The Plan

The following is all up for debate. In fact, everything about Synthesis School is and will be up for debate, except our core principle: we will always act in accordance with the long term best interest of our families.

Thesis

• The future will be better than the present to the extent that we have many humans who can solve complex problems cooperatively
• So our goal is to develop a generation of super thinker / super cooperator kids.
• To do that, kids need engaging problems that get them to actually think and cooperate
• Therefore, Synthesis should aim to build the world's most complex and challenging learning environment in the world.
• Long term success metric is startup founders and inventors who credit Synthesis with giving them the head start and confidence to do something good for humanity.

Strategy

• As more education moves online, there will be an unbundling of daycare and education.
• The shift online will favor specialists, not generalists.
• Therefore, the core strategy of Synthesis School is FOCUS. We must focus on what we do uniquely well.
• What we do uniquely well is the combination of several skills:
  • Unique and novel games
  • Live, social online classes with video/audio
  • The best teachers and peers
  • Soon, we'll add a demanding curriculum with connections to mental models (i.e. "game theory") and history.
• We'll start by doing one Game extremely well.
• Initially, we offer a high touch, high price, exclusive experience.
• We'll use the revenue from this phase to create new Games, and build software tools to augment and replace some teacher functions.
• Over time, we'll move toward lower price and more democratic student admissions.
• After we prove out the efficacy and engagement with a consumer product, we'll contract directly with national governments which are increasingly concerned with giving children a 21st century education.

Synthesis is currently the absolute best learning experience I've ever seen. We need to maintain that level. The student experience always comes first, even if it means we miss our financial goals. That said, I think if we keep this plan in mind, we can figure out the systems that enable us to scale gracefully and hit our goals.