Strategy Discussion with Tim Joo: Corporate Campus Schools and Parent Movement Building

This transcript captures a strategy conversation between Gary Sheng and Tim Joo discussing parent outreach for corporate campus schools and strategic initiatives for Alpha Schools.

Gary Sheng: Good news. Yeah. I basically said, you know, I want the whole funnel... yeah, and he was like, cool, a thousand parents, you need a timeline. Thousand a day.

Tim Joo: And uh thousand what does thousand people parents mean though?

Gary Sheng: Um, that get their kid into the high school into some school at at full price, I like I don't give a fuck. Like, well, we'll figure out though we'll figure it out how to go, yeah. We're basically look, that huge, let just start working together.

Tim Joo: Yeah, that's huge figure, man.

Gary Sheng: I mean like I mean, it's it's one step and one small step of... but I needed that clarity. Because I was doing like 10 things at the end they dude, like, okay. I won't roll over you know, it almost doesn't need to be overexplained, but, like there's so many people I was taking ownership of a lot of it, right? Like, cool.

There was so many issues with the high school that I was taking ownership, it was like fragmenting the time, but like it was also great for those like, I'm happy with that, but trust me, I just I just heard some more for just talking to Jack and and Garrett like they they were talking cause I was asking them about the customer conversion process, right? And it kind of geared out something else, but they were like, they were like, yeah, we have like three or four teams that way it takes, something that should take two days, sometimes three weeks, because we can use like this there's three or four teams they don't respond, everything is disjointed. Everything is streamlined and I'm like hearing this and I'm like I'm running a dictatorship under me.

Tim Joo: So exactly, let's work the other...

Gary Sheng: And so basically, I wanna dominate central Texas, okay. And you know what I wanna do? I want to, um, and the actual corporation could be different, but it's like Apple school. Google school. For school. Okay. And my goal is to open up, you know, the reason I'm not I've actually punted on the faith based stuff, you know why?

Tim Joo: Why?

Gary Sheng: Because unless it's a well an explicitly wealth focused church, which makes no sense, by the way, they're just against the principles... afford it, right? So I'm literally shutting out everything else, right? Joe gave me a directive to get wealthy parents on board.

I look, I'm I'm trying to put my own data for shit, you know, cause like, when I'm ready to fucking really compete with Apple schools in general, I will have to do I will have no problem communicating my vision, right? But Joe, this is what he wants. Thousand students at 40K a year.

Tim Joo: Wow, okay right?

Gary Sheng: And he didn't give me a timeline. Well, ultimately, for you know that we you know that it's more than anything about a process... like, you don't wanna over overly scale something, we don't even know works yet. So, we need to do our first parent event, right? Um, and one person I'm bringing on is beef. I don't know if I mentioned him. I seen him refer to in your...

So beef is a... give me a deal for Kanye, he, uh was a executive producer of Vice. He just really get the media perfect person to work with office. So, this is an example of a co-operation, right? At, you know, ten to 20 students each. Okay. Each by fall 2026, 2025. And the only way is and look. Funny thing is, if they don't approve this, then I'm gonna coast.

But I'm you know what, do you know what this owning the outcome allows me to do? It's like, Joe, your fucking owned staff is in my fucking way. I'm owning this. Give me the fucking budget. Or tell me how much you're paying these fucking people cause I can undercut them. I can find people that are way better. We don't have a funnel cost, bro. They don't have any of these fucking numbers track. They have no they have nothing. And they have no urgency, right?

So I railroad through everything we needed to basically make this happen. And so right now, the the three things I'm committing to, and you updated, and we should be warming this out. Look. I'mma I'll reiterate just to make it super clearer. But I actually didn't say this far. I see you as a warlord... I feel like you were a warlord in the past life. Right? Don't you feel that way?

Tim Joo: Yeah, sometimes, yeah.

Gary Sheng: Yeah, dude, you're like a chief you're like a chieftain. Like, and uh. I've actually I've actually told myself that. Yeah, but but then you need to work on things that fit that archetype, right? And this is the topic.

What we practically want to do is get parents pissed. That that that they even were even considering sending their kids to a normal ass elementary middle school. Like, you know what I'm saying? And to your point about like the um like getting the getting the parents that are in transition, it's like a six year old that's about about to go to elementary school or like or the other, you know, the other stages. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Political team, um do you agree with that?

Tim Joo: Absolutely absolutely, yeah.

Gary Sheng: I just see it a harder for six to seven, absolutely... because then they have friends and everything, right? Trump political team, um movement like a parent parent movement team. Is like events, et cetera... um I will request budget for like the you will organically find these charismatic parents. And then we will request separate budget for that, right? I don't wanna sell too much things at once.

