E2: Austen Allred on BloomTech’s Saga and Transformation: Lawsuits, RIFs, and Founder Rabbitholes

Austen is the CEO and founder of BloomTech, an education platform famous for pioneering income sharing agreements instead of charging tuition. His company has forever altered thousands of students' lives for the better, but having a huge positive impact doesn't make actually running and growing a company easy. Host Jesse Genet and co-host Erik Torenberg talk to Austen about navigating legal and regulatory minefields, shifting internal culture amidst layoffs, and mental models for resilience.

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TIMESTAMPS:

(00:00) Introducing Austen Allred, CEO of BloomTech

(02:48) Setting the scene for BloomTech’s pivotal moments

(07:42) Sponsor: Pesto.tech

(08:21) Layoffs and aftermath

(11:08) Resetting internal culture

(13:18) Making decisions amidst ambiguity

(16:20) Lawsuit, regulations, and company name change

(28:28) Compartmentalizing as a CEO

(33:20) Mental models for “running into the darkness”

(40:27) Companies that execute their PR really well

(46:30) Hiring with a selection filter

(54:34) Hard Choices Officer

TWITTER:

@jessegenet (Jesse)

@eriktorenberg (Erik)

@austen (Austen)

@InTheArena_pod

SPONSOR:

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