Maybe startups can fix higher education with Tade Oyerinde from Campus

Hello you're listening to found Tech Crunch's podcast that brings you the Stories behind the startups you're Probably aware of the Reckoning higher Education has been facing the past few Years from skyrocketing admissions to Falling enrollment many institutions and Companies have tried to solve higher EDS Issues and one startup thinks it has Cracked the Code today we're talking at T oend from Campus a fully online community college That helps students pay less while adun Professor ERS make more money I'm Becca Scac and I'm taking this one solo but Don't you worry my co-host Dominic Madori Davis will be back next week but For today here's my conversation with To hey to how's it going hey Becca I'm Doing all right getting my third coffee For the day so I'll oh third coffee of The day woo that means we're definitely Ready for this conversation then I think Totally ready perfect well let's waste No time then why don't you start by Telling us a little bit about campus. Edu sure at campus we help young people Complete their first two years of College we are a fully accredited Two-year College where you get to learn From some of the best professors from The top schools in the country think Schools like Princeton UCLA NYU take Live online classes for two years and

Then we help you transfer into a Fouryear school to complete your Bachelor's degree and I think the Coolest thing is that um the federal Government actually pays for the tuition For the majority of students so it's Called a pel grant it's $10,000 a year The vast majority of our students don't Pay anything out of pocket and not a Single one of our students takes on Student loans so knock out the first Years of college learning from the best Professors through live online classes And then you transfer into a forye School with no debt and it's no secret To anyone who's had any touch or gets Near the higher ed EOS system that There's something fundamentally not Working with it right now but even with That being said you don't see many folks Trying a new approach especially with What you guys are doing and actually Taking a new approach to the actual Learning the classes the Community College aspect itself so definely Curious how did you get the idea to Launch something like this what was that Process like yeah it's kind of crazy so I originally started the company in 2016 To build online learning software think Like slack plus Discord Zoom for Colleges and universities and I don't Know if you can tell but I'm not an Enterprise sales kind of guy I wanted to

Avoid that and avoid selling into the Universities and so instead we had a Policy of just going directly to Professors and we would show professors Our software say hey you're teaching an Online class UCLA at ASU NYU wherever You should use this instead of at the Time Skype or nothing and the online Classes didn't have any video audio live Component and so the completion rates Were low and you know they didn't love The experience and so we basically got Them to adopt it went Professor by Professor in 2018 I was at UCLA you know I get into This professor's office I'm going to Show him our software it was called Campus wire and I get into his office And he's got an air mattress off to the Side of his desk and I'm like what's Going on and he's like oh yeah I you Know live five hours away I can't afford To live anywhere near Westwood I'm an Adjunct professor I make like 53 Grand a Year I shower in the gym sleep in office Monday through Friday you know that's Kind of life and I was just like Completely floored you know like totally Shocked you I thought I knew what Adjunct professors meant like my mother Is a college dean like I know H pretty Well I thought an adjunct was like Michelle Obama or James Comey he wants To give back so he teaches a class at

Georgetown law for fun but I sort of Discovered you know what I call the Adjunct faculty crisis through that Experience and so like today at most Schools in the country even top Universities like Princeton or MIT or UCLA close to 50 in many cases more than 50% of professors are adjuncts and so They're kind of like the Uber drivers of Higher ed you know they're typically on Six or 12 month contracts they don't Have great job security and they don't Earn much in fact a Berkeley study that I came across I think in 2019 found that 24% of AD junks live on welfare so food Or housing even at top schools and so That was like you know this thing I kind Of got obsessed with and I was like you Know that's really weird College tuition Keeps getting more expensive and the Professors are getting paid so little And they're struggling they're like Living out of their office that's insane Yeah I kind of put it to the back of my Mind and then a few months later Actually funny enough another UCLA Professor just emailed customer support Late at night and I was running support He's like hey I'm teaching also in Addition to UCLA at Santa Monica College Like the local Community College there I Have two campuswire accounts can you Merge them and I was like huh I didn't Realize that professors from top schools

