Social Currency with Sammi Cohen

 What if kids could finish a full day of academics in just two hours? That’s the promise behind Alpha School, the AI-powered private school claiming its students learn 2.6 times faster than their peers and graduate with an average SAT score above 1470. Today, Sammi takes you inside the Alpha School story. It began in 2014 as Emergent Academy in Austin, founded by MacKenzie Price and Brian Holtz, and today it is backed by billionaire Trilogy founder Joe Liemandt. Sammi breaks down how the model works, from adaptive learning software and $100,000-a-year “guides” to afternoons spent on public speaking, entrepreneurship and life skills. She also looks at Founders School, Alpha’s $150,000-a-year high school that promises students will build a business generating $1 million in profit by graduation or get their tuition refunded. Then, Sammi digs into the criticism: regulatory pushback in New York and Pennsylvania, concerns about screen-based instruction, extensive student monitoring, equity and access, and the lack of independent research behind Alpha’s headline numbers. So is Alpha School the future of education, or a high-priced experiment that’s still waiting on proof? Follow Sammi Cohen on Instagram Subscribe to the Social Currency newsletter Here’s what Sammi covers today: 00:00 Alpha School’s Bold Promise 02:47 The Origin Story of Alpha School 03:32 The Pitch Behind Two-Hour Learning 04:15 How Alpha School Actually Works 04:36 Guides vs. Teachers and $100K Salaries 05:03 Inside a Typical Alpha School Day 05:51 Does It Actually Work? Alpha’s Test Score Claims 06:36 The Missing Independent Evidence 07:30 Why Parents Are Drawn to Alpha 08:16 Paying Up to $75,000 a Year 08:53 What Alpha Parents Told Sammi 09:14 Founders School and the $1 Million Business Guarantee 11:51 Inside the Founders School Day 12:22 The $150,000 Tuition and Refund Fine Print 13:08 What Founders School Reveals 13:33 The Five Big Criticisms 13:43 Regulatory Friction 14:33 The Screen-Based Learning Debate 15:16 Surveillance and Student Privacy 15:46 Equity and Access 16:35 The Question of Proof 16:55 What Alpha Is Really Selling 17:23 The Big Takeaway 17:58 The Risk of Measuring Everything 18:24 Can Education Be Optimized? 19:06 How to Show Social Currency Some Love Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For the first time in its history as a public company, Peloton turned a profit. After years of billion-dollar losses, the fitness brand posted $63 million in net income this fiscal year. Just three years ago, it was a punchline. Today, Sammi unpacks how Peloton went from pandemic darling to cautionary tale and back again. She revisits the crash that wiped out $40 billion in market value, founder John Foley's exit, and the Sex and the City reboot that turned a Peloton bike into a plot device. Then, she breaks down the turnaround strategy led by CEO Peter Stern, the former Apple executive who built his career on subscriptions, not hardware. Sammi walks through the bets that got Peloton back in the black: aggressive price increases and cost cuts, a viral ad campaign starring Heated Rivalry's Hudson Williams, a global partnership with Spotify, and a new push into commercial gyms. Plus, she explains why the stock dropped more than 11% on the day Peloton announced its historic profit, and what that says about whether Peloton is really back. Follow Sammi Cohen on Instagram Subscribe to the Social Currency newsletter Here's What Sammi Covers Today: 00:00 Peloton's First Profitable Year 01:50 Partner Message - Mercury 02:50 From $50 Billion to Punchline 03:45 John Foley's Exit and the 87% Wipeout 04:15 The Pandemic Bubble Cautionary Tale 04:55 Enter Peter Stern, Peloton's Apple Hire 05:45 The Four-Pillar Turnaround Plan 06:15 Price Hikes and Cost Cuts 07:30 The Heated Rivalry Ad That Went Viral 08:15 The Spotify Partnership 08:58 Peloton's Commercial Gym Bet 09:55 The $63 Million Turnaround 10:25 Partner Message -Mercury 12:45 Why the Stock Fell Anyway 13:15 A Shrinking Subscriber Base 14:40 How to Show Social Currency Some Love Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How does a scrappy startup beat Amazon when Amazon copies your product, undercuts your price and slaps its own name on it? According to Square co-founder Jim McKelvey, you don't. Except, once in a while, someone does. This week Sammi revisits one of her favorite conversations ever recorded for Social Currency: her sit-down with Jim McKelvey, the artist-turned-entrepreneur who co-founded Square (now Block) with Jack Dorsey. Jim opens with the story of how he once stripped down in a trade association's office just to get a meeting, and explains why getting someone's attention is always the real first step in any pitch. He breaks down why he intentionally designed Square's original card reader to work poorly, and how that "flaw" turned millions of small business owners into free advertisers for the brand. Then, Jim tells the almost unbelievable story of how Square survived Amazon's attempt to copy and kill its business with Amazon Register, why he studied history to understand how rare that survival really was, and how a conversation with Southwest's Herb Kelleher led him to write his book, The Innovation Stack. Jim also opens up about his years as an independent director of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, what he learned living through zero interest rates, the pandemic and the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, and how the role reshaped his politics. Plus, he explains why his media venture Invisibly failed to save journalism despite cracking the monetization problem, and details his newest venture, Fast Trials, an attempt to slash the cost of FDA drug trials so more life-saving drugs can make it to market. Follow Sammi Cohen on Instagram Subscribe to the Social Currency newsletter Read Jim McKelvey's blog and check out his book, The Innovation Stack Here's What Sammi Covers with Jim: 00:00 Jim McKelvey's Social Currency 02:03 Why Sammi Is Revisiting This Episode 05:09 The Striptease That Landed a Six-Figure Deal 08:00 Why Getting Attention Comes Before Any Pitch 11:01 Why the Square Reader Was Designed to Not Work Well 14:23 Respecting Your Audience's Attention 17:56 Why Jim Doesn't Use Social Media 19:00 The Power of the Pause 20:22 The Real Origin Story of Square 24:32 How Square Survived Amazon's Attempt to Kill It 28:04 The Commandment From Herb Kelleher That Became a Book 32:11 Why the Rules of Innovation Are Different 36:27 The Hardest Part of Doing Something New 37:28 Serving as an Independent Director of the Federal Reserve 40:22 What the Fed Taught Jim About Political Neutrality 42:19 The Allergic Response to Ideas That Don't Fit 43:22 Why Invisibly Failed to Save Journalism 47:04 The Monetization Model That Actually Worked 49:26 Jim's New Venture: Fast Trials 54:31 Advice for Building in Regulated Industries 58:08 Jim's Don't-Do List 59:48 Social Currency Corner: Tipping Culture 01:02:20 A Listener Question on the Future of Fintech Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices