Most Recent Episode
Fixing Education in America | Ryan Delk (Co-founder and CEO, Primer) Time: 1:05:14
Ryan Delk is the Co-Founder and CEO of Primer, a startup helping ambitious kids unlock their potential by empowering teachers to launch and run their own micro-schools. Primer’s supported by investors like Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, Village Global, Susa Ventures, Sam Altman, Naval, Ryan Peterson, Amjad Masad, Julie Zhuo, Tobias Lutke, Lachy Groom, Howie Liu, Dylan Field, Packy McCormick, and many more. Before Primer, Ryan was the COO at peer-to-peer rental marketplace Omni (sold to Coinbase), and prior to that led Growth and Partnerships at Gumroad from $10,000 to $50 million in GMV.
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In this episode, we discuss:
How the $1 trillion US K-12 education system works
The broken incentive structures in education
Why teachers are superheroes
How to double a teacher’s income
Primer’s origin story
How to open a school
If online school works
Why founders make the best employees
How the US government wastes billions of dollars
Why everyone should care more about local politics
Where to find Ryan:
Twitter https://twitter.com/delk
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/delk/
Where to find Turner:
Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/TurnerNovak
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThePeelPod
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ThePeelPod
TikTok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@ThePeelPod
Timestamps:
(3:42) The state of K-12 education in the US
(6:35) The structural problem causing a radical misallocation of resources
(8:00) The importance of teachers
(9:34) The “totally flipped” incentive structure for teachers
(12:22) The problem of bureaucracy in education
(13:38) Primer’s thesis
(14:52) How to start a school
(16:00) How Primer helps teachers start their own schools
(18:20) Using underutilized real estate to host micro-schools
(20:05) Ryan’s take on digital vs in-person learning
(21:59) How Primer supports teachers
(23:21) Inspirational stories from Primer users
(28:00) The underestimated entrepreneurship of teachers
(29:12) How Primer stays affordable for all users
(30:26) How Primer gets teachers on board
(32:04) The role of after-school activities
(33:07) How Primer sets its Curriculum
(35:14) Ryan’s unique education and how it inspired Primer
(38:39) Why someone hadn’t solved this problem yet
(40:24) Primer’s initial strategy
(41:30) The breakfast that changed everything
(42:09) The concept of “Barrels” from Keith Rabois
(42:36) Finding and recruiting Ian Bravo
(43:31) How Primer recruits ex-founders
(44:52) The 3 things Primer screens for in teachers
(46:27) What Primer messed up when launching
(48:19) Re-thinking school admissions from first principles
(51:03) How they convinced the very first teachers to try Primer
(51:59) The ineffective usage of education spending
(53:28) Policymakers prioritizing “signal over outcomes”
(57:21) The worst public schools are worse than you think
(59:08) How the Government wastes billions of dollars and Ryan’s idea for solving this
(61:31) The importance of increasing engagement with local politics
(63:37) The vision for Primer
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Release Date: 29/06/2023, 15:30:00