Could teach at a second institution at The same time right in this case a Community college where the tuition is Like 80% less than UCLA and they're They're getting the same education you Know that that part of the education Like the class is the same so that was Pretty interesting and I you know dug Into that research kind of got obsessed With the Community College like wait why Why aren't more people doing this if This is like something that you know is Possible and basically came across what I call the low completion rate crisis at Community colleges and so in most Community colleges in the country the Graduation rates less than 30% it's Close to 27% the average Community College in the country so most of these Kids are going they're signing up taking A few classes maybe taking out a small Loan and dropping out with no degree no Increased earning potential so it's a Pretty bad outcome for a lot of students And actually even though 82% of them According to Columbia University's Teachers College data 82% of them want To get a bachelor's degree when they're Enrolling only 14% everever get a Bachelor's degree like you give them Eight years only 14% are going to get a Bachelor's degree and so I like wow That's really interesting like why is This not working what's so broken about

This pathway and basically came across Some you know research from cuni in New York they have What's called the ASAP Program they figured out Pathways to get Graduation rates up but they're too Expensive and so I thought well what if We took our software ran a community College but way more efficiently using Software kept our tuition super low so That you could afford to pay your Tuition completely with these federal Grants and state grants without having To take on any debt knock out the first Two years of college learning from these Amazing professors from top schools so That was like that was the idea and then You know from there it was like okay Well you know this has never happened Before why hasn't it and accreditation Is a big piece of that if you're not Accredited you can't actually offer Community College courses and so I Basically looked around I was like are There any existing community colleges That are completely Mission aligned with What we're trying to do that we could Buy found a small school in Sacramento That was really excited about the same Mission that I wanted to pursue until we Bought them that was the beginning of Campus no that makes sense because I was Going to ask you about the accreditation Process because like you had already Said it sounds so easy like oh we'll set

Up a school professors make more money Students do better they pay less that Sounds like such a great idea but of Course the accreditation piece is huge We've seen some of those for-profit Schools run into issues with that so it Definitely makes sense to just be able To bring a college that already had that Into the fold but what was that like too Is it difficult to maintain Accreditation I'm going to be honest not An area I will pretend I know very much About it the reality is you can only do That strategy if you're lucky enough to Find a school that is consistent with What your plans are and your Miss is for The school right we were very fortunate We found a school it's called MTI College it's about 60 years old in Sacramento I met the owners the grandson Of the founder was the current president And he had four aunts all in their 80s Who were the major shareholders wow and I basically you know sat with them and I Was like here's what I think the vision Can be love what you all are doing you Guys have actually done a great job your Graduation rates are way higher than the Average Community College like they're Doing really well but I think that Community College is going to be a Mostly online experience post pandemic And that was the big bet and I was like Either you guys have to get excellent at

Online learning or you're going to be Competed out and disrupted away and so I Basically convinced them of that and That ended up being true today a Plurality about 43% of community college Students are only online they don't even Ever set foot on campus and that's the Biggest block so you know they were like Let's do it it's actually ended up being A pretty great marriage Michael Zimmerman who's the president he is our President we call him MZ he's still on Board he's like y I want to go build This thing with you so he became my Partner and after the races we went yeah No it's so interesting because we don't Talk about colleges in the Venture space Very often but in reality it's kind of Like a Marketplace like you need both Professors who want to work there and Then you need both students who want to Come and do those services and I know I Used to have a work study job at my College in a department I'm keeping Things vague because I would help Sometimes file the adjunct professor Contracts which I don't think I should Have been doing as a work study employee But I see what you saw just how low some Of these contracts are and it's crazy And so it seems oh people are going to Want to jump all over this but like what Was it actually like getting both Professors wanting to work with you guys

