM/SAM/SOM; understanding of market dynamics, timing, and comparables. Evidence of a defensible competitive position anchored by real traction, IP, or network effects.
• Moat & Defensibility. Articulation of durable advantages — data, technology, partnerships, switching costs, or brand — and how they strengthen over time.
• Team. Execution-ready team with functional leads across product, growth, and operations; clarity on next key hires to scale.
• Key Risks & Assumptions. Remaining risks (e.g., scaling efficiency, regulatory exposure, competitive response) with mitigation plans and data-driven hypotheses to test.
• Funding & Investor Narrative. A compelling, metrics-backed pitch that clearly communicates:
  • The ask: how much capital you’re raising and why
  • Use of funds: how it advances growth and milestones
  • Milestones: what success looks like in the next 12–18 months
  • Comparable exits or benchmarks: precedent valuations or strategic buyers that frame upside potential
  • Vision: how your venture becomes a category-defining company
  • Why Now: why this moment matters and what tailwinds make it inevitable

HiPo is currently unfunded. We are working on securing funding, and will update participants about the possibility of receiving grant funding through the program. 

• Please apply at least ~2 weeks in advance of the date that you intend to pitch. 
• If you are within 2 weeks of a pitch, please apply anyway as we will try our best to invite you to pitch if we have space.
• All applicants will receive feedback on their application, even if they are not invited to pitch. 

Once you are admitted into the program, you make progress on your own time, using the i-lab resources. 

When you feel you are ready to advance to the next stage of the program, you can apply to pitch at a panel offered once per month.