Transcript Summary: Tim Joo & Jason Applebaum (2025-05-23)

1. Introduction & Tim's Goal

• Tim Joo (YNG) initiated the meeting to understand Alpha's marketing funnel, from top-of-funnel awareness to customer conversion, and to gather branding collateral.
• Tim's Objective: To inform the development of a new, high-cost ($40k-$65k/year) sports-focused Alpha school in California, similar to IMG Academy, a project he's working on with Pat Azi.

  "[My] goal... I had a conversation with Amelia about the customer conversion flow. I wanted to understand the entire process from when a prospect expresses some form of interest in Alpha... all the way to I'm committing my child in enrollment in Alpha... I also didn't have any information about the top of the funnel... How do we get people who have absolutely no knowledge of Alpha to even... expressing interest." - Tim Joo "Exploring like an Alpha school that's more geared towards sports, but still has a high, high enrollment cost for California, like an IMG Academy style Alpha school in California, right?" - Tim Joo

2. Jason's Initial Thoughts & Differentiating the IMG Model

• Jason Applebaum emphasized that an IMG-type school would target a "very different type of family" and require a "very different approach" than existing Alpha schools.
• Recommendation: Jason strongly advised Tim to speak with Jamal Gross from Texas Sports Academy (TSA), who is reportedly already thinking about evolving TSA into an IMG-type model.

  "If we're going to set up an IMG type school, we are talking about very different type of family... And a very different approach, in my opinion." - Jason Applebaum "Have you spoken to Jamal Gross about any of this as well?... Like he's going to be the guy that I would listen to more than anybody about how to set something like this up." - Jason Applebaum

3. Current Alpha Marketing Learnings & Strategy

• Jason's Role & Context: Joined Alpha in December as the first marketing leader. Found dispersed efforts, no centralized reporting, branding, or messaging. Currently in a phase of rapid, weekly evolution.

  "I joined in December, and before I joined, there really wasn't a marketing leader running anything... a lot of the things that we're doing right now are new and evolving, like literally weekly." - Jason Applebaum

• Key Success Channels & Content:
  • Social Media: Effective for storytelling with inspiring video content (kids' achievements, parent testimonials).

    "A lot of the business that we get comes from social media, because social media is a great channel at being able to tell a story and tell it really effectively with inspiring video and content." - Jason Applebaum

  • Kid & Parent Testimonials: Videos of kids discussing their experiences and parents sharing positive changes are crucial.

    "We're finding that videos with kids talking about their day, talking about their experiences... Those are really, really, really important for pretty much all of the schools." - Jason Applebaum

  • "Spiky POVs" (Previously): Mackenzie Price's provocative messaging (no teachers, AI learning) attracted early adopters frustrated with the traditional system.
  • Shift to "Credibility Content": Jason is now focusing on content that explains how and why the model works, showcasing stats, learning science, and AI analysis to build trust with a broader audience.

    "Now I'm really trying to work on what I'm calling credibility content. Content that shows how this works, why this works, the stats, the years and years of science learning that we analyze and model this after." - Jason Applebaum

• Addressing Parent Concerns: Smoothing out radical messaging as some parents are "scared" by no teachers, AI-led learning, and the aggressive approach.

4. Marketing an IMG-Style School: Jason's Advice

• Impressive Coaching Staff: Essential to have trainers with high-level backgrounds (e.g., ex-pro athletes like at TSA).

  "First and foremost, you're going to have to have some folks there that are training these kids that have really impressive backgrounds. TSA has got that marked off, right?" - Jason Applebaum

• Competitive Teams: A current challenge for TSA is the lack of teams competing against other schools. This would be important for an IMG model.
• The Two-Hour Learning Model Advantage: A strong selling point could be allowing students to complete rigorous academics efficiently, leaving more time for elite sports training.

  "The two hour learning model allows them to say, OK, come to school, get your academics done. Excel at them... You have the rest of the day. Go find your coach." - Jason Applebaum

• Building Trust in a New Market:
  • Understand Competitive Landscape: Identify deficiencies and gaps in the existing sports training market.
  • Impressive Facility: Necessary to compete.
  • Initial Cohort: Consider finding an entire team or group of families to join together for initial trust and comfort.
• Leveraging Existing Credibility: Tim mentioned a connection with a successful volleyball coach in Orange County, CA, with a strong track record, which Jason acknowledged as valuable.

5. Alpha's Marketing Operations & Challenges

• Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): Jason doesn't have a clean number due to previously inaccurate and decentralized reporting.
  • Guesstimate for a new high-cost school: $1,000 - $5,000 per student within the first year, likely starting much higher.

    "I'm going to guess that it's going to be between a thousand and five thousand per student to start with... If you could get to between a thousand and five thousand dollars as a as like a target range within the first, let's say, year." - Jason Applebaum

• Reporting Issues: A "major, major" challenge due to lack of centralized systems and processes before Jason's arrival. Now being improved.
• Attribution: Described as "both" a software and process problem. Inefficient initial setups.
• Jason's Recommended Marketing Funnel/Process Setup:
  1. Define Admissions Process First (Bottom-Up): Establish clear steps, how they're measured, managed, and automated (e.g., in HubSpot). School visits are paramount.