As well as students to attend as well You're right it is's a two-sided Marketplace but professors is the Easiest part of everything Unfortunately They earn so little and they have so Little job security that an opportunity Just to earn well we pay them about Double what the average college pay them Per class we pay them $8,000 per class It's like purely because there's a huge Demand we have about 270 professors on Our weit list just waiting to teach with Us and so that's worked really well you Know these are all faculty who teach at Top 100 Schools maybe 95% of them teach At top 50 schools we have top Universities and then top hpcu and you Know great state schools in the mix as Well and so I I think generally that's Been the easiest part the reason it Worked was I've been kind of Lucky it's Cuz I think a big part of it is we Called it campus there was a big debate In the beginning should we call this Something College one investor was like You need to call this Obama College like Oh my God like I don't want to get sued By the former president but I'm not Calling it explicitly College in the Name was one of the luckiest smartest Decisions we just locked into when I Talk to these professors like if you're A professor at Princeton you would never Teach at lame online university X

Because you think of that as like way Beneath you right and just it's just not It's kind of diminishing to your brand But because we lucked out and we called It campus I think the professors were Like oh this kind of feels like the Future like Airbnb to hotels or Uber to Taxis it's like campus to traditional Community colleges and and they want to Be a part of it so on top of the Earnings that they receive with us I Think they're they're really excited About the chance of being a part of what Feels to them like the future of higher Education and then on I think the Student side originally it was extremely Hard because I think everyone thought we Were a scam there's been a lot of Bad Actors in the four Prof at higher ed Space and it's like wait what is this And never heard of it I think now that We have graduates and we've had you know More and more students come through the Program and they're featuring in our Marketing it's a lot easier to require Students and to get them involved so you Know that I think just gets easier and Easier the more good outcomes we have Over time outcomes is kind of the only Thing that really matters for the brand Is like do people who go to campus end Up better off than when they started and If they don't then we'll die and if they Do then we'll be a very large very

Successful hopefully enduring business More from this conversation right after A quick Break something I was interested about When I first started looking into this Is how you guys decided to build this From the groundup curriculum wise Because of course you can go to college For so many different Majors so many Different areas and there's so many Different things that fall under all Those areas how did you guys decide like What to offer at first or are you Letting it be Professor led by who's Interested in teaching like how do you Sort of build out the curriculum side of It to make sure the students who are Planning to then continue on do kind of Like have those building blocks they Need yeah we just wanted to continue With what the college was doing prior to Us buying it but then really focus on Nailing what our lens on the curriculum Needed to be and so the college already Had a business administration associates Degree so that's where we focus right Now with our online programs we still Have some inperson like medical Assisting botomy style programs in Sacramento but the online is focused on Business Administration right now and Business is great because almost Anything that you're going to end up Doing particularly when you're a gen Z

Or gen Alpha and you see yourself as Very entrepreneurial the fundamental Skills and knowledge that you're getting At campus in our business program are Going to be so valuable and applicable To whatever you're going to go do Business is the key Focus it's already The most popular associates degree just Generally but we're doing some cool Things we'll be announcing soon like Concentrations like some kids like oh I Don't really want to do business they Don't think of business as for them they Want to do sports management it's like Hey within the business umbrella right Yeah there are so many different Dimensions that are super applicable and And having that strong Foundation across Business in general will set you up for Success and so we're going to be doing Some cool things there yeah and I Definitely want to talk about the Funding aspect of this because I know You guys recently raised a extension Round but you guys have been or at least Seemingly on paper seems to be pretty Successful on the fundraising space Space so I'm definitely curious what That Journey has been like with you guys And was it tough at first to get VCS on Board not to make a weird pun but was There an educational element involved About why they would need to do this Just like what thank you thank you I'm

Here all day but like what was it like Getting people on board insanely hard And then pretty straightforward as of Late one of the things you learn about Fundraising is it's all about finding Fit you know beginning of an Entrepreneurial Journey you're like oh I Just want to pitch as many investors and Convince them to work with me really at Least with campus it turned out to be The case that fundraising success really Came when we thought about who is the Right investor for us and then you just Go and try and let them know hey we Exist Sam Alman was probably the first Big dog who came on the team when we Decided to actually not just be a Software business but actually have a Community college experience as a part Of the product offering and the service We were offering So yeah Jason Citron and Sam Alman Jason Actually introduced me to Sam the Founder of Discord both of whom had Spent time at Community College before Four-year universities and yeah Jason Was just like this is huge our country Needs this I'm all in Connected me with Sam Sam's like I've looked for this for A long time this is before chat was Probably a bit more easy to get a Meeting with him back then than it would Have been if if we were starting now Right yeah he's like yeah I want to fund