But it's like basically like it's like one one event per campus, right? I mean, corporate campus. Right? And then the final thing is um I mean, you can start to see how, like my my life is way more focused is gonna be super way more focused. Well, that's no, that's actually it. Dude, this is actually it. Um, and it's it's very possible that this pays for this. Is in like, you.

So let me explain the executive order, right? Yeah. The executive order is basically the first phase of it is basically Trump is like, all my department heads. I'm not looking anything. All my department heads, what AI what futuristic education stuff do you want to allocate red line to? That's so there was a nine day timer for that. It was about 75 days left, right? Um, because it was announced on the day before that we talked about at the layout paper. So, I don't know, but it's like around 75 days left. Gotta move. We gotta we have to influence um the the writing of the grant policies, you understand?

And so, but it's also like, okay, then then let's fucking work with the manufacturing companies. And that bad, Google doesn't even do manufacture what it does AI, right? So that actually be great. So, look, so it's basically AI corporate campuses. Manufacturing, right? It's like one one or both, right? It's like hard tax for AI, right? And then we can literally get the school prefunded by the government by the federal government.

Tim Joo: So would be the school would it be the corporations?

Gary Sheng: Could be? I think we have... I guess I guess the reason why this is so exciting is because we can get multiple... like it could literally be dude it could literally be profitable from day one, right? Unlike all this shit, which is the opposite of that, yeah, right? Every fucking hit is probably spent two from here. And then then end up with throw on scholarship, Joe spending another two K, right? It's ridiculous. Well, this is it, right?

And then it's like, I'm not even even having to budget for this, but I will, you know, any time that I'm that Joe's in the office, you you text me and I'll like, shout you, I'll literally shout you out. Like, I'll go in the office, just show you out. But you do that for me too.

Tim Joo: Yeah, for sure.

Gary Sheng: Just so he associates with our ourselves together, but it's like Tim you, right? So, cause I'm not requesting additional budget for for that, because you're already being paid. But these are the new things that has the budget for, okay? So, this is not overriding this stuff yesterday, this stuff that yesterday this is this this this literally that. Okay, so it's the stuff in the yesterday allied to. That is the direction. It's literally that. Yeah. I just to make sure.

Well, dude, it emergently happened because I was like pissed because my friend Ron, I figures if you met him.

Tim Joo: I don't think so.

Gary Sheng: But my friend Ron, who literally dude, I have the whole video of I was just standing here. Ron and I had a whole whiteboard only laying out the future out the school, right? Cool. And then I was like first I had this hiring rock, this is, he said yes. And then he's dragging this fucking feet and had to, like, literally hold piece of fire and be like, what the fuck are you go? You said yes.

And we're gonna help you a lot. And and then you were like, well, what? How many students are gonna bring? And I was like, I was like thinking about the response, I like, how many do you want? No, no, I literally said, how many do you want? He said a thousand. I was like, done. Because they you know no one else would do this.

Tim Joo: Yeah, I know.

Gary Sheng: So you and I together will fucking crush this, okay. Um okay. So let's talk this out loud. I'm recording this...

So, why let me almost quiz you, why are we going to why do we both believe that faith communities are good for Alpha's future long term, but also not the right fit right now, given in lieu of the Trump administration in lieu of the in lieu of the the desire to get revenue and profitability?

Tim Joo: You know, with Austin being a hub for I mean politically there's a revenue of political monies on the table. We have a 75 day government window, right? 75 days, so that should take priority over everything else...

Gary Sheng: Faith base will take, not that it will take long, no, no. I mean, churches are going out. All like they're not doing anything. The the the desire for church schools is just latent potential, ready to be unlocked any time, right? But the the the MAGA subsidies of these schools is gonna go away, yeah.

It ironically, though, our work can help Trump stay powerful because education and manufacturers is anyone can get behind, right? And so that's I'm literally yes, I'm literally saying our actions will help Joe become way more powerful and Trump be more powerful, and honestly, bro. I will pitch Trump golf school in fucking Austin. And so he can literally be right next to these fucking pages...

Tim Joo: Well, that's that's that's one that'll appeal to him for sure.

Gary Sheng: 100%, dude. And you know that he has no Trump towers or golf courses in Texas all all over all the none of Texas. And people ask me, why it is. I don't fucking know, you ask him, but but like he he he is strategic about his real estate right? He has a a DC capital, he has Mar-a-Lago Florida, but now he doesn't have Texas. He needs a he needs a war room. He needs a war room disguised as a golf course, right? That...

Tim Joo: Yes, that makes sense.

Gary Sheng: Well, I mean, Texas needs like a conservative... it's going to be the most powerful city besides DC in the world. And actually, it'll go power for people, right for DC. So Austin Austin and DC if with with our actions, you know, like Peter Thiel talks about definite optimism? Bro, like we can make Austin the second capital of the US.

Tim Joo: That's funny that you said there because I've always believed there and we could make this is before we had this conversation that we could make Austin the AI capital but of the US.

