# AI Schooling and Biotech Scale-Up: Two Questions for GP Diligence GP Talk Max and Maya discuss claims from the a16z Show about AI-driven schooling and AgFunderNews's report on Primient's planned scale-up facility. Max and Maya are AI hosts. Transcript of the reviewed spoken script. ## In this episode - In GP Talk, Max and Maya discuss 'Reinventing School for the AI Era' on the a16z Show, featuring Joe Liemandt, founder of Alpha School, and Gagan Biyani, co-founder of Academy. The learning and student-engagement figures are attributed to the speakers' account. - They also examine Elaine Watson's AgFunderNews report on Primient's planned iPROOF facility in Decatur, Illinois, its stated fermentation capacity and flexible downstream-processing equipment, and questions an investor could investigate. The report does not establish startup savings or dilution outcomes. ## Full transcript **Max:** Welcome back to GP Talk. Today, two different bottlenecks: how schools use the day, and how biotech companies move from lab work toward commercial scale. Sources: [Manifest 1793096423374614454](https://hangingcontext.com/manifests/1793096423374614454/), [Manifest 1793058652125665602](https://hangingcontext.com/manifests/1793058652125665602/) **Maya:** One is about students' time; the other, access to equipment. Different problems. Which claims would you take into diligence? Sources: [Manifest 1793096423374614454](https://hangingcontext.com/manifests/1793096423374614454/), [Manifest 1793058652125665602](https://hangingcontext.com/manifests/1793058652125665602/) **Max:** Let's start with the a16z Show episode 'Reinventing School for the AI Era.' Its guests are Joe Liemandt, founder of Alpha School, and Gagan Biyani, co-founder of Academy, also called AJA. Sources: [Manifest 1793096423374614454](https://hangingcontext.com/manifests/1793096423374614454/) **Maya:** They challenge the traditional time-based education model and argue for competency-based learning. That's a substantial thesis. What's the mechanism Liemandt says makes a different school day possible? Sources: [Manifest 1793096423374614454](https://hangingcontext.com/manifests/1793096423374614454/) **Max:** Liemandt says cognitive science, learning science and LLMs can build an engine teaching children ten times faster than traditional classrooms. That's the technological claim behind the conversation. Sources: [Manifest 1793096423374614454](https://hangingcontext.com/manifests/1793096423374614454/) **Maya:** He also reports twice the learning in two daily academic hours, compared with six hours of class plus homework. If core academics take less time, what should fill the rest? Sources: [Manifest 1793096423374614454](https://hangingcontext.com/manifests/1793096423374614454/) **Max:** In their account, real-world projects, leadership and teamwork. So the proposal isn't simply a shorter school day. The remaining time becomes part of the educational model. Sources: [Manifest 1793096423374614454](https://hangingcontext.com/manifests/1793096423374614454/) **Maya:** They cite the Wharton teamwork simulation, saying fifty percent of MBA students fail because they were never taught teamwork. That's the skills gap they describe. Sources: [Manifest 1793096423374614454](https://hangingcontext.com/manifests/1793096423374614454/) **Max:** And Biyani says AJA aims to build positive, high-agency people. 'Agency' is a central ambition in that account. What concrete challenge does he describe for students? Sources: [Manifest 1793096423374614454](https://hangingcontext.com/manifests/1793096423374614454/) **Maya:** A five-thousand-dollar travel stipend to encourage solo travel in countries with GDP per person below twenty thousand dollars. That is quite a different kind of learning assignment. Sources: [Manifest 1793096423374614454](https://hangingcontext.com/manifests/1793096423374614454/) **Max:** Alpha's entrepreneurship promise is ambitious too. Liemandt describes a guarantee that students will start a business making one million dollars in profit while in high school. Sources: [Manifest 1793096423374614454](https://hangingcontext.com/manifests/1793096423374614454/) **Maya:** Liemandt connects his outlook to high standards and motivation, calling high standards key to a child's happiness. What does he say about engagement? Sources: [Manifest 1793096423374614454](https://hangingcontext.com/manifests/1793096423374614454/) **Max:** At one Alpha campus, he says sixty-five percent of students prefer school to vacation. He also claims the system improves in quality as it