This I think our country needs to make College a lot more useful a lot more Skills embedded within the degrees that Are offered it needs to be more Accessible needs to be more efficient And then it needs to be more adaptable I Think obviously he knew what they were Working on with open Ai and the Disruption to the skill sets and the Jobs that people coming straight out of College are going to need to have to be Effective and it's like yeah do you Really think that these traditional Community colleges are going to adapt Quickly enough to be responsive to the Changing landscape probably not so there Needs to be this highly adaptive highly Thoughtful Tech enabled Tech focused Experience that's more efficient and Accessible and successful it actually Helping kids complete so they they're Really excited since then fundraising Has been it used to be like extremely Hard last year was pretty tough because The market was horrible but we got it Done and founder son Came In Trey and Peter there were like super excited About what we were doing which is funny Because you know Peter T has been really Outspoken against College in general Right but you they got on board and have Been huge supporters and Joe lale some Other folks so it's definitely come Together since then it's been a lot of

Inbound it's been a lot a lot easier I Think over the last 12 months and it Would also be great if you could talk a Little bit about why Venture funding Made sense for this business now of Course you're coming at it with that Startup mindset which makes total sense To then turn to VC as a potential way to Fund this but the education space well You don't see really companies doing This in general but like you don't see Community colleges trying to move online And going to raise VC money and things Like that why was VC funding the right Choice for this company as opposed to Say Public money I'm sure you can get grants In this space and things like that There's nearly 2,000 community colleges In America I don't think it's obvious That they're what's the solution to all Our problems another a 2001st and so you Know it's a very novel approach that We've taken that you our least was three Years ago largely unproven I think we've Mostly proven all the core tenants of The model now and you it's working Extremely well but at the time it was Like a high risk High reward massive Problem if you can solve it massive Opportunity to make this country Stronger and better but also if you Capture a small sliver of the market you Could build a massive company it just

Made a lot of sense to go to venture and Then the trick was finding the founders Funds the Sam alans the Jason citrons The Bloomberg Ventures who are looking For those huge outcomes it could have Gone to like private equity and they're Like oh we just want a three extra money In five like that's not who we go for we Go for the people who are like we want This to fundamentally change the way People learn in America and eventually The world I think Silicon Valley is Still the place where you go if you you Know you want funding for moonshots and That's exactly what campus was and I Also want to talk a little bit about the Timing of the company because I know you Guys launched obviously a couple years Before Co but thinking about what Co did To education I know you mentioned a Little bit earlier now that you really Do think Community College is going to Essentially fully move online which I Definitely could understand that Viewpoint entirely how does play into The story do you think that's how you Guys were able to cement yourselves did You guys have good traction prior to That like how much does that play into The story to be clear we started campus Postco campus wire it's the same company Campus wire just are called Zoom for Higher ad product as what we were Building pre-co somewhat luckily in 2019

I was like oh we should add video to Campus wire and then of course the Pandemic hits perfect it was actually Hilarious like we started growing like I Think it was like 200% month over month You know from February 2020 to April 2020 and then it was probably going to Even accelerate beyond that and I Basically went to the board and I was Like hey guys I think we should get out Of the online learning software business Make our software free for all these Universities that are trying to throw Money at us because I don't think this Is going to a last like UCLA kids want To be back on campus like they want to Be dating they want to be making friends They want to be going to parties it's Like that's what the UCLA experience or The Arizona State experience or the ug Experience is about like so all this Revenue that's flooding in I didn't Think was like long-term Revenue that Ended up being true I think a lot of People raised a bunch of money in the Online learning space thinking that that Was going to last forever obviously it Wasn't so that's actually how I started Thinking about hm but what is Sustainable here you start to go well Community College doesn't actually have Frats and sororities there's no Sports You live at home you drive if you look To campus if you live in LA it's like

