Alpha Labs Strategy Session: Taking Over Alpha's Marketing & Operations (2025-05-24)

Summary

Gary Sheng, Ron Roberts, and Dallas Klein held a strategic planning session to outline their vision for "Alpha Labs" - an embedded agency/skunkworks team that would take complete control of Alpha Schools' marketing, sales, and operational infrastructure. The conversation revealed deep frustrations with current leadership (particularly Jason Applebaum and Arthur Michel) and outlined an aggressive plan to present to Joe Liemandt and MacKenzie Price.

Key Topics

Billionaire Relationship Management

• Gary emphasized need for specialized team to handle ultra-high-net-worth relationships
• "I'm not gonna fucking talk to an AI chat bot. Fuck no." - Gary on billionaire expectations
• Proposed 24/7 human availability for billionaire inquiries
• Distinguished between regular sales (handled by "Dougs of the world") and presidential/billionaire-level relationships

Jason Applebaum's Failures

• Revealed Jason strategically separated MacKenzie's "Future of Learning" content from Alpha brand
• Created artificial firewall between MacKenzie's viral content and Alpha's "shitty 5,000 follower accounts"
• MacKenzie herself questioned: "I don't understand why my most viral organic videos aren't made into ads"
• Gary called Jason a "dumbass" for this strategic choice

Alpha Labs Concept

• Positioned as an embedded agency/skunkworks team
• Would have complete ownership of all marketing, sales, and operations
• "We cannot own part of it. We have to own all of it because it's all interconnected" - Gary
• Focus on becoming "goats of context sharing" - ensuring all departments have necessary information
• Would establish new departments and teams as needed

Organizational Problems Identified

• Arthur Michel described as someone who "just literally just takes orders from Joe"
• No proper org chart exists (Arthur defensive when asked)
• Current head of engineering (Austin Allred) is "not an engineer"
• Ash described as "senior junior engineer" at best
• Rachel Goodlad (head of expansion) criticized by Doug
• Gabby "can't respond to emails except every three days"

Two-Hour Learning Sales Strategy

• Ron proposed prescriptive sales department targeting "complaining parents"
• Funnel homeschooling parents into two-hour learning program
• Physical schools as "high ticket offer"
• Need routing team to direct different customer segments appropriately

Presentation Strategy

• Ron advised following agency playbook: "Joe fucking loves pitches"
• Need "superficial" high-quality deck presentation
• "He loves agencies... He's so fucking smart, dude" - Gary sarcastically on Joe's preferences
• Plan to present as "Alpha Labs" embedded agency
• Timeline: Present potentially Monday at 4 PM (accounting for Memorial Day)

Context Sharing Protocol

• Dallas would create AI-filtered personalized briefings for each team member
• "Everyone should always have a presidential briefing" - Gary
• Prevent information overload while ensuring critical context reaches right people
• Tim Dort-Golts positioned as "CEO of Alpha Schools global" to keep leadership team on track

Financial Opportunity

• MacKenzie revealed $10-15 million annually would be freed up from Jason's marketing org
• "Millions of dollars will be opened up once they get fired" - Gary
• Budget would fund new teams and initiatives under Alpha Labs

Hiring/Firing Authority

• Discussed need for hiring and firing recommendations ASAP
• "Dead weight is deadly. That's why it's dead weight" - Gary
• Joe positioned as willing to act on their recommendations
• Weekly half-hour meetings with Joe to report on personnel issues

Movement Growth Strategy

• Confidence in ability to create viral content (referenced Vi Toro Twitter video)
• "No one in the world is better than us at that" - Gary on movement building
• Plans for personalized nurturing campaigns for parents and students
• Local events and community building initiatives

Action Items

• Complete detailed marketing plan with 30/60/90-day timeline per MacKenzie's request
• Create professional agency-style pitch deck
• Organize all thoughts and structure presentation between now and Monday
• Add movement growth strategy to documentation
• Present "Alpha Labs" concept to Joe and MacKenzie

Notable Quotes

• "We have not been punished for telling the truth" - Gary on relationship with Joe/MacKenzie
• "Dead weight is deadly. That's why it's dead weight" - Gary on organizational inefficiencies
• "Find a different Alpha lab then. Right? Great. Can't fucking wait to fucking grade it" - Gary on confidence
• "This is high risk though because if it doesn't work out, I mean, then you get fired" - Dallas
• "If Joe and MacKenzie talked to a lot of these rich people, what is the disconnect from results?" - Dallas
• "We're literally going to be a lab that's spitting up new products and teams" - Gary
• "Super Builders is about to be like the worst department... terrible vibes" - Gary on current state
• "One of our KPIs needs to be how many people getting poaching offers" - Gary on talent retention

Key Insights

• The team sees Jason Applebaum's departure as creating massive opportunity for organizational transformation
• They believe they have already gained trust of Joe and MacKenzie through recent interactions
• Plan involves complete takeover of marketing/sales infrastructure, not partial involvement
• Strong emphasis on audit, aggregation, and unification of data and people
• Recognition that current organization has "planning and prioritizing dysfunction"
• Confidence that their movement-building expertise is unmatched and can transform Alpha's growth