HAI Startup Series

Overview

Stanford HAI is excited to cultivate an ecosystem of AI-focused entrepreneurs by bringing together Stanford-affiliated startups and a committee of AI experts. Bimonthly virtual events will feature introductions, presentations by two or three companies, and deep conversation among the founders and the committee. Other events will take place on an ad-hoc basis.

Introducing the HAI Startup Series
The HAI Startup Series is a bimonthly forum for Stanford-affiliated early-stage companies to gain mentorship, exposure, and feedback from leading figures in the venture, business, and academic worlds. The program aims to accelerate the commercialization and impact of AI research in Stanford’s community across and beyond campus.

Carving Out a New Niche in Stanford’s Startup Ecosystem
The HAI Startup Series will join Stanford’s rich entrepreneurial ecosystem as yet another pathway for early-stage companies to accelerate their growth; companies are able to pursue alongside existing programs such as Lean Launchpad and Startup Garage. This series is unique in its deep focus on artificial intelligence, diverse cohorts (students and alumni from across Stanford), and mix of expertise spanning industry, venture, and academia.

Sample Agenda

Total time: One hour

• Teams give short presentations in turn about their companies and highlight the primary areas where they would appreciate input (~10 min per team)
• Our panel, made up of folks from our faculty, investor, and industry community, provides feedback and discussion (~10 min per team)
• Three teams typically present in each session, and introductions are facilitated afterwards.

As the HAI Startup Series grows and scales, we will increasingly focus on community building around cohorts of participants.

Meet the Committee

The HAI Startup Series Committee includes both Stanford faculty and guests from HAI’s investor community. Confirmed Stanford faculty include:

Russ Altman, Curtis Langlotz, Christopher Manning, 
Chris Re, Erik Brynjolfsson, Melissa Valentine

VC/Investor Committee members include:

Sarah Guo, James Cham, Jonah Cader, Niko Bonatsos, Rob Toews, Asad Khaliq, Kanu Gulati

Why participate?

• Access “no strings attached” mentorship and guidance from academic and industry leaders in AI, as well as some of the world's most successful VCs.
• Join a community of HAI Series participants with access to mixer events and opportunities to join relevant HAI programming

Who is eligible?

• Community: Your founding team must include at least one current or recent (last 5 years) affiliate of the Stanford community, whether a student, faculty member, post-doctoral researcher, alumnus, etc.
• Product: The company must focus on artificial intelligence in some core way. The main product should be AI-focused, AI-enabled, or contribute to the AI ecosystem and stack ( data, compute, etc.)
• Stage: Companies that are Series A or earlier may participate.

Selection Process

At the beginning of each quarter, HAI will publish a calendar of events and open an application form (see above) for the Startup Series events to be held that academic term. While applicants may apply at any time; a new selection process will take place for each Series event following the deadline listed above. Those selected to present (2-3 teams per Series) will be notified starting ~10 days after the relevant application deadline for the upcoming edition.

Applications are reviewed by the HAI Partnerships Team and HAI Startup Series Committee. They are evaluated on four primary dimensions:

• Basic eligibility: Whether the company meets the criteria described above
• Quality: The quality of the submitted application materials, including evidence of business or technical traction (revenue, patents, published papers, pitch competition wins, etc.)
• Innovation: The novelty of the technology, application, or business model
• Relevance: The relevance of AI to their ideas and business model

Contact Us

For additional information, please contact Hyla Shain or David Levi, Program Lead.