Gary Sheng: Right, coming in we can make it the cultural capital. We can make it the education capital. We can make it a lot of capital. We can make it a golf capital, we can make it everything... Literally, the only thing that will be competing is DC with this monopoly on federal funding, we'll be fine. And then guess what? I I have a plan to create a DC, right?

I will strategically... my spiky POV is that we wanna focus on on schools, we can start within a 30 minute driving radius. Because we want to be able to micromanage that process, make sure there's quality, yeah. We don't know what the learning experience is gonna be, but it's gotta be top of the line and said we're gonna have to be. We're gonna have to be there and looking in the weeds, right? Selecting every single person, right, and making sure everything is perfect for us. Super attention to detail.

Tim Joo: Yes.

Gary Sheng: As we build momentum with the first three pilot schools, we will get so much demand for every campus having one of these, and then we can start considering expanding to faith-based stuff. But what about what about moving to other cities in Texas? Like Houston, actually, let me walk that back, here.

Beyond the faith base stuff. We were gonna just nail the corporate campus plan, and then what we're gonna do is we are going to go to Dallas, like you said, San Antonio, and like those... Dallas?

Tim Joo: Yeah, our next thing would then is to do, yeah.

Gary Sheng: And then Houston to oil and gas, whatever, energy, but there's just tremendous money in Highland Park Dallas, yeah. Like you know it, everyone knows it. SMU, look at you know it.

Tim Joo: Oh yeah.

Gary Sheng: SMU is like... dude don't don't assume anyone knows anything about... okay, cool. No one knows. Okay? Dude. Dude, do you know why Joe loves brainlifts?

Tim Joo: Cause he gets to absorb people's brains.

Gary Sheng: That's a good point. He's literally being like, I'll distill your best insights into four points. I'm gonna absorb it. Have you seen the Japanese movie "The One"?

Tim Joo: Yeah, of course.

Gary Sheng: He said, yeah. That that makes sense. It's a good analogy. Classic movie too. Joe is Joe is like trying to absorb the smartest people in the world. Yeah, you can do it right, yeah. Or at least report it. It's his version of your CIAPs other way.

Tim Joo: Yeah. 100%. It's like a CI knowledge file, exactly.

Gary Sheng: Combine with that, yeah. All right, man. Um, so I wanted to just kind of run that by you.

Tim Joo: No, I think it's tremendous. It makes sense.

Gary Sheng: So what can I what can I do to help you so obviously, I'm not the political stuff, whatever, I'm gonna have to think about how I'm gonna strategy... I think I think that you help me deep research all all of the top differences. Rank them based on where we should start first, and how we can start. I would even say, like, what are upcoming events that we will definitely bump into? I don't know, you know what I'm saying? Like, how do we get the funnel going? It's your...

Tim Joo: So, in my head, I'm like I have a friend who works as a program manager at Apple, so perhaps I can ask him for... I don't I don't know how to skin this, though, like a community... is it a community initiative? Because I have community program managers at these big tech companies.

Gary Sheng: I believe so. I think it'll be all case by case, right? Because you'll have a community manager that's like, I'm in charge of the community and hm, I don't wanna like this. It's like it doesn't fucking matter what they like. Doesn't matter, yeah.

Tim Joo: Okay. So how about this? Give me give me until tomorrow. I have research the shit out of this. That's all I'm gonna do today.

Gary Sheng: Well, I'm not I'm not even blocked on on that research, but but the project is blocked. Sorry, the approval is not blocked on this, but us actually having a good plan to execute on, you're blocked on this? You know, take your time to... well, don't take your time. No, I'm just doing a good job, but like, yeah, I'll I'll get it'll I'll thinking about it in a lot I have a day job.

Tim Joo: I do want I wanna get moving on this right away. We only have 75 days. It is really not a long time. And you're going to the White House this weekend, right?

Gary Sheng: Next week. Next week, okay, cool. Yeah, so, ideally we have all of our talking points ready for me to be in DC to have great meetings.

Tim Joo: When are you going to DC what day?

Gary Sheng: It could be Tuesday. So I I might have meetings just literally Tuesday through Friday. Just strategically, then it would need to be done well before Monday or at least before. But I think we would iterate on it together all the weekend. Maybe we can meet on Saturday. Fine as well, right. I mean I'll be around Friday, too. So I can be available at office tomorrow, okay, or whatever... you let me know, if you want work here, by the way, or wherever you know, but I'll I'll get to work look how much of a kind of this is I's that's super.

I didn't know it was you, though, but I imagine though, it is definitely not someone in the board. Cool. All right, man, we'll good stuff. Thanks for popping on and let's crush it, man. That's this is amazing work. Putting all our max efforts. You know one else's doing this. It's true. You'll remember that.

I can... let's go meet in another podcast area. All right, see you guys. I'm heading out I don't even know him.