Summary of Conversation: Gary Sheng and Beau Sydes (June 3, 2025)

This document summarizes a conversation between Gary Sheng and Beau Sydes, who runs NextGen Academy (formerly eSports Academy), on June 3, 2025. The discussion focused on NextGen Academy's evolution, its current branding and educational model, and potential involvement in Gary's upcoming "Alphas Activate" event on June 14th, including a tour for an interested Asian delegation.

1. NextGen Academy: Evolution and Current Model

• Origins & Initial Challenges: Beau recounted joining in December of the previous year (approx. 1.5 years ago) when NextGen (then eSports Academy) was just a concept. They built an MVP and recruited students, essentially "building the plane and flying it all at the same time."
  • Beau: "We arrived and we learned that it's a concept and that nothing else existed."
• Initial Premise (Video Game-Focused Learning): Started with the idea of learning through video games, focusing on academics (4 hours instead of 2) and using games as an incentive for a pilot group of 7 struggling students. This yielded significant academic gains (4-5x growth in 3-4 months).
  • Beau: "They're going to do four hours of academics instead of two. And then what we were able to do was have those kids grow four and five X in a number of a matter of like three or four months because of the focus on academics and then the focus of being able to unlock the incentive."
• Failure of Video Game Branding: Despite academic success, the "video game school" branding failed to attract parents. None of the 7 pilot students re-enrolled, and it was a "very hard, hard, hard sell to parents." Most perceived it as an after-school program, not a real school.
  • Beau: "No parent, no matter who they were, with exception of the most desperate parents you would ever find, were interested in saying their kid to a video game school... Everyone thought we were just an after school program."
• Current Model & Rebranding (NextGen Academy):
  • Shift in Focus: Moved away from direct gameplay towards using game themes and the eSports environment as a motivational tool. They now emphasize life skills, the standard 2-hour Alpha learning model, and strong academics, similar to other Alpha schools.
    • Beau: "Our afternoons are life skills, just like all the other schools. The biggest difference is that our campus is literally built to be an amazing tech space... we've created an environment that kids love to come to."
  • Example - Public Speaking: Taught public speaking by having students learn to live commentate/shoutcast eSports tournaments. (Beau: "For them, public speaking wasn't an easy choice for them. But the reality is it involves zero games. None at all. But it involves the themes that they love and the environment that they love.")
  • XP as Currency: Uses "XP" instead of "Alpha" for in-school currency, as it resonates with students.
  • Tech & Innovation Focus: Current workshops focus on AI, coding, game development, and content creation.
    • Beau: "We're going to focus on having your kids know how to use AI effectively and be ahead of it, and learn to buy code and learn to create their own, develop their own video games..."
• Improved Parent Reception: This new framing (strong academics, life skills, innovative tech workshops within a game-themed environment) is proving "a lot more effective for parents."
  • Measurement of success: "When we have a showcase, people show up. That when parents walk through the door, we don't have to convince them that we are not an after-school program."
• Marketing Alignment: Recently revamped branding and social media messaging (with Alpha and Love Social, Jason Appelbaum as Alpha contact) to accurately reflect the current model. This new messaging went live just days prior to the call.

2. Gary's "Alphas Activate" Event (June 14th) & NextGen Involvement

• Gary's Event Goal: Hosting events to activate local (and beyond) influencers to help fill schools and expand the Alpha ecosystem in various ways.
• Asian Delegation Visit (June 13th): Gary is bringing a group with licenses for Ad Astra and Astronova in Asia, who are well-connected with Asian leadership (China, S. Korea, Japan) and interested in starting new schools. They are particularly interested in the eSports/NextGen concept due to the strong gaming culture in Asia.
  • Gary: "It's a group that literally speaks to like heads of countries in Asia about starting new schools. And gaming over there has a huge culture that we're nowhere close to over here."
  • Request: Gary asked Beau to arrange a tour of NextGen Academy for this delegation on June 13th, led by someone knowledgeable about NextGen's current philosophy.
    • Beau confirmed: "Yeah, for sure. If it's not me and it's someone else, we'll be able to tackle both. The 13th... It shouldn't be a problem."
• Potential Role for Beau/NextGen at June 14th Event:
  • Gary suggested Beau (or a team member if Beau is unavailable due to travel) could represent NextGen.
  • Ideas included: Being shouted out in the audience, giving a 5-10 minute presentation/case study on NextGen's iterations and learnings, and being available for Q&A during networking.
    • Gary: "I think possibly doing a kind of case study of what you learned over the past year and a half could be interesting too... faithfully describing your philosophy around that and the preliminary results and that this is the kind of thing that we do, which is we want to be on the bleeding edge."
  • Beau was receptive: "Yeah, for sure. We've iterated more than anyone, so we're a great case study there... I'll make it a priority to try and make sure that my schedule is open for it."
  • The target audience for this event includes potential school starters (including the Asian delegation), parents, and other influential people from the Texas area.

3. Gary's Background and Role at Alpha

• Gary briefly shared his background: software engineering at Google, events/concerts, online activism, youth empowerment nonprofit, pop-up village experiments with Vitalik Buterin, AI advising, and joining Alpha via Gauntlet AI.
• His initial hiring conversation with Joe Liemandt involved the idea of "helping create a Davos in America with education as the focus."
• Current focus has shifted from primarily new school creation to also "helping make our actual existing schools better, fill the existing schools, iterate on the existing schools."
• He sees events like the June 14th one as experiments for a template to get local influencers excited about the future of education with Alpha as a leading platform.
• Offered to connect Beau with a potential coding/vibe curriculum teacher (Zach from Austin, a General Assembly instructor).

Key Takeaways & Next Steps

1. NextGen Academy Tour (June 13th): Beau will arrange for someone from his team (or himself if available) to give a tour to Gary's Asian delegation, ensuring they are briefed on the current, nuanced NextGen philosophy.
2. NextGen Presence at Alphas Activate (June 14th): Beau will try to attend and potentially present a short case study on NextGen's journey and learnings. If unavailable, a team member will represent NextGen.
3. Marketing Alignment: Beau emphasized the importance of consistent messaging about NextGen Academy, especially when influencers share information.
4. Future Teacher Connection: Gary may connect Beau with Zach, a potential coding instructor.
5. Communication: Gary will resend event links to Beau and will create an email thread for the June 13th tour coordination once the host is confirmed.

This conversation was crucial for aligning on how NextGen Academy is presented, especially to potential international partners, and for integrating NextGen into the broader narrative of Alpha's innovative ecosystem at the upcoming event.