152： The Future of Higher Education ｜ Adam Braun
Episode Stats
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Summary
In this episode, Ryan interviews Adam Braun, founder of MissionU, a new higher education program that gives students the skills and experiences to succeed after college. They discuss the rising cost of higher education and what can be done about it.
Transcript
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Higher education seems to be quite the topic these days with the rising cost of education
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and the debate as to whether or not students are learning applicable skills.
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It seems inevitable that we'll see a shift away from traditional higher education to
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I've been an advocate for trade schools and apprenticeship programs for some time now,
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but my guest today gives us yet another option to the challenge
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our young men and women face on the road to higher education.
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My guest today is Adam Braun, the founder of MissionU, which is a one-year higher educational
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program that gives students the skills and experiences to succeed after college.
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Today, we talk about the rising cost of education and what can be done about it,
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how educational institutions and students can and should work together towards solutions,
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bringing back the human element to schooling and the future of higher education.
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You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest.
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Embrace your fears and boldly chart your own path.
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When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time, every time.
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You are not easily deterred or defeated, rugged, resilient, strong.
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This is who you will become at the end of the day.
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And after all is said and done, you can call yourself a man.
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My name is Ryan Mickler and I am the host and the founder of Order of Man.
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If this is your first time tuning in today, guys, we're all about being better men,
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better fathers, better husbands, better business owners, better community leaders,
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We are interviewing the world's most successful men, guys like Jocko Willink,
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Lewis Howes, Andy Frisilla, Grant Cardone, Tim Kennedy.
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And of course, we'll continue to bring those guests on.
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We're going to work to extract their wisdom and education and then bring that directly to you.
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Now, guys, as we get into this thing, I only have two very quick announcements.
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First and foremost, I want to thank and introduce you to our show sponsor, Health IQ.
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I was an insurance agent in another life, so I understand how expensive life insurance can be.
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But what I like about Health IQ is they're taking the data, they're taking the science,
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you want to see if they're going to be able to save you money based on your health,
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you can head to healthiq.com slash order of man.
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Now, the second announcement that I want to make is the book Sovereignty,
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I had faith that it would do well because it's a message I think more men want and need to hear.
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And I knew you guys would support it, but it has gone really, really well.
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Number one in multiple categories from fatherhood to gender studies,
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which is actually a pretty interesting category.
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If you were to take a look at it, family resolution and conflict, something like that.
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And then we also reached number 35, I believe number 35 in all of self-help.
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And if you think about that on Amazon, there's tens, if not hundreds of thousands of books.
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If you picked up a copy of Sovereignty, the battle for the hearts and minds of men.
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If you have not done that yet, you can go to order of man.com slash sovereignty,
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order of man.com slash sovereignty, pick up a copy there.
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And please, if you would, I don't ask for a whole lot, but I really, really need you to leave reviews.
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I think as of this recording, we've got right around 60 reviews and I would love to double that.
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So if you've read the book or a healthy portion of it, we want it to be in integrity.
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Of course, then please head over to Amazon, sign in, leave your review,
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and that will help us get the word out and the visibility and promote that book even a little
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Again, it's order of man.com slash sovereignty.
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Now guys, with that said, let's just get right into the show.
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You might know the name and have heard of at least one of his organizations, pencils of
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And we'll talk a little bit about what that means throughout the interview, but a for purpose
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organization, and they are dedicated to building schools around the world.
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They've built over 400 schools across the planet now, but what's even more impressive or just
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is impressive is that he took $25 when he left a previous company and he turned this into
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this organization that has generated over $30 million in funds raised.
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And you should see some of the people that are behind him, supporting him.
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But since then he has turned his attention to some of the challenges surrounding higher
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education, like I mentioned earlier, and has dedicated himself to creating solutions to
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what I would consider a pretty big problem in society today.
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You're going to hear the passion, the excitement in his voice as Adam and I have a conversation.
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Everyone would agree needs to be had about where to go with our post-secondary education.
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I've been looking forward to this conversation because if you look around in society in general,
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I think higher education is a huge, huge issue from the rising cost of education to from my
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experience, and you probably have more knowledge on this than I do, the lack of actual job experience
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So tell me why you decided to address some of these issues and then we'll work back into
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You know, I spent about a decade focused on education, primarily internationally, and in
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growing Pencils of Promise, what I previously founded, I spent a ton of time on college
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campuses, you know, speaking to students of all ages and all backgrounds to grow that
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And while I was talking about the value of supporting children internationally, there
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was always a subset of individuals that would come up to me after a talk or during Q&A and
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say, you know, that sounds really great, but I can't even think about that because I
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have so much student debt and I haven't learned any of the practical skills that are actually
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going to help me get the great job that I came here to eventually land in.
