Transcript Summary: Gary Sheng, Ken Miyachi & Sarah Dinner Conversation

Date: July 9, 2025
Location: Restaurant in Austin, TX
Participants: Gary Sheng, Ken Miyachi, Sarah
Duration: Extended dinner conversation

Executive Summary

Gary Sheng met with Ken Miyachi and Sarah for dinner in Austin to discuss Gary's major career transition from Alpha Schools to a potential role with scientist Lael Alexander in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The conversation revealed significant external skepticism about Lael Alexander's legitimacy through Ken's real-time analysis of his online presence, while also covering Ken's BitMind progress, current political events, manufacturing policy, and Gary's strategic decision-making process.

Key Topics Discussed

1. Gary's Career Transition: Alpha Schools Exit and Tulsa Opportunity

Alpha Schools Assessment: Gary described Alpha Schools as increasingly problematic: "Alpha Schools is like a bubble. It doesn't have to be like black and white, like bubble pop, but like that's my simplest way to look at it... The more that I am exposed to it, the more unimpressed I am every day."

Reform vs. Starting Fresh Philosophy: Gary articulated his belief that reform is extremely difficult: "I've gone from having a little bit of hope that it could be reformed to like, a reform's done. And it almost never works... That's why there's startups. That's why capitalism is great. It's all about death and birth."

Current Employment Status: Gary revealed minimal engagement: "Definitely not doing much day to day. They're paying me in an automated payment system. But I'm going to transition off, probably."

Compensation Context: Gary disclosed his Alpha Schools compensation structure: "I was top of the gauntlet. That's a lot. The default is 200... I told them, make it easier for me... 600K."

2. Lael Alexander Opportunity and Concerns

Initial Presentation: Gary described Lael as "a super scientist that... He's ready to commercialize his inventions and like build out a team around it about commercializing his inventions. He's like discoveries, like quantum and a bunch of shit... He wants me to be like his right hand."

Background and Challenges: "Black super genius that's been burned and manipulated and exploited repeatedly over many decades... You can imagine like someone like that has major trust issues."

Role Definition: Gary's potential position: "A lot of it is like vetting people and slowly bring people into the fold... Building a team is really hard. To actually bring anything to the world, there's so many things that have to go right."

Financial Opportunity: Gary revealed significant financial backing: "There's been a big capital injection... The only guarantee is... you have the promise of unlimited capital... $60,000,000 in your bank account. Spendable."

Compensation Negotiation: "We've already talked about him matching a contract here. 600K... Because he does want to create companies with me, like, co-found companies with me, so I don't need to be creepy right now."

3. Ken Miyachi's Real-Time Digital Assessment

Initial Skepticism: Ken conducted live analysis of Lael's online presence during dinner, expressing growing concern: "This all seems like a scam now. Straight up."

Website Quality Issues: "All his websites are like... Odd. Very odd... You can only buy from his website. It looks unprofessional."

Crypto/Blockchain Red Flags: Ken identified multiple concerning elements:

• "He has a token... 100,000 tokens for $39... It's not even on like, it's not on any exchange"
• "Sarlo-Kochen mining is the fastest low-cost method to start mining mines... This all seems like a scam"
• "There's zero chance that he sells anything. You know, and it's like, why is he doing that?"

Professional Assessment: "This is so scary. Be careful, my friend... Clearly all these fake reviews. All exactly a year ago."

Direct Warning: "Don't work with this guy, he's a fucking rifter... This general theme of him not being great about that being the kind of blind spot of his, but also it's like, taking it in the worst interpretation, it's either super retarded or scam, right?"

4. Gary's Defense and Context

Personal Experience Weight: Gary emphasized his extensive direct contact: "My references are my references, right? Like, it's hours and hours and hours of time with him, right?... You walk through his showroom, his factory, right, like everything, right, in person, it's just a completely different experience."

Reference Validation: "I talked to people that, I talked to this co-founder of my body, who's known him for 20 plus years."

Acknowledgment of Concerns: "I appreciate... that was my reaction. That's the reaction... Other people that are good at marketing and branding, like my friend Abif, who was an associate producer at Vice, was like, holy fuck, his digital presence is complete ass."

Partnership Philosophy: "I like where I've placed him. He's just like my general friend... Because I have a lot of... I'm certainly not going to Tulsa to learn how to use my hands."

