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2025-05-09-superbuilders-stefanie-baduria-school-expansion

id: "2025-05-09-superbuilders-stefanie-baduria-school-expansion" title: "Meeting Summary: Super Builders & Stefanie Baduria on School Expansion & Tech Needs" date: "2025-05-09" participants: ["Stefanie Baduria", "Gary Sheng", "Jack Oremus", "Arpan Gupta", "Norman Qian", "Spencer Chubb", "Benjamin Vizy", "Unidentified Speakers"] related_people: ["stefanie-baduria", "jack-oremus", "arpan-gupta", "norman-qian", "spencer-chubb", "benjamin-vizy"]​

Meeting Summary: Super Builders & Stefanie Baduria on School Expansion & Tech Needs

Date: 2025-05-09

1. Introduction & Purpose (0:20 - 2:05)​

Stefanie Baduria (Head of K-8, Alpha Schools) convened the meeting with the "Super Builders" (Gauntlet graduates) following Joe Liemandt's directive to utilize their skills for scaling Alpha School operations. She presented a "wish list" of tech needs and sought to understand the builders' passions and align projects.

Stefanie Baduria: "We have a team of super brilliant people who have graduated from Gauntlet who are at your disposal to build whatever apps or things you need to make all the things you do scalable. And so I built that. That was kind of the inspiration for the wish list I built."

2. Guide Training at Scale (2:05 - 7:43)​

Arpan Gupta (Stratifyd) initiated discussion on guide training, a critical need for their goal of launching 1,200 micro-schools for coaches. Stefanie described Alpha's current guide training as effective but costly and manual ("highly manual, very in-person, and super white glove, and very expensive").

Stefanie Baduria: "My goal would be to be able to achieve the same outcome which is guides who are super confident and competent to live through the three commitments to every single kid at a brand new alpha if there were no veteran guides around them. I would love that same thing without the super high touch white glove..."

Heather Staker is tasked with creating a scalable version, initially for teachers licensing 2R Learning. Stefanie suggested Arpan's team could add value by integrating AI and rigorous learning measurement.

Gary Sheng noted his recent meeting with Heather, who is identifying manual frustrations ripe for tech solutions. Stefanie gave a "low hanging fruit" example: transforming student persona GPTs into talking avatars for simulated guide conversations.

Stefanie Baduria: "we created student personas like the lazy smart kid or the super diligent, quiet...we turn them into gpts and in my head it would be so cool if we turn them into like actual talking avatars that the guide can have a simulated conversation with..."

Jack Oremus shared their current process of using custom GPTs to QC transcripts of student check-ins, suggesting this data could train the avatar students. Stefanie confirmed a "treasure trove" of such data (3 school years of recordings/transcripts) is available.

3. Guide Hiring & Quality (8:31 - 12:18)​

Gary Sheng questioned the cost of acquiring high-quality guides and the importance of the initial hiring funnel. Stefanie acknowledged working with Crossover for hiring is "not perfect" (citing a .001% applicant-to-hire rate) but involves more than just CCAT scores (e.g., real work assignments). She is open to improvements, potentially using the simulated persona tech for candidate assessment.

Stefanie Baduria: "I think my hiring percentage from applicants to who I actually hire is like .001%. So yes, it could be better... I would love a super tailored experience from hitting a lot." Gary Sheng: "Well, to your own idea, be the whole like simulated persona thing and like scenario stuff, like that would be itself like a pretty big step... improvement possibly, right?"