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And everything became very personal for me when I met my wife.
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My wife, by the time that I met her, was in six figures of student debt, not positioned
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whatsoever for the life and career that she aspired towards.
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Before we got married, I said, you should actually consider declaring bankruptcy.
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I mean, I know it sounds crazy, but given how much debt you have and the fact that, you
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know, you really didn't benefit from it in almost any meaningful way, you've certainly
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been harmed more than you've helped given the amount that you're paying every month.
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You know, you should at least consider this as an option because I have good credit and
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then we can start a life together without this huge burden.
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And she told me that student debt is the only debt in the United States that cannot be discharged
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And I remember thinking, if that's the case, one, that can't be.
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But if it is, this is a much larger problem than I realized.
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And, you know, the more I dug into it, I mean, three quarters of all college grads believe
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their universities fail to prepare them for work in the real world.
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You know, the average freshman today is going to complete school if they complete school
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and graduate with, on average, $50,000 of debt if they're a borrower and 70% are borrowers.
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So, you know, we have this huge systemic issue.
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And as an entrepreneur, I like going after big, big challenges.
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And so this actually affects me and the well-being of my children in the future.
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I want a pathway for them and others to be able to have a clear path to their future.
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And in particular, one that doesn't position people with just massive crushing debt.
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And that's really what I think catalyzed the creation of Mission U.
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So you have a bachelor's degree in economics, if I understand that correctly.
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Brown, where I went to school, has no core curriculum.
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They let you do everything pass fail if you want.
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They're pretty open-minded about how you design your major.
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This is interesting because I think a lot of people, I'll give you an example.
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I don't want to say I beat up formal higher education.
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But at the other side of it, I also believe that just like you, there's not any real-world
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application to a lot of what these kids are being taught and learned.
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And so it's easy for me to say that versus you, who has not only a degree, a higher education
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degree, but you also have some real-world experience.
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And so I think that combination of seeing both sides probably positions you in a pretty
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unique seat to be able to address this effectively.
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I mean, the reality of my situation is, you know, I went to a top-tier school.
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I remember entering my job in the first few weeks, I felt like a total imposter.
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I had this feeling for the first time in my life of, one, am I not smart enough to do
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I was just so woefully unprepared for the needs of that job, which was working at Bain and
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The core parts of that job are, one, really effective business communication.
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And then a lot of the work was also business analytics.
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And so, you know, can you use Excel to build a model to get to a decisive set of insights
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that can help your company that you're working with make better decisions?
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In four years of college, you know, business economics is my major.
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And I actually recently went back and gave a talk to all the first, second, and third
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And, you know, these are students that went to top-tier schools and they're top performers.
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And I said, how many of you felt that you were really well prepared for this job when
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And so, you know, as much as I think I benefited from my college experience, one, most of the
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It was really what happened outside of the classroom.
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And the cost structure of college has exploded in particular in the last 10 years.
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And the third part is both my parents grew up in poverty, worked really, really hard to get
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themselves out of poverty, and essentially left my siblings and I in a position, which
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they told us from a very young age, that, look, we're going to have four years of college
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So we believe in the value of education, which is what I think parents have told their children
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And they enabled myself to be able to graduate without debt.
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And I kind of walked through the world with a sense of, I would say, naivete, not recognizing
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how crushing debt is to your prospects going forward.
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It really wasn't until I saw my wife's situation that I realized, oh my gosh, she's actually
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the norm and I'm the exception rather than vice versa.
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I think this is something that even universities recognize, the real world application.
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It's always interesting to see somebody give a commencement speech who either does not
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have a degree or is not utilizing the degree in which they have.
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And I think it's a testament to the fact that even universities recognize that there's so
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You talked about the cost of education going up, specifically over the past 15 years.
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The first is that the desire for College for All, which was kind of launched in the 1960s,
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So we have many, many millions of folks that go to college every year.
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That said, the last five years are the first time in the 400-year history of college in
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the United States that we've seen declining enrollment.
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So we're seeing a pullback because people just aren't seeing the value.
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One is that we kind of pushed everyone to go to college.
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But when we made that proclamation in the 60s, government was actually subsidizing a huge
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amount of the cost of college so that it wasn't a large number for an individual.
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They could kind of work their way simultaneously while studying and end up without much debt
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But that government support has pretty much dried up altogether.
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States put very little funding relative to what they used to.
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From what I see, it looks like the majority of funding typically goes to minorities.
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I mean, I wouldn't say it's necessarily minorities.
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I would say it's folks from lower and working class income families, you know, end up getting
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Part of the challenge, actually, for a lot of individuals is that if you're affluent enough
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to pay the full ride, then obviously you can do so.
