Secrets to Making Your Founding Team Work

This panel of entrepreneurs will address founder dilemmas.

By Harvard Innovation Labs

Date and time

Tuesday, March 30, 2021 · 1:30 - 3pm PDT

Location

Online

About this event

They say that working with a co-founder can be like a marriage, filled with ups and downs. Hear from a group of entrepreneurs to learn how they have dealt with conflict, managed disagreements, built culture, and made their founding team work.

Dominique Aubry - Founder & CEO, Aubry
Joseph Brennan - Co-Founder, Zoba
Laura D'Asaro - Co-Founder & CEO, Chirps Chips
Vishal Punwani - CEO, Sophya

Speaker Bios:

Dominique Aubry is the CEO & Founder of Aubry, an influencer-driven shopping app. Her background is in strategic operations, project management, and business development. Most recently she was a MassChallenge 2019 Finalist, mentor-in-residence for TechStars Boston, entrepreneur-in-residence for National Grid, and Harvard ilab mentor. She received her B.A in Political Science from Lehigh University and her M.S in Education Policy, Research and Evaluation from the University of Pennsylvania.

Joseph Brennan is a cofounder of Zoba, an optimization startup in the mobility space. Zoba is used by mobility operators in dozens of cities around the globe to increase operational efficiency.

Before Zoba, Joseph cofounded Tella, a civic tech app that helps people in high risk conditions—like election monitors and journalists—share data securely. He also worked as a researcher for former presidential advisor David Gergen and Yale professor Nicholas Christakis. Joseph is a graduate of Harvard College (BA) and Peking University (MA), where he was a Yenching Scholar.

Laura D'Asaro is the co-founder/CEO of Chirps, a company making food with insects as a tasty and sustainable protein alternative, including the world's first cricket chip. She is a Harvard graduate, and current MBA student at Stanford. In 2017, she and her co-founder were featured on Shark Tank for Chirps, securing a deal with Mark Cuban. In addition, she is a Forbes 30 Under 30 social entrepreneur, and an Echoing Green fellow. Laura is also a world record breaker, including the record for the largest nachos and the fastest time to crawl a mile.

Vishal (Vish) Punwani is the CEO of Sophya, the Harvard Innovation Labs alumnus that is creating the virtual world used by Fortune 10 companies and startups alike for work, social, community, and events. Sophya was part of the iLab’s inaugural Launch Lab X program in 2018-19.

Vishal is also medical doctor by training and leader in tech startups and AI. He became one of the highest-rated Teaching Fellows at Khan Academy, worked in data/edu at the World Health Organization, and has been an invited speaker at The Radcliffe Institute, MIT, and Harvard Medical School. Vishal is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence with Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs, a Mentor at the Oxford University Foundry, and Alumni Advisor at MassChallenge Boston.

Organized by

Harvard Innovation Labs

The Harvard Innovation Labs consist of a vibrant, cross-disciplinary ecosystem for the Harvard community to explore innovation and entrepreneurship while building deeper connections. It is an excellent example of the One Harvard vision and a leading catalyst for the Allston Science and Enterprise District. The Harvard Innovation Labs foster unprecedented collaboration among Harvard students, faculty, entrepreneurs, and members of the Allston and Greater Boston communities. The Harvard i-lab is the central component of the Harvard Innovation Labs. It is an educational collaborative for all current Harvard students from any Harvard school to explore innovation and entrepreneurship at any stage. It provides open co-working space, a vibrant community of peer and mentor support, experiential programming, and a Venture Program during the fall, spring, and summer semester, helping student teams take their ideas further, faster.

Launch Lab X GEO is a critical extension of the growing Harvard Innovation Labs. It provides eligible Harvard alumni leading high-potential early-stage startups with a curated community including collaborative co-working space, business-building programming, and access to advisors and mentors. It fosters continued connection between alumni, current students, and the Harvard community as a whole.

The Pagliuca Harvard Life Lab is a curated community, providing eligible Harvard alumni, faculty, and students leading high-potential early-stage life sciences startups with a fully equipped wet lab, collaborative co-working space, business-building programming, and access to the entire Harvard Innovation Labs ecosystem.

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