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LGBTQ+ Alumni Forums Expand; 2023 Alumni New Venture Competition Is Underway
Clubs News
The HBS Pride Alumni Association is expanding its slate of LGBTQ+ Alumni Forums after the successful launch of two initial forums in 2021 sparked broader interest among its members.
Akin to having a personal board of directors, HBS Alumni Forums are small peer groups that meet regularly for support around personal, family, and business matters. Modeled on the concept developed by the Young President's Organization (YPO), the forums were pioneered over 20 years ago by Bob Halperin (MBA 1982), who leads HBS Alumni Forum Services. Including the HBS Pride Alumni Association, 11 HBS alumni clubs and associations currently offer forums.
"I've been a member of a traditional forum here in L.A. and I think it's super powerful," says Paul Donaher (MBA 1981), copresident of the association. "One day in 2021, I was telling a friend about it, and we got the idea to try creating LGBTQ+-specific forums to meet the unique needs of our community. We did some outreach and got a lot of interest immediately."
After a Zoom presentation by Halperin explaining how a forum works and the commitment it requires, Donaher and a small group of co-organizers had enough interest to create two forums—one for West Coast alumni and one for East Coast alumni—with nine members in each. "It really took off after that," says Donaher. "From the beginning, people got into the spirit and openness of forum."
According to association copresident Allen Yang (MBA 2016), participants share concerns or successes around work life, family matters, and personal issues as they would in any forum. The difference is that LGBTQ+ Forums offer an element of shared experience that allows for a more immediate connection.
"We might represent a range of ages, graduate years, and professional and personal experiences, but we're all in the LGBTQ+ community. Given that uniting factor, we're starting off with very large point in common, aside from being HBS alumni," says Yang, a member of the first East Coast LGBTQ+ Forum. "We probably do end up speaking about personal matters a bit more—about issues affecting, or common to, the LGBTQ+ experience. We don't need to start by explaining that aspect; we can just dive into the discussion."
Donaher agrees, as he now participates in both a traditional forum and the LGBTQ+ Forum.
"I get a tremendous amount out of that traditional group, but I do think that being LGBTQ+ is not necessarily something they all understand, so when you're in a group specifically made up of people who are LGBTQ+, then immediately that issue doesn't exist."
Regarding discussion topics, Donaher explains that forum protocols encourage groups to stay in the "five percent" of the bell curve. "If you imagine your life as a bell curve, on one end there is the five percent of issues and problems people typically don't share but that need resolution," he says. "On the other end of the curve, we have that five percent of great things happening but people don't share—because they don't want to gloat or because they're afraid the great things won't last. We aim to get participants to stay in the five percent on either end of the curve, because when you do that, you develop really strong bonds and you have the opportunity to discuss things that might be difficult otherwise. Everybody is equally committed and they show up. The hallmark of forum is confidentiality, so over time, people begin to feel safe to share."
Donaher says despite being completely virtual, both original LGBTQ+ Forums are "incredibly robust and still going strong" more than 18 months later. That success has sparked an explosion of interest in the forums, and the HBS Pride Alumni Association is working to create additional LGBTQ+ Forums in 2023, with enough committed participants already to launch two more on the East Coast and one more on the West Coast. Donaher says one could be in-person since many of the potential members reside in New York City.
Donaher encourages anyone interested in the LGBTQ+ Forums to join the HBS Pride Alumni Association at presidents@hbspridealumni.org or contact him at pauldonaher20@gmail.com. New forum members are allowed to attend two meetings before deciding whether to make the commitment to join.
The HBS Rock Center for Entrepreneurship is encouraging all HBS alumni entrepreneurs to enter the 2023 Alumni New Venture Competition (aNVC). Applications are open until noon (EST) on January 30, 2023.
The Rock Center, the HBS Social Enterprise Initiative, and HBS clubs and associations cosponsor the annual New Venture Competition (NVC) for both students and alumni. The alumni track is open to HBS alumni founders with early-stage ventures, and winners receive an invitation to the Global Finals Round and aNVC Finale, to be held March 22 and 23. The aNVC serves as a launchpad for innovative new ventures from HBS alumni, providing access and exposure to potential investors, mentors, and advisors, as well as significant prize money—$75,000 for the winner, $25,000 for the runner-up, and $5,000 for the crowd favorite—for start-up costs.

During the 25th NVC celebration, startup SurgiBox took home the alumni NVC crowd favorite prize. This year's event will be fully virtual.
According to Rock Center Director Jodi Gernon (MBA 1991), alumni founders enter the aNVC either by region or by the international track. Each region will hold a virtual pitch competition before March 15. The winning founder or team will advance to the NVC finale, to be held live and virtually as two sessions: In the first session, on March 22, the final teams will pitch before a panel of judges; in the second, on March 23 at noon (EST), all teams will give a two-minute pitch to a live, online audience. The winner and runner-up, selected from the previous day's pitch, will then be announced, and the audience will choose a crowd favorite.
Each regional finale will include special programming and panel discussions on startups, venture capital, and other topics related to early-stage ventures.
"The alumni NVC enables founders to network with the investors and customers that may be interested in their products or services, and access to a very supportive network of HBS alumni mentors who want to see their venture succeed," says Gernon. "It's an incredible springboard mechanism to motivate you to get your ideas down on paper and start working towards your goal of launching a venture."
Past winners include Fleetzero, Inc., a builder of electric cargo ships cofounded by Steven Henderson (MBA 2016); Everlywell, a digital health care company founded by Julia Cheek (MBA 2011); Foodology, a virtual restaurant and ghost kitchen chain cofounded by Daniela Izquierdo (MBA 2019) and Juan Azuero (MBA 2019); and Bone Health Technologies, the creator of a bone-strengthening device founded by Laura Yecies (MBA 1988), to name just a few.
Gernon says the alumni track of the NVC was launched in 2010, and has had 142 winners and finalists since then (excluding 2022 teams).
"Of those companies, 92 percent are still in business and have raised roughly $1.6 billion in funding," she says. "They've also generated approximately 4,000 jobs, and about one-third of their founders are women. It's quite an impressive group."
Alumni founders can find more information about the aNVC at https://www.alumni.hbs.edu/events/nvc/Pages/default.aspx.
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