2025 Startup World Cup Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs Regional
The 2025 Startup World Cup Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs (HAE) Regional took place on September 12th, 2025 in Boston, MA at Harvard Medical School in The Martin Conference Center.
2026 HAE Regional - Coming soon!
Stay tuned for more details on this page or through our LinkedIn newsletter, the Weekly Digest.
2025 HAE Regional Winner James Sutherland (right), founder of Autonomo, with Regina Ryan (left), President of HAE, and Bill Reichert (middle), Partner at Pegasus Tech Ventures
On September 12, Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs (HAE) presented our twelve Harvard alumni founder finalists at the Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs Regional Startup World Cup.
We featured an exclusive fireside chat with Harvard alum Mark Penn (renowned strategist, author of Microtrends, Chairman & CEO of Stagwell) and his classmate Bill Reichert (legendary Silicon Valley investor, Partner at Pegasus Tech Ventures), exploring his career and recommendations for founders today.
From left to right: Ady Beitler (behind), Dovran Amanov, Pankaj Agarwal, Jeffrey McChesney, Emilie Faure, Pete Blackshaw, Daniel Ahn, Kidist Tesfaye, Regina Ryan, Pablo Lapuerta, James Sutherland
This inaugural competition showcased HAE's commitment to creating unprecedented opportunities for our alumni. Debuting our partnership with Jaylen Brown's 7uice Foundation, we hosted their young entrepreneurs to join the event and find out what it takes to be a founder.
The event culminated with Pankaj Agarwal, founder of Taghive, earning Second Runner-up, Ady Beitler, founder of Nilus, taking home Third Runner-Up, and James Sutherland, founder of Autonomo, winning First Place and continuing on to the global Startup World Cup to compete for $1 million from Pegasus Tech Ventures at the 2025 Startup World Cup Finals in San Francisco.
James Sutherland, Autonomo
First Place
Ady Beitler, Nilus
First Runner-up
Pankaj Agarwal, Taghive
Second Runner-up
HAE Startup World Cup Regional PHOTO Gallery
Thank you to our partners
Thank you to our Sponsors
Thank you you to our Founding Supporters
Visionary Supporters:
Gary White
Individual Supporters
Armando Mann, Regina Ryan, Andrew Koh, Debra Decker, Chris Rohe, Marcus DeFlorimonte, Sangita Mallik, Tejasvi Sharma
Startup World Cup Grand Finale
October 15-17th, 2025 San Francisco, CA, Hilton Union Square
James Sutherland and Autonomo Technologies took the stage in Silicon Valley to compete among 100 regional winners from around the world. While he didn’t take home the top prize, during the competition he received a lead investor $1.5m term sheet. We’re immensely proud of his achievement and the entrepreneurial excellence he brought to the world stage.
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