A Word Before You Start, Ron

Ron,

Heard you're officially starting Monday. Good. Before you dive in, a few thoughts.

First, I understand your frustration, Ron. I'm not the best communicator; as you know, I'm candidly overextended. But here's why I don't feel guilty about that: You just never know who is going to stand out. You don't know who's going to surprise you from a group of people—some have credentials, some don't. But sometimes the people that didn't even finish high school end up really adding 100X to 1000X value to your enterprise. I've seen this multiple times. And look, you could very much be one of those people. Some additional context might be helpful: even an expedited hiring process for us has sometimes taken six weeks. I don't feel like I have to explain that a two-week onboarding period is nothing for any corporation of any size, of any innovation profile. Two weeks is completely normal. And yes, I have begun to process Gary's bringing new people around, which is why I have expressed interest in hiring Michael Gindell for sports partnerships. But just know, I appreciate all your patience here and how long it's taken. Which again, is quite literally three times faster than even what we had previously called an expedited process for onboarding someone like you.

Second thing I want to say is, I understand you and Gary have great ambitions and great desire for impact on this organization. You have a lot of skill sets, a lot of experiences, a lot of passions that, honestly, I understand could perfectly fit within solving just about any problem that Alpha Schools has. It'll really relieve a lot of burden if it works out with you guys. But having a good place to start, that candidly does not force me to introduce you as a shadow CEO, makes a lot of sense, wouldn't you agree? Please understand the political dynamics of this organization that's been around far longer than the one to one-and-a-half months that Gary has been around, and the two weeks that you've been around. Respect the operation that allows you to even be part of this, and you will get a lot more respect from other people who you will need to build alliances with in order to get anything done.

I'm still reviewing your proposal for this big parent event, but I appreciate you finally understanding what I've learned over many, many years of trying to figure out how to convert paying customers: parents are the ultimate decision-makers. Parents are the ones that ultimately swipe the cards. Parents are ultimately the ones that decide to pull out a student, even if the kid is having fun, right? The parent has a broader, longer-term scope and ultimately has the power to decide what school their kid goes to. The parent is the one that has to decide to move where the family lives, possibly for better educational opportunities. It's all about the parents, if you had to choose one or the other. And yes, I understand that you have interest in student empowerment, great. Weave students into the events as well. Then you can make it a family event and let the family collectively get excited and decide. So I like the direction there.

Regarding Arthur: I understand your frustration with Arthur. Arthur is a trusted contributor to Trilogy and now here. He has kept us disciplined, even if he had frustrations with the efficiency of my spend—trust me, he has frustrations as well, and he has helped me be a lot more disciplined. Even though I know we have a lot of work to do, if you want to help us out with the efficiency, just stick around. I know that you'll be able to help. Trust the process.

Third thing I want you to know is I appreciate you starting to understand that it is very much about alchemizing the resources that I've already put in front of you. Imagine a large, somewhat only very loosely coordinated collective of people that has its own cliques and cultures, but really trying to work in unison to help these kids. If you feel like you are a good leader who can help out in a lot of different ways, drive synchronized movements forward, drive efficiencies... I'm all ears. Look, I advised Elon on dodging Twitter, and then I advised on the construction of Doge itself in D.C. I'm no stranger to this. I've been around the block. Literally, multiple cycles. I've been doing this for over a decade longer than you've been alive; some of my ventures started before you were born. And so even though history doesn't repeat, it certainly rhymes, and you have to respect people that have been around the block and understand that you have to expand a team before you contract it and find the people that can efficiently drive long-term value. We have yet to see you do that for us yet. Be a little bit patient before being overly arrogant about your place in this organization.

And remember, this is a crazy opportunity for you. You have all these friends across culture, politics, education, community building, and just young geniuses and older mentors, wealthy people, all of the above that you can start bringing in. You can add value. The mere existence of the Alpha platform is giving your network 10X, 100X the value. Never forget that.

Finally, I want to end on a very optimistic note. Look, here's a path forward for you. If you nail this current event, you nail the follow-up, you ultimately lead to 100+ conversions, yes, I will endorse you to do this in Florida. I will endorse you to do this in California. I'll endorse you to do this in Chicago. I'll endorse you to do this in other places to build tons of demand, like Gary did in the First Supper event. And you know, by virtue of the fact that this is a cross-departmental enterprise, you are practicing the skills of being a member of an executive support team for me. And look, when we're looking to figure out who should be executive leadership in the next year or two, just know that this is the exact path that you want to be on.

So be grateful, because I'm grateful that you are here. But again, be grateful that you have this opportunity. This is the opportunity of a lifetime. Don't mistake it.

Be great.

Joe Liemandt