Today’s guest is Austen Allred, CEO at Lambda School, the online web development and data science academy that students pay no tuition for until they are hired. In this episode, we talk to Austen about overcoming the challenges that Lambda’s unique payment structure presents, what he is focusing on to optimize the business, and the path he has taken personally to get where he is today. Lambda gets paid retrospectively from their hired students via income shared agreements and Austen shares about what it took to get the school off the ground and keep it afloat when they were earning no money from fees. Next up, we talk about the legal challenges of keeping Lambda School registered with state-specific education regulations across the U.S. From there, we get into some of the things Austen is focusing on to improve Lambda School as a company and a place to learn within, hearing him highlight things like scaling, job placement, repeatable student experience, internal communication, and organizational design. Austen also weighs in on how he is getting better at being a CEO, the value of hiring executives, and where the company is currently at as far as metrics for employees, enrolled students, and successful hires. Wrapping up, we talk to Austen about his experiences of living in a car in his early days and ask him about his favorite business tool and some of the books, companies, and CEOs that inspire him most. 

 

TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES:

• [00:41] Before we jump into today’s interview, please rate, review, and subscribe to the Leveling Up Podcast!
• [00:48] The idea behind Lambda School and the way it structures fees.
• [01:47] How the income share agreement (ISA) payment structure at Lambda School works.
• [03:38] A story about the career success of a Lambda School graduate.
• [04:38] How Lambda School graduates help market the company.
• [05:35] The method Austen used to get the ISA model off the ground initially.
• [07:35] What Austen is doing to embark on the scaling journey with Lambda.
• [09:12] The pain of keeping Lambda compliant with state-specific education regulations.
• [11:56] Metrics for the funding Austen has received to keep the ISA model running.
• [12:09] How Austen and his team are helping students land jobs.
• [16:07] What led to Austen writing Secret Sauce and how the book is doing.
• [17:12] Metrics for students, employees, and successful hires at Lambda.
• [17:50] What Austen is doing to get better at being a CEO.
• [18:57] The value of hiring executives and how to find proper ones.
• [21:16] Which areas of the business Austen is optimizing currently.
• [23:49] Companies and CEOs who inspire Austen.
• [24:54] The story of how Austen lived in his car and what he learned.
• [26:36] Austen’s favorite business tools: GitHub and GitLab.
• [29:00] Why Austen’s favorite business book is The Wright Brothers.

[29:26] The best way to find and connect with Austen online.

 

Resources From The Interview:

 

• Austen Allred on Twitter
• Lambda School

 

• Secret Sauce: The Ultimate Growth Hacking Guide

 

• Paul Graham
• Geoff Ralston
• Tesla
• SpaceX
• Amazon
• Elon Musk
• Jeff Bezos
• Stripe
• GitLab
• GitHub
• Rippling
• Airtable
• Zapier
• Roam

 

• Must-read book: The Wright Brothers

 

 

Leave Some Feedback:

 

• What should I talk about next? Who should I interview? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below.

• Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review here

• Subscribe to Leveling Up on iTunes

• Get the non-iTunes RSS Feed

 

 

Connect with Eric Siu: 

 

• Growth Everywhere

• Single Grain

• Eric Siu on Twitter