     "Really establish what your admissions process is going to be before anything else... start from the very bottom of the funnel and work your way up." - Jason Applebaum

  2. Cost per School Visit: Alpha can get people to a showcase/info session for $70-$300/person. Conversion beyond that is "muddy."
  3. Clean Funnel for Tracking: Ensure tracking pixels and processes are correct to measure ad spend effectiveness granularly.
• Software & Systems:
  • HubSpot: Jason likes and uses it for managing customer touchpoints, events, meetings, communications, automation, and tasks.

    "I like HubSpot. I've used it everywhere I've been almost... It can and should own almost every aspect of your touchpoints with their customers." - Jason Applebaum

  • Student Information System (SIS): A separate back-end tool is needed for secure student/parent information (IEPs, grades, performance data), which needs to connect with the marketing tool (HubSpot). This is being worked on.
  • Multiple Systems/Teams: Jason confirmed a "bird nest" of disorganized systems and processes he inherited.
• Marketing Team Structure (Jason's current/ideal):
  • Design Team (webpages, landing pages, emails, flyers)
  • Content Team (written, video, photography, messaging, tone/voice)
  • Operations Team (manages steps, workflows, processes in HubSpot)
  • Events Lead (crucial for top-notch showcases, tours – currently a struggle)
  • Content Strategist (new hire, to place content correctly in the funnel)
• Current Lean Team: Designer, Ops/Dev person, Copywriter/Messaging person, Gabby (video content management), new Content Strategist.

6. Addressing Bottlenecks & White-Glove Service

• Enrollment Bottlenecks: Tim mentioned Jack and Garrett (Alpha High) experiencing delays (3 weeks vs. theoretical 2 days). Jason acknowledged the need for alignment between marketing and SIS.
• Re-enrollment Process: Needs to be tight.
• White-Glove Treatment: Essential for high-cost schools targeting prominent families. Balance automation with personalized service.

  "You've got to make sure that there's a really, really good like white-glove treatment of these families... you cannot do it at the sacrifice of making every single family feel like they're special." - Jason Applebaum

7. Potential Collaboration with Super Builders (Gauntlet)

• Tim offered Super Builders' help for software/process improvements.
• Current Super Builders Projects for Jason:
  • Digital Asset Management (DAM) Tool: Dallas and Gary Sheng are building an AI-powered DAM to manage content, versions, and media approvals (AI face blurring for unapproved kids). Jason shared a project brief.

    "I'm working with Dallas and Gary to create basically a digital asset management tool powered by AI... to blur kiddos faces that aren't media approved." - Jason Applebaum

  • SIS to HubSpot Connection: Jason mentioned people are working on this.
• Jason is keen on AI-forward solutions and open to help.

8. Next Steps & Closing

• Tim will connect with Jamal Gross.
• Jason is open to future questions and meeting in person in Austin.
• Both acknowledged the value of testing and iterating on marketing strategies.

  "If you've got that really, really tight, the best thing you can do is throw out as much content, ideas, strategies, thoughts, whatever it is that you want to test. Now you've got the process to measure the results." - Jason Applebaum

Key Quotes:

• Tim Joo: "My name is Tim and I work with super builders... one of the people that I'm working with is a gentleman named Pat Azi. And one thing that him and I are trying to spec out... is exploring like an Alpha school that's more geared towards sports, but still has a high, high enrollment cost for California, like an IMG Academy style Alpha school in California."
• Tim Joo: "I don't really know that much about what motivates and moves parents into that... I'm just operating in kind of like this complete black box environment."
• Jason Applebaum: "Marketing is the biggest problem... Marketing is coming off as so desperate." (Referencing past state/external views, though this quote is from jason-applebaum.md context, not explicitly in this transcript, it aligns with his description of inherited chaos).
• Jason Applebaum: "A lot of the things that we're doing right now are new and evolving, like literally weekly."
• Jason Applebaum on early Alpha marketing: "She [Mackenzie] used to be really big into no teachers, AI, learn by AI, 2X in two hours. And a lot of those things were really, really good at getting people's attention that were already of the mindset of the education system is busted and I'm frustrated."
• Jason Applebaum on current strategy: "Now I'm really trying to work on what I'm calling credibility content. Content that shows how this works, why this works, the stats, the years and years of science learning that we analyze and model this after."
• Jason Applebaum on CAC: "I'm going to guess that it's going to be between a thousand and five thousand per student to start with [for the new IMG-style school]."
• Jason Applebaum on process: "Really establish what your admissions process is going to be before anything else... start from the very bottom of the funnel and work your way up."
• Jason Applebaum on team needs: "You've got to have a good design team, a good content team... Then you have like your operations team... And then events... You need someone that's going to make sure that every showcase and every tour and every event that you set up is top notch."
• Jason Applebaum on AI: "I'm trying to become a lot more AI forward because I think there's a lot of opportunity there."