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There's a good amount of financial aid for those that are at, you know, the lowest rung
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And if you're in that kind of middle working class family where you don't qualify for things
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like Pell Grants, then you're in a lot of trouble because you're going to have to bear
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this huge number, which is where I fell when I was going through school.
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So, you know, if your parents combine to call it, make over 50, $60,000, then you're going
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to get hit with a really big number and have to take out these huge loans.
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You know, a second reason is that colleges have become these all encompassing service
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A lot of the increased costs is actually on the administrative side because, you know, it
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started out as we're going to do instruction and teach you.
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Now it's, you know, it's your housing, it's your food program, it's your mental services,
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It's so much that they just pack on a lot of costs.
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And then the final part is just, there's been an arms race in the last decade for these
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And so you have schools building like huge libraries, but also climbing gyms and lazy
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pools and floating rivers and all of that eventually gets passed on to a student and their family.
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So let's shift gears here a little bit because one of the things that I've seen, it's a reoccurring
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trend in your life is this idea of for purpose, you know, pencils of promise, nonprofit for
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This is the way I understand it, a for profit type business entity, but it's also a for
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So explain to me what that means and how that actually works.
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The way that I've always thought about building any type of business or organization is that,
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you know, you shouldn't be guided by the tax structure that you set it up as, right?
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A 501c3 not for profit, a C Corp or an S Corp or an LLC, whatever it looks like on the
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What it should really be driven by is the purpose, is the mission.
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And so, you know, with pencil of promise, it was incorporated as a 501c3 not for profit,
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but we always were driven with the DNA of a high growth startup for profit kind of business
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And that enabled us to grow from $25 to raise more than $50 million.
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We've broken ground on over 400 schools around the world.
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This year, we should break ground in our 500 school.
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And so when it came time to building Mission U, I realized, you know, I want to be able
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to raise a lot more capital to go after this problem because it's a really big problem and
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And the best way to do that is to be able to tell investors that they can get some type
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But fortunately, we now have a structure called a benefit corporation, also known as a B Corp.
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And as a public benefit corporation, which is how Mission U has been incorporated from
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day one, it enables us to go out and raise traditional investor capital, but at our core
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So in, you know, the actual bylaws of the company, we're able to make choices that benefit
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our social mission above our financial outcomes.
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Literally, you can sacrifice your financial well-being and not return greater capital to
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If you want to make a choice that's in the best interest of society and the mission that
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And so that's how we structured Mission U from the very beginning.
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This is a really interesting business model and we'll get into this.
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But at the end of the day, basically, it's a tuition-free one-year program.
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Let me have you explain it in your way of explaining it before I butcher this thing.
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And then we'll talk about and we'll go two different ways with this thing.
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Mission U is a one-year higher education program that is entirely debt-free.
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And so what that means is that rather than you taking out a huge loan or paying us a bunch
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of money up front, we're entirely dedicated to extraordinary student outcomes.
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And so we're willing to not take any tuition whatsoever up front from our students.
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They pay no tuition at all throughout the year-long program.
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And instead, what they commit to is an income share agreement.
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And what that looks like is 15%, one-five, of income for 36 months, so three years, is
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shared back with Mission U, but only when a student is making $50,000 or more.
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And so if you're not making $50,000 or more after you leave our program, you don't pay us
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And if you hit a certain threshold of time and you're still not making $50,000, then actually
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You'll have zero obligation to us going forward.
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So the entire idea is to ensure that Mission U is not successful unless our students are
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Putting that discipline on every single part of the organization from the beginning and
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having that clear understanding with our students that you don't pay us a dollar until
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you reach success, I think, creates tremendous alignment.
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And right now, 91% of all college students, when asked at their freshman year, why are
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But very, very few college professors or college administrators will say, hey, my primary
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responsibility is to help somebody get a great job.
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And so we decided to design and build out an institution that really would focus on helping
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somebody thrive, both in their life and career, because what you find when you do the research
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is giving somebody hard technical skills might help them get a foot in the door.
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They might land a job, but it doesn't actually help them thrive throughout their career unless
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it's coupled with soft skills and holistic self-development.
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Some of the things that we actually think of and attribute to a liberal arts education.
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But liberal arts today has just become a series of general education classes.
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It's not actually the transformative education oftentimes that leads to what we actually value,
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which is critical thinking and reasoning and interpersonal skills and a clear compass on where you want
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to point your life and why. And so that's really what our year-long program is focused on.
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And the short time that it's been running, it's been incredible to see the results.
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You know, we polled our students at the end of the week. We do trimesters. At the end of their
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first trimester, we said, one to 10, how likely are you to recommend this to another person?