5. Ken's BitMind Business Updates

Growth Metrics: Ken shared impressive progress: "How many? Like 15,000 daily... We're big in banking actually... Because they're literally trying to detect if their scanning is working or not."

Team Building: "We had solved the anonymous miner issue by converting these guys from my Google DeepMind to mine... I'm now trying to convince him to join BitLine... He's flying to Boston. He probably gets here sometime tonight."

Business Applications: "Banking... they're literally trying to detect if their scanning is working or not."

6. Current Events and Political Commentary

AI Censorship Discussion: Gary and Ken discussed Grok's controversial responses: "So Trump is a coward and a loser... Oh, you should not. Well, what do they want you to comment on? Do you have any competition by the way?"

Immigration Policy Analysis: Ken provided nuanced perspective: "I think he's trying, I do... Is he that incompetent? Probably. I don't think he's incompetent, I think it's hard... There's been a million self-deportations."

Manufacturing and Trade Policy: "There's going to be a lot of bad things about it. There's like, uh, the government is offering huge, huge discounts to build factories right now... This is the time."

Deportation Policy Complexity: "We have an aging population. We're going to face population decline. We need immigration... I think the best solution would be you kick everyone out, you stop, and you really reform very hard the immigration system."

7. Strategic Business Philosophy Discussion

Focus vs. Diversification: Ken emphasized the importance of specialization: "Everyone has ideas. Ideas are plentiful. Execution is the hard piece... OpenAI is actually the best example of this... they're like, I'm going to focus on making the best Dota 2 player ever... just that supreme fucking focus."

Partnership Risk Assessment: "It does feel high risk... There's a huge difference between being a leader, a manager, a partner... Those skill sets, right? Versus just being super smart."

Reform vs. Building New: "Much harder to reform than start from scratch, 100%."

8. Personal Life Updates

Ken's Plans:

• Planning to attend friend Henry's wedding in Portland
• Had to miss the bachelor party due to work commitments
• Dealing with injured hamstring, needs a cane for mobility

Sarah's Observations:

• Participated in discussions about current events and food
• Provided context on new scam tactics involving spoofed phone numbers

Gary's Transition:

• Planning move from Austin to Tulsa pending contract finalization
• Maintaining relationship with Russian mentee Tim in Hungary
• Balancing current Austin obligations with future opportunities

Key Insights and Themes

Business Credibility and Due Diligence

The conversation highlighted a critical disconnect between Gary's personal experience with Lael Alexander and external perception of his business legitimacy. Ken's real-time analysis revealed significant red flags in digital presence that conflict with Gary's direct experience of Lael's capabilities.

Focus and Execution Philosophy

Ken repeatedly emphasized the importance of focus over having multiple ideas, using OpenAI's success as an example of how specialization can lead to breakthrough results.

Reform vs. Innovation

Both Gary and Ken agreed that reforming existing systems is much harder than building new ones, supporting Gary's decision to leave Alpha Schools rather than attempt internal change.

Risk Assessment in Partnerships

The discussion demonstrated the importance of external perspective in evaluating business opportunities, with Ken serving as a valuable "bullshit detector" for Gary's decision-making process.

Manufacturing and Economic Policy

The conversation touched on broader themes of American re-industrialization, immigration policy complexity, and the challenges of competing with Chinese manufacturing capabilities.

Action Items and Next Steps

1. Gary: Get contract in writing with Lael Alexander before making any commitments
2. Ken: Acquire cane for injured hamstring mobility
3. Gary: Continue due diligence on Lael Alexander's business legitimacy
4. Ken: Prepare for potential social event with visiting Google DeepMind engineer
5. Gary: Maintain relationship boundaries while evaluating opportunity

Conclusion

This conversation revealed the tension between personal relationship building and objective business assessment. While Gary's extensive time with Lael Alexander provides valuable insider perspective, Ken's external analysis highlighted significant concerns about digital presence and business credibility that warrant careful consideration. The discussion demonstrated the value of trusted friends serving as sounding boards for major career decisions, particularly when significant financial and professional risks are involved.

The conversation also showcased Ken's growing success with BitMind and his evolution as a strategic thinker about focus, execution, and partnership dynamics. Gary's transition represents a significant career pivot that will test his ability to bridge the gap between Lael's claimed capabilities and market perception.