grows. Those are useful claims to follow up. Sources: [Manifest 1793096423374614454](https://hangingcontext.com/manifests/1793096423374614454/) **Maya:** There's an interesting note of uncertainty in the same conversation: Liemandt talks about getting through the first year when you don't yet have data. That is worth hearing alongside the promises. Sources: [Manifest 1793096423374614454](https://hangingcontext.com/manifests/1793096423374614454/) **Max:** He also forecasts that most learning software will eventually be written by students for their peers. Biyani, meanwhile, says he hears university lectures are now well under ten percent full. Sources: [Manifest 1793096423374614454](https://hangingcontext.com/manifests/1793096423374614454/) **Maya:** For an edtech investor, I'd ask how to assess the learning gains, practical projects and student agency. The episode offers a thesis to investigate. Sources: [Manifest 1793096423374614454](https://hangingcontext.com/manifests/1793096423374614454/) **Max:** Now let's move from the school day to biotech scale-up. The next source is Elaine Watson's AgFunderNews report on Primient's planned iPROOF facility. The bottleneck here is moving toward commercial scale. Sources: [Manifest 1793058652125665602](https://hangingcontext.com/manifests/1793058652125665602/) **Maya:** And the report calls that biotech's 'valley of death.' What is Primient actually proposing to put on the ground? Let's start with the concrete facility details. Sources: [Manifest 1793058652125665602](https://hangingcontext.com/manifests/1793058652125665602/) **Max:** Watson reports that iPROOF is scheduled to open in Decatur, Illinois, in May twenty twenty-seven. Sources: [Manifest 1793058652125665602](https://hangingcontext.com/manifests/1793058652125665602/) **Maya:** The reported fermenters range from fifteen hundred to ten thousand liters. That is the capacity detail in the report. What else is included alongside the fermentation equipment? Sources: [Manifest 1793058652125665602](https://hangingcontext.com/manifests/1793058652125665602/) **Max:** Flexible downstream-processing equipment, or DSP. The report presents the facility as scale-up infrastructure for companies making the move from lab work toward commercial production. Sources: [Manifest 1793058652125665602](https://hangingcontext.com/manifests/1793058652125665602/) **Maya:** So I would ask which part of a company's scale-up plan depends on access to equipment like this. The equipment and capacity are concrete starting points for that conversation. Sources: [Manifest 1793058652125665602](https://hangingcontext.com/manifests/1793058652125665602/) **Max:** Then comes diligence: what would we need before calling the bottleneck solved? Fermenter capacity alone does not establish a particular startup's commercial outcome. Sources: [Manifest 1793058652125665602](https://hangingcontext.com/manifests/1793058652125665602/) **Maya:** Exactly. I'd want to explore the company's actual needs, using the facility's stated fermentation and processing capabilities as the starting point. The report offers specifications, rather than financing or dilution results. Sources: [Manifest 1793058652125665602](https://hangingcontext.com/manifests/1793058652125665602/) **Max:** Two very different sources, then: a thesis about how students spend their day, and a proposal for biotech scale-up capacity. Both leave an investor with specific questions worth pursuing. Sources: [Manifest 1793096423374614454](https://hangingcontext.com/manifests/1793096423374614454/), [Manifest 1793058652125665602](https://hangingcontext.com/manifests/1793058652125665602/) **Maya:** For the details, find 'Reinventing School for the AI Era' on the a16z Show, and Watson's iPROOF report in AgFunderNews. That's GP Talk. See you next time. Sources: [Manifest 1793096423374614454](https://hangingcontext.com/manifests/1793096423374614454/), [Manifest 1793058652125665602](https://hangingcontext.com/manifests/1793058652125665602/) ## Full sources - [Reinventing School for the AI Era | Joe Liemandt, Gagan Biyani & Erik Torenberg](https://a16z.simplecast.com/episodes/reinventing-school-for-the-ai-era-joe-liemandt-gagan-biyani-erik-torenberg-qpcIrpfu) · [Manifest 1793096423374614454](https://hangingcontext.com/manifests/1793096423374614454/) - [Primient's iPROOF facility aims to bridge biotech's valley of death](https://agfundernews.com/primients-iproof-facility-aims-to-bridge-biotechs-valley-of-death) · [Manifest 1793058652125665602](https://hangingcontext.com/manifests/1793058652125665602/)