4. Specific Tech Wish List Items (12:18 - 15:20, 30:30 - 35:27)​

  • Student Personas/Playbooks: Norman Qian expressed interest in the student personas and strategies for motivation.
  • Schedule Master: Arpan Gupta inquired; Stefanie clarified it's for non-academic operational logistics (lunch schedules, van routes), not curriculum.
  • Curriculum Scheduling (2R Learning): Stefanie confirmed lesson plans are AI-pushed, not manual.
  • Stefanie's Top 3 Wish List Items:
    1. "Second Brain on Every Kid": To know every student deeply. Jack Oremus mentioned he and Garrett are working on student profiles to help new guides. Stefanie cautioned about balancing AI support with guides developing rapport-building skills. > Stefanie: "I think a really great guide. It takes three weeks to establish a relationship where you become the trusted adult. So we can tighten that up... I really do want the guide to be the expert in the kid that's gathering this stuff."
    2. "Life Course Stuff": For the afternoon curriculum, considered "bread and butter."
    3. "Stef Bot" / "Staffer": An AI assistant for guides to get quick help, trainable on Stefanie's existing resources/FAQs. > Stefanie: "If there was a Stef bot, that would be pretty cool because it could help a lot of people without me having to jump on a lot of calls... I would love a stuffer, as some of my guides have called it."
  • Guide Agent / 2R Learning Coaching App (40:20 - 42:25): An app to help adults monitor student progress in 2R Learning (e.g., stuck, cruising). Arpan Gupta (Stratifyd) expressed strong interest in this for ensuring top 1-2% results. > Stefanie: "Just something to give the guide a quick snapshot of where they need to go spend their time..."

5. New School Concepts & Starting Schools (15:20 - 26:55, 27:07 - 30:20)​

Gary Sheng asked about the feasibility of starting a quality school by Fall 2025. Stefanie: "Is it possible? Yeah, I'm an ambitious gal. I'd say with the right people, you could get it done." She mentioned having a "building a school" framework.

Gary then pitched numerous new school concepts, seeking Stefanie's feedback and willingness to collaborate:

  • Schools near Central Texas corporate campuses (Apple, Oracle).
  • Schools near Musk facilities (Tesla, Boring Co.), referencing Alpha Brownsville near SpaceX. Stefanie mentioned Paige and Jamie are working on this and the Valencia Academy in Bastrop (for Boring Co.).
  • A school with Zachary Levi (film/performing arts) in Bastrop.
  • Specialized schools (e.g., F1, adjusting starting grade to specialty).
  • A "Trump golf school" (elite, traveling, reality show potential).
  • Large-scale initiatives/multiple schools: Chicago (BOLD, Chance the Rapper, Northwestern, Gov. Pritzker), Los Angeles (Kendrick Lamar's team, "forward deployed film school" post-fires), DC (Georgetown Day School successor), Riyadh, Dubai, China.
  • A school with Lael Alexander ("MIT for grades 4-12") in Austin.

Stefanie expressed enthusiasm for all ideas: "I would love to talk about building any kind of school because it's so fun."

Spencer Chubb asked about starting new schools versus getting existing schools to adopt Alpha's system. Both Gary and Stefanie agreed starting from scratch is often easier if student demand is handled, avoiding resistance to change.

Stefanie Baduria: "Starting a school from scratch is easier than trying to convince people who are skeptical to use two-hour learning and completely design their system and their culture to embrace it and integrate it." Gary Sheng: "to whatever extent starting a school is painful, we are failing. That's our whole value prop."

6. Project Ownership & Next Steps (37:01 - End)​

  • Life Core: Benjamin Vizy expressed strong interest, mentioning his focus on charting life progress and plans for Japan. Gary suggested his audio/voice note tech might be relevant.
  • Alpha Economy: Spencer Chubb stated someone is already building this. He also offered to take on Life Core or Student Second Brains if needed.
  • Guide Agent / 2R Learning Coaching: Arpan Gupta claimed this for Stratifyd.
  • Project Tracking: Jack Oremus highlighted the need for a master list of initiatives and owners. Gary mentioned Dallas Klein already started this for Alpha High projects and proposed up-leveling it for all Alpha schools, with Dallas as a central sync point. Stefanie agreed.
  • "Guide Light" Training (42:40 - 44:37): Arpan Gupta asked about a condensed training for experienced coaches. Stefanie said it doesn't exist but could potentially be derived from existing materials via AI.
  • Standing Meeting: Agreed for Gary, Jack, and Stefanie to have a standing meeting to keep initiatives moving.
  • Action Item: Builders to add their names to Column K (of a shared document, presumably Stefanie's wish list) for project interest.

7. Key Philosophical Points from Gary Sheng​

  • Financial commitments are the truest metrics of parent interest.
  • Alpha's "secret sauce" is the human connection and love from guides, enabled by AI handling core academics. > Gary Sheng: "the AI is here to just get the common core out of the way, basically, to allow for the human guides to be awesome cheerleaders and awesome humans that like love for love and support..."

8. Final Seed Planted by Gary Sheng (44:43)​

Lael Alexander (Shenzhen architect) is interested in starting an "MIT for grades 4-12" in Austin.