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I've heard students say to me that actually have bachelor's degrees. Some of our students already
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have a full BA and still wanted to come and do Mission U because they're not in the place that they want
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to be at in their life and career. And, you know, we had a student, I said, how's it going? He said,
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look, I've learned more in my first three months at Mission U than in all four years of my bachelor
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degree combined. So it's been really amazing so far. I like this too, because, and you talked about
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alignment. I call it a win-win and I'm sure everybody who's listening to this is familiar with
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this, but at the end of the day, it's in your best interest to help align these students with a job.
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So I imagine that you on the backend as a team are also going out into the workforce
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and advocating for Mission U and for the students. Is that right?
00:19:34.720
Oh yeah. So, you know, we have an entire department internally that is exclusively focused on building
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clear pathways for our students into companies. So literally this morning, I got an email that said,
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Hey, we have two companies that want to hire our students. They're interested in setting up
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interviews, which students do we want to put in front of them? And then we obviously send a
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message to our students to say, Hey, here's the opportunities. Here's the companies. Here's what
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the roles look like. If you're interested in essentially jumping to the front of the line
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to interview, please opt in. And so, you know, we've set up a series of employer partnerships.
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I mean, before we were ever recruiting students, we were actually in conversation with companies.
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That's really where we started because we said, you can't really help somebody get a job unless
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you've actually understood what that company is looking for. And so we built out these employer
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partnerships. Our partners include companies like Spotify, Lyft, Uber, Warby Parker, Casper,
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Harry's, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, down the line, or just top tier great companies.
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And they do three things with us. The first is they really meaningfully advise us on our curriculum.
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So it's constantly incalibrated against the needs of industry leaders. The second thing is we create
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content and experiences. So students oftentimes go on site at some of our partner companies to get a
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tour, meet some of the leadership. They have guest speakers essentially on a weekly basis that are
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coming in and addressing them and helping them understand how to navigate the job market and end up
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with the career of their dreams. And then they also get early preferred access to hire our students
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because it's this extraordinary pipeline of just really ambitious, motivated, great talent. And our year
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really well trains them to hit the ground running at great companies.
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So all cohorts at MissionU are targeted around 25 students. We really, really deeply believe in the
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small group-based cohort model. You build deep, deep relationships. These are going to be your
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friends for life, much in the way that we think of our college buddies. We also think that learning
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and accountability best happens in small groups. And the way that MissionU learning is delivered is
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through a blend of online and in-person. But our online learning is not pre-recorded lectures.
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What we see is less than 5% of people ever complete a course that's a pre-recorded lecture.
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This is live. You're behind your computer in a small group over a virtual classroom with a
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world-class instructor who's most likely worked at a top-tier company in the last year and has joined
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us to teach. And then at least on a bi-weekly basis, at minimum every other week, you're coming
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together in person for sessions with your cohort. And so we opened up admissions for our first cohort
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cohort. Back in March of 2017, we had almost 5,000 applicants for that first cohort. And we took a
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little bit closer to 30 students. That's on the high 20s. In our first cohort, we opened up admissions
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for January. After that, given the demand that we saw, that cohort is a little bit smaller. It's closer
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to 20. And so right now we have almost 50 students currently in the program. And the plan is to take on
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essentially hundreds in the coming year, grow into high hundreds from there, and then into the thousands
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So let me make sure I understand this. I want to wrap my head around this. So is a cohort organized
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regionally where you do have these live-type classroom environment-type settings, or is it
00:22:46.060
Great question. So because we're bringing our students together every other week, and they develop very,
00:22:50.900
very close relationships, and we want them also close to where top-tier employers are, they are
00:22:55.780
organized regionally. So the requirement is that once you get into Mission U based on the cohort
00:23:02.100
city that you're applying for, you commit to live within 50 miles, 5-0, of your cohort city. So that
00:23:08.600
enables flexibility. Not everyone can afford to live in, you know, a downtown environment. Some people
00:23:13.440
want it, some people don't. But with the 50-mile radius, it enables you to work on the budget that you
00:23:18.740
have for your housing. You can also work a part-time job up to 20 hours a week when you're in the
00:23:22.840
program. And so myself and our team, we're all based in the San Francisco Bay Area. That's where
00:23:27.800
our first few cohorts are. But we anticipate launching at least one, if not multiple, additional
00:23:33.060
cities. In 2018, we're targeting one in particular on the East Coast for this fall. And we'll also add
00:23:39.640
in additional majors over time. So right now we have one major. That major is data analytics and
00:23:44.840
business intelligence. A super high-growth, rapidly emerging field. McKinsey predicts 1.8 million
00:23:51.160
unfilled roles that will require these skills. By 2018, the average data analyst makes $90,000
00:23:57.080
in the Bay Area. It's a really high-demand job. And the way that our year looks is the first trimester
00:24:02.520
is essentially your business foundation. It can be applied to almost any career path,
00:24:07.120
a mix of both hard, soft, and technical skills. Your second trimester is a deep dive into that major.
00:24:13.040
So right now, obviously, that's data analytics and business intelligence. Over time, we'll add on many
00:24:17.440
more. And then your third trimester is real-world work experience. And so our students go out,
00:24:22.320
they're considered fellows by the end of the second trimester, and they pursue opportunities,
00:24:27.120
whether those are internships or most of the time what we're looking at is contract to hire
00:24:31.640
opportunities. So we'll help place them directly at a company. That company has a chance to trial them
00:24:36.900
out. They have a chance to trial out that company. Assuming it works out at the end of that three months,
00:24:41.280
they go and they work for that company directly. And if it doesn't work out at that specific
00:24:44.980
company, at the very least, they have the ability to demonstrate real proficiency and competency
00:24:50.420
in a job that they've worked in the marketplace for a great company. They have a set of references
00:24:55.780
that they can use when applying for the job that they want to take on at perhaps a separate company
00:25:01.640
if it didn't work out at the original one. And they complete the year not only with the skills,
00:25:05.800
but actually the experience as well to really thrive.
00:25:08.160
Have you got any pushback from any formal education institutions? I don't know if you
00:25:14.580
have yet. I imagine that you will if you have not yet.
00:25:16.920
Yeah. I mean, it was interesting. You know, when we launched the way that the Clayton Christensen
00:25:21.640
Institute at Harvard wrote about it in their profile of us is that we sent the higher education world
00:25:29.200
Yeah. You know, if you haven't stood for something, then you'll fall for anything.
00:25:32.260
Sure. You know, we came out with a very different model from how most higher education institutions
00:25:37.580
operate. Right. We're we're shorter. We're a year versus four to six. So we're shorter,
00:25:42.420
we're faster and we're we're cheaper. Right. And we also believe that we've designed a curriculum
00:25:46.900
that is far more relevant and practical and valuable ultimately for our students. And we work
00:25:54.300
really closely with companies. All of these things are not what traditional academics have done
00:25:59.780
historically when it comes to higher education. But we believe that we're the right fit for a lot
00:26:04.960
of students in this country. Not everybody, but a lot. And so, you know, there was a I believe he
00:26:10.080
was a poetry professor from a college in Virginia that just absolutely ripped us. And, you know,
00:26:15.560
I said this is this is not what college and higher education is supposed to focus on. And, you know,
00:26:21.400
I think, again, that I'm willing to respect and hear out all opinions. But, you know, when you've
00:26:27.080
spent time at colleges all across this country and you've heard the pain and the challenge that
00:26:31.660
families have gone through and you speak to folks that have come out the other end or considering
00:26:36.220
entering it, you recognize very clearly that there is a real demand. There's a real need for outcomes
00:26:42.200
based education and education that positions somebody for success and gives them economic security
00:26:48.020
rather than stripping them of that. And so, yeah, I mean, it's been fascinating. The good news is the
00:26:53.820
vast majority of people in higher education have been incredibly supportive. But of course,
00:26:58.520
we're going to have our naysayers. And if we didn't, then we wouldn't be doing something right.
00:27:04.040
Guys, I am stoked. I'm so excited to announce the dates for our third order of man uprising.
00:27:08.520
If you are not familiar with what this is, it is a three and a half day immersive experience.
00:27:13.820
I like to say it's designed to make you as a man bleed, sweat and cry. And let's be honest,
00:27:18.700
I think that's probably something that most men haven't done for too long.
00:27:22.080
All you guys need to do is get to Las Vegas, get to Las Vegas. We'll pick you up,
00:27:27.340
ship you to the mountains of Southern Utah, put you through some of the most physically,
00:27:31.080
mentally and emotionally challenging scenarios that we can conjure up in our minds. But all of
00:27:35.700
this at the end of the day is designed to give you the tools and the guidance and the framework
00:27:39.680
and the direction, quite honestly, to take your life to a whole new level on the home front,
00:27:44.040
the business front, the physical front, whatever it is that you're wanting to work towards for 2018.
00:27:48.820
Guys, if you are interested in joining us at the uprising, the third uprising, the dates are May
00:27:54.360
3rd through 6th, May 3rd through 6th, 2018. You can head to order of man.com slash uprising to get
00:28:00.240
more information again, May 3rd through the 6th, 2018. You get to Las Vegas. We'll take care of the
00:28:05.060
rest. Get the details at order of man.com slash uprising. I hope to see you there. Now let's wrap up
00:28:10.780
the conversation with Adam. I want to talk with you about the model. Has anything like this ever
00:28:18.460
been tried or attempted? I mean, trade school in a way, in a small percentage goes this way because
00:28:24.180
I think it's a little bit more applicable, shorter timeframes, but certainly still has the pay model
00:28:29.400
that a traditional university would have. So I think that there are plenty of programs that touch
00:28:35.420
on some of the things that we do, but there's no one that's come out and designed, you know, a program
00:28:40.520
that looks the way that ours looks today. My hope is many replicate it and that, you know, 10 years
00:28:45.300
from now, you say, of course, you know, I see this all over the place. Mission U was the first and is
00:28:49.160
still the leader to this day. But for example, the fact that we do an income share agreement rather
00:28:53.920
than upfront, you know, kind of massive tuition that puts people in debt. Purdue University has actually
00:28:58.700
been doing that for a few years now. So they offer an income share agreement. It's a program that they
00:29:03.120
piloted. They saw huge success, you know, a ton of students wanted to opt in. So they've been
00:29:07.460
expanding it every year since. So Purdue, you know, we see this on the traditional side. You know,
00:29:12.320
I think that kind of vocational focus and helping somebody get to a place of career success is
00:29:18.780
something that coding boot camps have done really well. They tend to be three month programs. They
00:29:24.280
oftentimes do charge up front. But I think as you look at the growth and maturity of the boot camp space
00:29:29.800
that's been around for five, six years, one of the pieces of feedback that you often hear is, well,
00:29:34.500
you know, they have the technical skills, but they don't have that holistic, well-rounded
00:29:38.160
self-awareness and all these pieces that can help them get to a place where they're not just
00:29:41.960
frontline coders, but can ascend to management. And that's part of why we really designed the
00:29:47.960
program to be a year long and to focus tremendously on the soft skills and this holistic self-development
00:29:53.580
that's really critical that oftentimes doesn't happen in purely vocational education.
00:29:57.980
So, you know, we kind of sit at the intersection of the liberal arts and something that's more,
00:30:02.880
you know, skill oriented. And so, yeah, I mean, there's pieces of what we do that exist in the
00:30:07.700
marketplace today, but there's no one that's doing it exactly how we do it.
00:30:12.140
So from a business perspective, how do you then go out to investors and sell them on an untested model?
00:30:20.500
I'm sure that there's a lot of social capital behind this. Obviously you've proven yourself to be
00:30:24.940
effective when it comes to starting these for purpose type businesses. Talk to me about that
00:30:29.840
Sure. You know, well, one thing that I've certainly seen and experienced is that when a person invests
00:30:35.460
capital in a not-for-profit or for-profit, et cetera, you can describe the structure of the
00:30:40.940
organization. You need to describe the market, all of these pieces that people, you know, when they
00:30:45.480
research what to put in a pitch deck will come across. But at the end of the day, the vast majority of
00:30:50.940
how that decision is made is on the individual sitting in front of them. I think the majority
00:30:55.880
of seasoned and experienced investors are really, you know, the phrase is betting on the jockey.
00:31:02.380
Making a decision in the back of your mind of, is this entrepreneur capable of executing on this
00:31:07.820
vision that they're explaining to me? And most importantly, how do they iterate when it doesn't
00:31:12.760
all go perfectly? Because, you know, as a CEO, you're making 80 to 150 micro decisions on any given day.
00:31:20.440
And then you're making a couple of really big strategic ones throughout your week and throughout
00:31:24.640
the month and throughout the year. And those will have lasting ramifications on the well-being of
00:31:28.960
your organization. And so, fortunately, you know, when people look at my track record, they see
00:31:33.880
Pencils of Promise started with nothing on 25 bucks on the side of a job. And they see, you know,
00:31:39.560
this massive global organization. This year, we should be educating about, you know, the target is
00:31:43.840
close to, actually, it's in excess of 100,000 students. We're currently at about 75,000 students a day.
00:31:49.120
We should have about 100,000 in our programs. We operate in multiple countries of more than 100
00:31:54.320
full-time staff. And when people look at my background, as well as the background of my
00:31:58.520
co-founder, Mike, who leads all curriculum and technology, and that's where he's one of the
00:32:03.140
nation's experts, they say these are the people that can pull off something of this size and scale
00:32:08.240
and vision. And then I think there's a lot of investors out there that have deployed their
00:32:13.240
capital, put it into businesses that have perhaps made them a lot of money, but don't actually move
00:32:18.440
the world forward in a meaningfully positive way, right? And I'm sure we can think of many businesses
00:32:23.260
that do that. Fortunately, you know, I was able to round up just an extraordinary group of investors
00:32:27.840
who had a deep belief in the value of what we were bringing to society, that they wanted to use their
00:32:33.420
capital to make a lasting positive impact on the well-being of others. And they got behind us in
00:32:39.160
really big ways. You talk about investors wanting to know how you and your team might handle
00:32:46.760
situations when they go wrong. What have you identified as being maybe potential pitfalls or
00:32:52.920
shortcomings in some areas in this model and in this venture that you're on that you need to make
00:32:57.980
sure is addressed? You know, I think the main thing that we've seen since launch is just that
00:33:03.360
education, and I knew this before from my experience at Pencil Promise, it's a deeply human business.
00:33:08.240
With other businesses, right, let's say I was, you know, we're building an e-commerce business.
00:33:13.140
It's really about customer acquisition and then keeping people happy and having them promote and
00:33:17.880
evangelize your product to others. But once they've signed up, once they've purchased the good that
00:33:23.020
you're selling them, then the interaction to some degree is complete. You've kind of satisfied the
00:33:27.440
goal. And with what we're doing, it's very far from that. The moment that a student enrolls and they,
00:33:33.360
you know, let's say they get accepted and I actually personally call every student that gets accepted
00:33:37.620
into MissionU and share the news with them, it's like a call out of the blue and they're usually
00:33:41.460
pretty surprised that I'm on the other side of the phone. But it's important to me that I get to
00:33:45.540
know our students. And, you know, once they show up at orientation, that's actually the beginning
00:33:49.920
of a very long journey together. You know, it's at minimum the year that they're in the program and
00:33:54.760
the three years that they're sharing and contributing back to MissionU financially once they've reached that
00:34:00.560
place of success. So I'm talking about more than likely around a five plus year journey with any
00:34:06.260
person. And as much as we can design this extraordinary curriculum and bring in world
00:34:11.220
class instructors and advisors, which we have from Harvard and Stanford and MIT and some of the top,
00:34:16.960
not only colleges, but companies in the country, you know, something can happen in someone's life
00:34:21.780
that is completely unexpected and has nothing to do with what's occurring in, you know, their academic
00:34:26.560
experience and it can derail everything. Loss of a loved one. And suddenly you need to return home
00:34:32.020
and spend a week or two morning, but the rest of your cohort is learning a really tough technical
00:34:38.240
skill and you're behind when you get back and you need that support. And I think that's the main thing
00:34:43.460
that I've learned, that I've seen, and that I think our team has really adapted incredibly to navigate
00:34:48.720
is just the human elements of education and making sure that our students have the holistic and well-rounded
00:34:54.900
support systems around them. Whether that's every student gets an individual coach, whether that's the
00:35:00.220
opportunity for counseling, if they need it to make sure that beyond just the curriculum, our students are able
00:35:06.020
to thrive, navigating all the complexities of life.
00:35:09.220
I think this is really powerful because technology is obviously an amazing, amazing tool. It's how you and I
00:35:15.100
are having this conversation right now and how we're both able to reach millions and millions of people. But I think
00:35:19.940
the more that we go down this technology rabbit hole, the more humans are going to starve and crave for this
00:35:26.920
individual and personalized attention. So I'm glad to hear that you've addressed that or that you're working towards
00:35:34.900
Who's teaching these classes? Are these professors? What are their types of credentials? How do we know we're getting
00:35:41.600
the best information and qualified information?
00:35:43.680
We actually have not found that hiring people from purely academic institutions for the business parts of
00:35:51.080
of Michigan, right? Operations, planning, student experience, etc. leads to a lot of success. But we have had solid
00:35:57.460
success with folks that have both worked in industry and had experience teaching in academia, as well in the
00:36:04.160
instructor role. But the main qualification for us that we look for is have you actually done the job that you're going to
00:36:10.160
teach students at a leading company. And so for our first trimester, this foundational set of business
00:36:16.120
training, we almost think of it as as what a business major should be. I mean, the most popular
00:36:20.300
major in the United States is business right now. But I've looked at and hired many, many people who come
00:36:26.000
from a business background and enter a company with absolutely no comprehension or skill whatsoever as
00:36:31.200
it relates to business. So we designed that that first trimester with folks who have worked at Bain, where I
00:36:36.900
started out my career, it's I think the best training, it's rated the number one training for folks coming out of
00:36:42.020
undergrad in the country. And so we look to hire a lot of ex Bain people, former IBM, NASDAQ, etc. So top tier
00:36:48.400
companies to help teach that first trimester, the second trimester and data analytics, these are top tier
00:36:53.980
data scientists that oftentimes have worked at leading companies, you know, have taught at leading
00:36:58.780
colleges, and then our coaches that support folks through the process of the soft skill development, and this
00:37:06.500
holistic personal development, primarily come from Stanford. And so there's two, the most actually
00:37:12.440
popular courses for Stanford undergrad and Stanford business school, one's called designing your life,
00:37:17.560
the other is called interpersonal dynamics, we have former lectures from those two courses who lead our
00:37:24.820
Well, Adam, this has been extremely, extremely fascinating. I'm really anxious to see where this
00:37:29.660
goes and how this continues to develop. And I see it being part of the solution to the problem that I think a lot of
00:37:34.220
people are experiencing. Is there anything else that I should have asked you or that you want to make
00:37:40.440
I think the main thing is just to be aware that given the demand that we've seen, our goal is not
00:37:44.420
to turn away students, it's to let them in, you know, historically, we've had less than 1% acceptance
00:37:49.380
rate, just given the number of applicants that we've seen, but we actually don't prioritize SAT or GPA
00:37:55.420
whatsoever in our admissions process. We're not looking at how you've performed in the past, we're looking at
00:38:00.380
your future potential. How do you bring soft skills in particular to the table? How do you work in
00:38:04.360
groups? You know, how do you demonstrate critical thinking and reasoning? Are you an effective
00:38:08.140
communicator? And how passionate are you about Mission U in particular to evaluate admission?
00:38:13.740
So we now enable students to apply really at any time in the year, we have three start dates,
00:38:19.020
January, May and September. So that enables us to have rolling admissions. And as a result, if anyone
00:38:24.520
that's listened to this either thinks that Mission U, just spelled M-I-S-S-I-O-N-U at the end, just the
00:38:30.860
letter U, thinks that the program could be the right fit for them. Or if you think it could be the right
00:38:35.920
fit for someone that you know and care about, it could be a friend, a family member, a peer, someone
00:38:40.700
that you've mentored, I just encourage you to send them to missionu.com. And right there, they can just go to
00:38:49.480
Nice. We'll make sure we link that up. So all the guys listening to this can have access to that,
00:38:53.060
nowhere to go. My last question for you, one that I prepared you a little bit for, is what does it
00:38:58.980
It's a great question. And it's evolving constantly. But the definition that I think I inherited from
00:39:04.460
watching great men in my life is, first and foremost, that you treat others the way that
00:39:09.240
you want to be treated. And I think that really starts in the home. And so it's being a great
00:39:13.460
husband, it's being a great father, it's being a great brother, son. And then the second thing is
00:39:17.960
that you strive to be an example for those that you love most to take pride in. And finally, that
00:39:24.520
you make sure that you leave the world better than you inherited it and make a firm commitment to
00:39:32.600
Well, it sounds like you are living up to that from this conversation and from the limited that I
00:39:36.660
know about you. So I appreciate the way that you're showing up. And of course, what you're doing
00:39:40.320
here, I know this is a huge problem. It's one that I've talked with hundreds and hundreds of guys
00:39:45.080
about. And I know there needs to be a solution to this higher education dilemma that I think will
00:39:50.280
continue to become a problem, even more so if we don't address it. So I appreciate you taking the
00:39:54.620
initiative to do that. Sounds like you're doing some amazing things. And again, I'm excited and
00:39:58.480
anxious to see where this thing, where this thing takes you and us. So thanks for showing up. Thanks
00:40:02.740
for imparting some of your wisdom today, man. Oh, my pleasure. Thank you for giving us all a forum.
00:40:08.280
There it is, gentlemen, my conversation with Adam Braun. I hope that you got as much out of this as I
00:40:13.280
did. I see this as being a huge issue. And I think mission you is onto some very, very viable
00:40:19.880
solutions to the cost and effectiveness of traditional higher education. Guys, if you enjoyed
00:40:25.560
the show, please let me and Adam know on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, wherever you're doing the social
00:40:31.380
media thing. We are there. It's always good to hear from you guys. In the meantime, please take a look
00:40:36.360
at the uprising, which again is being held May 3rd through 6th, 2018. You can go to order of man.com
00:40:42.120
slash uprising to learn more. And of course, lock in your spot, but we only have 10 spots. So if
00:40:47.000
you're going to do it, get on it quick. And then of course, we've got the book order of man.com
00:40:50.820
slash sovereignty for the book sovereignty, the battle for the hearts and minds of men. Guys,
00:40:55.680
with that said, I'm going to sign out for today. I appreciate you being on the journey to reclaiming
00:40:59.880
masculinity with me. I could not, could not do it without you guys until Friday, take action and
00:41:05.980
become the man you are meant to be. Thank you for listening to the order of man podcast.
00:41:11.120
You're ready to take charge of your life and be more of the man you were meant to be.
00:41:15.480
We invite you to join the order at order of man.com.