Really annoying to have to sit in Traffic for 20 minutes take classes then Drive back home late at night like it Actually makes sense to be done fully Online if you could do live online and So it's engaging you still get to have a Social interactivity you still get to Meet face to face with your faculty over Campus wire and your Tas that was what I Thought was going to become the actual Legacy of covid on The Learning Experience side and then on the faculty Side just in the same ways employees Don't want to go back to the office at So many companies the professors are Like yo I could actually teach online You know not all of them want to teach Fully online I think some of them want To teach on campus but the idea of like We had one Professor Steven Kels one of Our earliest professors he teaches at Princeton Monday Wednesday Friday he Used to teach at NYU Tuesday Thursday And he lived in nework New Jersey Because it's equidistant from both and He would literally just run Helter Skelter as my mom likes to say back and Forth from Princeton to New York City I Don't think anyone's willing to do that Anymore like he's just like you I get to Teach on campus from Princeton New Jersey and I could teach at Princeton From Princeton New Jersey and so I think There's massive surge in demand from

Faculty to have these remote teaching Opportunities prior to co none of these Elite professors maybe 10% of professors From Elite schools had ever taught Online it just wasn't something they Ever really done I think it was a big Opportunity for us to say okay wow Everyone got baptized like had this like Huge experience of being forced to learn Online learning and there were bad Practices that they eliminated there Were best practices that they developed Now they're actually interested and They're trained and they're ready to go And so that was the sort of Tailwind That made that a lot more obvious but Largely I think this probably could have Emerged and should have emerged before People just hadn't had the right Confluence of strategy and then like Financing and then founder probably Leadership to actually make it happen And speaking of I was going to ask this Earlier and then the conversation kept Going but I'm going to come back to it Sure when you started campus wire that Wasn't your first startup in the edtech Space either so I'm definitely curious You've built this career of building Companies in the education space I know You mentioned your mom has worked in the Space as well but what got you Interested in building essentially your Career in edtech to begin with it's both

Super obvious if you hear my full story And then also kind of random how I got Into education so the obvious part is Like my paternal grandfather was a College dean in Nigeria University Dean My maternal grandfather was a high School principal my mother's a college Dean my dad started a nursing school When I was I was 10 or 11 in Atlanta Used to drive around Sunday mornings Hand out you know flyers for the nursing School to all the like ethnic churches Like the Korean Church the Jamaican Church like you know to get people to go To the nursing school and then my mother Decided to homeschool my siblings and me I have an older sister two years older Then I have a twin brother my older Sister is basically a genius you put a Book in front of her she just like reads And learns it's that easy so they were Like okay she'll be slowed down in School let's homeschool them my brother And I maybe a little bit less gifted you Know sort of regular people but um they Still homeschooled us anyway and when You're homeschooled in the 90s you spend A lot of time learning online just doing Research if I ask any question my dad Like oh Dad why is Italy shaped like a Boot kicking a rock go look it up and I Go and I'd look it up and it's like you Take actually classes online you do you Know research and so I had like a pretty

Robust and opinionated perspective on What high quality online learning could Be from when I was super young and you Know we did things over Skype at the Time that was the state-ofthe-art anyway I sort of had a perspective on what Could happen but every went tell school And then went to study aerospace Engineering and then kind of lame to Admit it but I watched The Social Network my third year of University and I was like yeah Zuck can do this I can Do this created an app that ended up Going viral was called uni roulette Basically it was like Chat Roulette but You had to have a University email Address to get on I built it with my Roommate at leed's University a guy Called Patrick and then my twin brother Who was studying economics at Oxford at The time kind of blew up hundreds of Thousands of users in the first couple Months and then investors gave us half a Million dollars and they said okay you Got to drop out of college to go work Full-time on this and so that's how I Got into startups and then of course uni Roulette had like this explosive Exponential growth and then like Exponential decay because it was a fad Right and of course we spent the next Like two years trying to like you know Recapture the magic figure out what Happened you know you hired a team moved

