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Ben Nelson is the CTO and Co-founder of Lambda School, a 9-month online education/training program.\xa0Brian Ardinger, Inside Outside Innovation founder, spoke with Ben about Lambda School\u2019s disruption of the education market, the creation of an online school, and the use of an Income Share Agreement.\xa0Through an Income Share Agreement, students agree to pay back the costs of their training, once they receive a $50,000 a year job.\xa0A percentage of their income, up to $30,000, is paid back over the next two-year period.\n\n\nNew Business Model & Trends\n - We started as a code boot camp.\xa0Now we\u2019re in our own category. Competitors are changing to mimic the model. Competition doesn\u2019t usually kill early startups.\n - Universities are overshooting the mark. Saddling students with big debt and students are wising up. People can get in trouble financially.\n - Fast tech change. People need to switch in the middle of their careers.\xa0Lambda is putting elasticity in the labor market.\xa0\n - More people are moving towards portfolio work and we\u2019re seeing job categories getting disrupted. Need new training - e.g. truck drivers.\xa0Provide a path in a new industry.\xa0\n - Online can scale with more students.\xa0Lambda margins can absorb longer payback period and better instructors.\xa0\n - With students graduating, income share agreements are a valuable security that debt can be borrowed against.\xa0\n\n\nY Combinator &\xa0Lambda\u2019s Future\n - How can this become a billion dollar company.\xa0How do you scale the idea?\n - It\u2019s a school for startups, and they teach you how to do it, with weekly investor meetings.\xa0Provides a network to fundraise.\xa0Avoid pitfalls with standardizations.\n - Amazon started with books.\xa0We teach software engineering now.\xa0Looking at how to expand into other areas like nursing school.\xa0\n - We don\u2019t want to focus on ed research.\xa0We\u2019re about jobs and accessibility.\xa0\n\n\nSkills and Traits Attractive to the Model & Challenges\n - We live in a distracting world.\xa0Ability to focus and remove distractions is essential. Lambda wants people who are hungry.\xa0It\u2019s difficult to predict these qualities.\xa0They don\u2019t ask for test scores.\xa0\n - Lambda has a free course called Intro to programming. Through it they check student\u2019s aptitudes.\xa0It\u2019s an open-ended course, with no deadline. If students perform well, we can invest in them.\xa0\n - We must maintain high standards, but we\u2019re not exclusive.\xa0We want a high bar but will accept anyone willing to do the work.\xa0\n - Need scalable processes for placing students.\n - Provide more depth and a guided job search.\xa0Remove false finish line of graduation.\xa0Your certificate is your job.\xa0\n\n\nFor more information about Ben and Lambda School, check out\xa0www.Lambdaschool.com.\xa0\n\n\nIf you enjoyed this podcast, you might also enjoy:\xa0\xa0\n\n\nEp. 93 \u2013 Natalie Fratto with\xa0Silicon Valley\xa0Bank (SVB)\nEp. 69 \u2013 Slava Rubin, co-founder of Indiegogo\nEp. 51 \u2013 Lucy Beard, founder of\xa0Feetz, a 3-D shoe-printing company\n\n\nFind this episode of\xa0Inside Outside Innovation at\xa0insideoutside.io. You can also listen\xa0on\xa0Acast,\xa0iTunes,\xa0Sticher, Spotify, and\xa0Google Play.\n\xa0\n\n\nFREE INNOVATION NEWSLETTER\n\n\nGet the latest episodes of the Inside Outside Innovation podcast, in addition to thought leadership in the form of blogs, innovation resources, videos, and invitations to exclusive events. SUBSCRIBE HERE For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy