To kick off the new year, I decided to wade into a culture war!

Lambda School is the most divisive business within startup land. Reporters like @fulligin have published pieces alleging fraud. Influencers like @justinkan have risen in defense of the school.

What is the truth?

To find out, I sat down with @Austen for an interview and chatted with tons of students and industry pros.

the TL;DR: the business is not without blemishes. Something about it gives the ick. However, I find the majority of its sins are endemic to the industry.

The school is probably sub 20M in annual revenue with 2K customers per year. It is a tiny thing that probably doesn't deserve the level of media attention that it gets.

If they work (big if) ISAs and other outcome-aligned financing vehicles are way, way better for students.

However, the layoffs, executive turnover, and flat growth over the last two years indicates to me that they haven't figured it out yet.

I hope they do! I hope that these weird issues recede and that students achieve the outcomes they are looking for.

To read the piece, click the link below. This one is free! You'll be doing it along with my 19K subscribers.

every.to/napkin-math/what-the-hell-is-going-on-with-lambda-school

Special thanks to my team @every. Their tireless support and their willingness to work with me on nights and weekends makes all this possible.

@nbashaw @danshipper @fadeke_adegbuyi @morganalewis and @kieranohare are amazing. Thank you ❤️