To London we like what do we do how do We get the growth you know going again But we never could it it was a fat it Was funny when I saw Clubhouse I was Like I know how this story ends like It's like right yeah it's the same story Realtime social synchronous socials Extremely hard it's almost impossible we Can talk about why if you're curious but Um the one thing we did eventually have That was valuable is we had an Engineering team that knew how to build Both IOS and Android and of course at That point the only experience we really Had in life was education College Dropouts and so we decided to go to Universities and basically build them Basic apps like all the schools wanted The same app it's like oh I need to see The dining hall menu or which speakers Are coming to campus what events are Happening and so we'd make these basic Apps you kind of copy paste the code and Then you go to another school and you Can get them to license it and so that Was how I technically got into education In the Ed Tech space kind of by accident Kind of obvious and I've been headed This way my whole life but uh somewhere In between probably no I love that story About the social network we had a Founder on recently very different Company obviously who's developing like Male birth control but he said he got

The idea from watching and pregnant as a Teenager and and um our general other Co-host Dom and I had this whole Conversation after we were like there's Probably a lot more startup founding Stories that are tied to things like That then people are willing to admit oh Yeah we're like you get ideas in the Randomst times it's not always when You're in that great dinner meeting with That investor and then that idea came From you it's like no it's what you're Doing you were watching The Social Network you're like why can't I build a Company like I love that and I I really Do think there are a lot more stories of Startup founding than people will admit For some reason yeah no for sure I I Mean even again it's a little bit Embarrassing but it's true even before Why did I study aerospace engineering Because I watched The Aviator and I'd Always loved airplanes I'd always loved You know the concept of flying but Watching The Aviator with lard DiCaprio Playing Howard Hughes I was like oh my God like that's my calling that's what I Want to do I W to both you know fly do The engineering stuff and then Eventually do the business stuff as well And he bought tww the airline and anyway So like the that was like movies and and These sort of random things can have a Pretty huge impact on you know what we

Do especially when you're like 17 I Finished high school when I was 16 so For me I was very impressionable at the Time no I became a journalist because I'm nosy Doe Grand reason I do want to ask a bit About though because you have been in This space for so long and so familiar With it and had such a different Experience with education than I think a Lot of us do who just like if you're Like me just went to public school Expected to go to a localish university Did that check check check like move on What was it like hiring for this company Especially at the beginning and sort of Building out the team that you guys have Now because this is both familiar in Some ways to jobs other people may have Had at institutions specifically but it Is so different at the same time Extremely hard the culture is extremely Hard to get right in the beginning it Was just like oh this is a big idea but It's high risk now we've validated you Know all of the core questions in the Business and so I think it's much easier To get worldclass Talent on board but Then there's still this culture question Of like do you want to bring in people Who are like lifetime education experts Who may work at a community college Today or a fouryear university or a high School or like a Teach for America sty

Program or do you want to bring in these Like operationally excellent people from Airbnb and Uber and door Dash who Actually know how to change the world And build great technology and and build Scalable systems and make sure all the Trains come and go on time and it's like I think the answer is you have to do Both and then that creates a really Challenging problem around like the Culture like they're very different Kinds of cultures right if we can nail It figuring out how to combine and which Roles it obviously varies by role you Don't want software Engineers who work For universities because the good ones Never have maybe your student support Role it's easier to find people who are Passionate about helping young people You know they're typically already Working in that in that area if we can Solve this culture problem I think it Becomes a huge superpower long term and So that's why we're investing in trying To but it's not easy the way people Communicate is not the same you know I'm On this call with you and I'm like I Keep calling a business cuz you know I'm A startup guy but then it's like Business sounds weird like this is Education okay so it's an organization Like which do you call like it's like It's not obvious how to normalize these Things and and you just don't want to be

