Alexander Sheng Inc Fundraising Event Planning Discussion

Date: 2025-06-21 Participants: Gary Sheng, Brooke Joy Context: Gary proposing Brooke help plan major fundraising event for newly formed Alexander Sheng Inc Location: Phone/video call

Summary

Gary Sheng approached Brooke Joy to help plan a high-stakes fundraising event for Alexander Sheng Inc, a company he formed with Dr. Lael Alexander just 48 hours prior. The conversation centered around raising up to $1 billion from wealthy oil and gas investors at Dr. Alexander's mansion in Tulsa, targeting Labor Day weekend 2025.

Key Context Updates

Recent Developments:

• Gary's parents returning from 3 months in Las Vegas
• Gary exploring living part-time in Shanghai due to Chinese government interest
• Formation of Alexander Sheng Inc with Dr. Lael Alexander (formed 48 hours prior to call)
• Gary's departure from Alpha Schools due to frustration with "mediocracy"

Company Formation Background: Gary: "Initially, I wanted to pull him into alpha school stuff, Kinda lost interest in passion about alpha school. I just kinda think it's not a soul not a soulful high quality as And so when we kind of came to the conclusion of is, like, why why are we waiting for other people to meet a quality bar that where we have way higher standards than other people people. Like, so we're just gonna start a company."

The Proposition

Event Vision: Gary wants to create "the most magical, inspiring experience" at Dr. Alexander's mansion in Tulsa, presenting their vision for the future and "candid assessment of the rest current situation."

Target Audience:

• Wealthy oil and gas investors who already know Dr. Alexander
• People Dr. Alexander has "solved incredibly hard engineering problem[s]" for and "help help help them become rich"
• Primarily targeting Christians or "nominally Christian" investors

Fundraising Goal: Gary: "I don't know if we'll get to a billion dollars, but a lot of these AI companies that are less smart people than Lael are raising like, so much money. And I think we we almost have to have that target to be taken seriously."

Strategic Thinking

Market Timing: Gary: "I think there's basically short window before the crazy money being raised relative to to technology. Related to AI particularly, is going to expire... we have about three months to to be able to to get a lot of money. In the bank. So then be able to work with that money over the course of many years. While bubble had popped."

Investment Philosophy: Gary: "Let's let's get them while they're in a greedy mood. Right? So yeah, I I wanna so, honestly, if if you'd be, like, interested in exploring this."

Fundraising as Performance Art: Gary: "it has occurred to me based on just my understanding of how investors work. And FOMO work. That is all performance art. Basically."

Event Strategy Discussion

Venue Significance: Gary describing Dr. Alexander's mansion: "it's it's it kinda feels like the X Men Academy. Like, it's really dope. And it's where he set where he mostly works. Besides his factory."

Event Scale & Approach: Brooke suggested tiered approach: "I think it could also just be certain people are invited at certain times, so you can make sure that the touch point is like so intentional that they feel like they're the most important person there. And then maybe there's another 30 people that show up for, you know, cocktail hour"

Pre-Event Strategy: Gary: "Does it look like us flying out over the course of the next few months to each of these people and then just, like, catching up with them strategically. And then that each of those catch ups is its own immersive experience."

Brooke's Response & Expertise

Immediate Interest: Brooke: "I'm definitely interested. I wanna I mean, I wanna be part of what you're doing whether that's with alpha or with you know? It's it's not about I guess, it's about the bigger picture. It's about, like, the actual purpose driven human that you are. And so 100%, like, if I can support through my gifts, I'm in."

Strategic Questions: Brooke focused on understanding the relationships: "I think it's like who are the people? How well do you know them? And how much do they need to feel what you guys are up to to actually like, want to, you know, be on the journey."

Trust Factor Recognition: After learning about Dr. Alexander's existing relationships with potential investors, Brooke noted: "I think that helps so much just because then I don't think it's like there's already a trust factor. A huge trust factor."

Company Vision & Mission

Education Component: Gary explained they're creating fellowship programs because even "magna cum laude from MIT, the way our education systems are so poor that you know, they have to be almost completely reeducated to be useful to, like, the most frontier tech."

Workforce Development: Gary: "we are creating our own workforce. That we don't anyone else to create. For us."

Religious/Spiritual Framing: Gary: "we're gonna be very unapologetic about saying this is your duty. Right? To as a to to be seen not just as a holder of a lot of money, but a steward of divine wealth. To channel that towards building almost like a modern arc."

Budget & Investment

Event Budget: Gary: "I'm probably willing to pay personally spend well, let's say, I I would have to talk to him about this, but you know, it's a it's a pretty easy to justify spending let's say, a 100 k for a billion dollars."

Personal Financial Philosophy: Gary: "I don't really see my money as my money. It's really just energy to get more capacity to build more oasis humanity... I'm literally negative $30.40 k from when I started consulting for alpha schools. Which is only fine because I've deployed that into my people I I love."

Immediate Compensation Offer: Gary: "I would immediately like to just start even before even confirming that you can you definitely wanna do this. I would I would even like to just pay you for your time to even think about it, like, over the next week."

Next Steps Discussed

Immediate Actions:

1. Brooke to ideate on event strategy and provide cost estimate for creative process
2. Check-in planned for midweek
3. Gary to send confidential screenshots of company vision document

Potential July Trip: Gary: "if we mutually feel like Yeah. This makes sense, let's say, you know, by midweek or something. Then I would say we wanna schedule a early July after July 4. Visit to Tulsa where you can get really immersed in the mansion and the the factory and just the city."

Key Quotes

On Working Standards: Gary: "One of the key principles is that I work with really care about their craft."

On Organic Development: Gary: "the idea for this company didn't even exist until I think, forty eight hours ago. Quite literally. Right. This is just how things can move when your values align."

On Event Goals: Gary: "we get to really nail the experience where it's just so not to be punny, patently obvious. That this is a huge investor opportunity. For for these people. And like, no cognitive friction. Just, like, creates FOMO, but also inspiring"

On Quality Standards: Gary: "it needs to be you know, just such a experience... everything has to feel like really well thought through."

Brooke's Alignment: Brooke: "100%, like, if I can support through my gifts, I'm in."

Context & Implications

This conversation represents Gary's pivot from Alpha Schools to a new venture with significantly higher stakes and ambition. The 48-hour timeframe from company formation to this conversation demonstrates the rapid pace of development. Brooke's immediate interest and Gary's willingness to pay for her ideation time suggests both parties see significant potential in this collaboration.

The event planning represents a critical component of Alexander Sheng Inc's fundraising strategy, leveraging Dr. Alexander's existing relationships with wealthy oil and gas investors while positioning the company's mission in religious/spiritual terms of divine stewardship and societal responsibility.