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

"In The Arena"

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.

RECOMMENDED PODCAST:

The HR industry is at a crossroads. What will it take to construct the next generation of incredible businesses – and where can people leaders have the most business impact? Hosts Nolan Church and Kelli Dragovich have been through it all, the highs and the lows – IPOs, layoffs, executive turnover, board meetings, culture changes, and more. With a lineup of industry vets and experts, Nolan and Kelli break down the nitty-gritty details, trade offs, and dynamics of constructing high performing companies. Through unfiltered conversations that can only happen between seasoned practitioners, Kelli and Nolan dive deep into the kind of leadership-level strategy that often happens behind closed doors. Check out the first episode with the architect of Netflix’s culture deck Patty McCord.

https://link.chtbl.com/hrheretics

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:

Head to Pesto.tech if you want to hire remote developers today