Lambda School

Lambda School was founded by Austen Allred in 2017. Allred had earlier that year left his previous startup, a crowdsourced fact-checking site. Lambda began as a single short course in functional programming (the name refers to lambda functions, a concept in functional programming). By 2019, the curriculum had expanded to a full nine-month course, longer than most comparable bootcamps.[1]

Unlike the majority of education institutions where tuition payments are collected up front, Lambda uses an income share agreement (ISA) model. In this scheme, students pay no tuition upfront, instead providing a percentage of future income after acquiring employment. As of mid-2019, the student payment model had students pay 17% of income after acquiring a job that pays over $50,000 in the technology field. Total payment can vary, ending after $30,000, after 24 months of 17% payments, or after 5 years without a job in the technology sector.[1]

Lambda sells financial instruments to investors in its students future earnings in order to acquire up-front capital.[1] In August 2018, half of Lambda School's ISAs were purchased by a hedge fund for $10,000 per ISA, according to internal investor communications documents.[2] As of 2019, half of ISAs were traded to investors, providing upfront capital in exchange for a discount on their expected long-term returns for those purchasing those assets. In December 2019, the company partnered with Edly, a digital marketplace for accredited investors to trade Lambda ISAs started by Chris Ricciardi. After criticism from students and Twitter users, Lambda removed all statements about this partnership from their website.[2][3]

In January 2019, investors including Google Ventures, Y Combinator, and Ashton Kutcher placed $30 million in Lambda School investments. Enrollment was 700 in October 2018 and 2700 in mid-September, at which point enrollment was expanding by 10 percent a month.[1] As of February 2020, over $48 million in venture funding had been raised and the school was valued at $150 million.[2]

Lambda School was founded by Austen Allred. Allred has cultivated a popular social media following, making statements about Lambda School and other topics on his Twitter account. The Verge notes that Allred has been highly engaged on the site, responding to almost any critiques of Lambda School. Between leaving his previous startup and launching Lambda School, Allred cowrote a book called Secret Sauce in which he described business tips centered on increasing excitement through social media contacts.[1]