A traditional Community College because Their models don't work almost none of Them I don't know if there's a single Community College in the country that Has a balance sheet that's upside up if You remove these local state and Government subsidies right and at the Same time you don't want to go the boot Camp route where you're like the Traditional High Ed knows nothing and Everything's wrong and we're going to do Everything a new and and actually you're Just going to end up like harming Students because you're careless and You're moving fast and you're breaking Things so it's like you need this Delicate balance that has to be struck And I think we're getting there but we Still have some more uh way to go no That makes sense because I've always Found that process super interesting I Have a really good friend who works in Higher ed she's a professor but she also Does research and some administrative Stuff as well and even is talking about Like a job interview in my head there's Like a very Standard Process me with a Few people maybe you have like a test Related to the skills for the job same With like my field my boyfriend's field Etc she was telling me about some of our Like interviews recently and she was Like oh yeah you know that's like five To six hours you do like a 2hour

Presentation you do and I was just like What are you talking about and she was Like no this is literally how it works So it is interesting to think about Trying to combine those two worlds cuz Anything she tells me about working in Academia I'm like wait what happened do That why she's like that's just how they Do it and now you know why I didn't want To sell software into the institution Like the universities because they buy Software that way as well like let's Have an eight hour committee debate Around it's like no no that makes no Sense but we're cling up against time But I wanted to ask you before we wrap Up here you guys have just raised recent Funding you guys are catching this Momentum what's next walk me through What it looks like the next three five Years what are you envisioning for Campus long term I think any able-bodied Person should to raise their hand and Say I want to do something useful with My life they come to campus and we'll do Three things for them the first is we Will be able to help you figure out your Purpose you the Japanese call eeky guy But it's like what's the intersection of What you're naturally gifted in you're Passionate about and basically what the World is willing to pay you for it's a Bit of a simplification but like what is That and a lot of young people today

They don't have any clue you know oh They like fashion but they think they Have to basically be a model or a Designer and it's like actually there's Like merchandise manager supply chain Like special like there's like 30 Different other less obvious careers and So you know we help them Define that Figure out their purpose then we helped Them create a plan so it's like Five-step plan to going from working at Chipotle today to where you want to be And then we help them get the skills and The knowledge that they need to get the Career and the life that they want and Then we give them a credential a degree That basically validates to the rest of The world hey I have these skills and This knowledge and then most of them are Going to go transfer into a four-year University you know our first graduating Class just completed two of them are Going to Penn State one's going to Arizona State University one's going to San Diego State like these are great Outcomes and not a single one of them Has any loans not a dollar in student Loans and so what I would love to see is Like at scale over the next you know Five years anybody in America can come To campus and eventually the world and Like get that support that they need to Build the life that they want you know Shorter term we're going to be expanding

You know the different kinds of programs We offer there's some really cool things Coming up around AI and other more Mundane but really exciting Fields as Well marketing sports management Etc and It's about quality like we need to be Excellent at every aspect of everything We do from the moment a student picks up The phone or goes to our website talks To one of our team it needs to be Excellent like we're literally building An office in in Atlanta because I grew Up in Georgia the friendliest people in America like just super friendly awesome People so that's going to be our like Student support Hub I want the best Experience for every single student all The way through and then scaling up the Faculty Network you know that's going Really well the faculty are really Excited and then helping students do That next thing so either transfer into A foury year which most of them want to Do Orlando an awesome job no that sounds Like a great goal and I'm sad we of time Cuz I feel like I have so many more Questions but thanks so much for coming On the show today this has been super Fun found is hosted by myself TechCrunch Senior reporter Becca scac alongside Senior reporter Dominic madori Davis Found is produced by Maggie stamitz with Editing by Kell our illustrator is Bryce Durban founds audience development and

Social media is managed by Morgan little Alyssa Stringer and Natalie chman Tech Crunch's audio products are managed by Henry pck of it thanks for listening and We'll be back next week