NYC’s new Founders School is out to make millionaires | Latest Tech News
It’s an audacious proposition.
At Founders School, a new entrepreneurism-focused high faculty that opened its doorways in the start of September in the Financial District, tuition prices a cool $150,000 per 12 months. But, if college students haven’t launched a business that’s made at least a million {dollars} in revenue by the end of their fourth 12 months, the varsity says it should refund a pupil’s complete $600,000 tuition.
At Founders School, college students are taught the rules of entrepreneurship and guided in the direction of launching their own business — with a purpose of reaching $1,000,000 in revenue by the end of their fourth 12 months. Nat Eliason, co-head of Founders School, is seated at the desk in the blue shirt. Courtesy of Founders School
“It’s bold but I don’t think it’s crazy,” said Nat Eliason, the varsity’s 33-year-old co-head and an entrepreneur himself. In 2025, he bought his content advertising company, Growth Machine, to MBE Group for an undisclosed quantity.
Founders School is an offshoot of the NYC location of Alpha School, a community of AI-based colleges and studying facilities that launched in Austin in 2014 and has since expanded across the nation.
A scholar (seated in the inexperienced chair on the left) pitches her business to Joe Liemandt (standing, proper), principal of the Alpha School System. Courtesy of Founders School
Fifteen-year-old Sanjay Divakar, who hails from Greenwich, CT, requested his mother and father if he might switch over from his hometown public faculty after seeing Kolin Jones — CEO of one of the world’s largest non-public aviation firms, Amalfi Jets — communicate about the varsity on Instagram.
“I’ve given two Tedx Talks on the fact that schools are not training students to their full potential,” Divakar said. “My [public school] teachers used to tell me running a business wouldn’t get me anywhere.”
Eliason said the thought for Founders School got here about after Alpha School head Joe Liemandt requested pupils how they may make high faculty “ten-times better.”
“We already had students who were successfully starting businesses, but they felt they needed more support and resources to do that as effectively as possible,” Eliason explained.
According to Founders School, there are at present 21 college students enrolled. Fifteen work out of the varsity’s Manhattan location, while the six others are based in Austin and will repeatedly journey to NYC to confer with their East Coast friends and mentors.
Nat Eliason (left) co-head of the Founders School and Jamey Gannon (proper), an AI inventive director and model designer at Google, communicate with college students during the first week of courses. Courtesy of Founders School
Some college students began class with a project properly underway. Divakar, for one, has been building a B2B software program product designed to help firms discover and remove friction between departments since July.
By the time he began at Founders School earlier this month, he had already surpassed $10,000 in income. Now, he’s hoping the varsity will help him scale the business. He’s aiming to hit $100,000 in income in the next 100 days, and $20 million by commencement.
“Within ten years, [maybe] we’ll go public,” Divakar told The Post.
Founding Families are the first households to enroll their kids in Founders School. The first day of courses in the varsity’s historical past was Sept. 6, 2026. Courtesy of Founders School
In a typical day at Founders School, classes in core topics such as English, Math, Science and Social Studies are condensed into just two or three hours of studying in the morning on tablets armed with AI-bots. There is no homework and no academics, just human “guides” that roam the school rooms and help when mandatory.
That leaves the rest of the varsity day for working on business plans and building out merchandise and companies, with the help of seasoned entrepreneurs and a proprietary entrepreneurial AI-platform.
The FiDi campus also homes a normal location of Alpha School, which launched in NYC in 2025 and at present has about 130 college students. Like those in Founders School, they spend the morning studying core topics with AI. Afternoons are targeted on “life skills workshops,” with teenagers doing something from assembling furnishings to climbing rock partitions and fixing Rubik’s Cubes.
From its location at 180 Maiden Lane in the Financial District, Founders School appears out over the East River in the direction of Downtown Brooklyn. Courtesy of Founders School
Founders School comes to NY at a time when the use of AI in colleges is more divisive than ever.
Earlier this month, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the Department of Education announced a controversial set of new guidelines that banned artificial intelligence in public elementary and center colleges. High faculty college students may have restricted access to AI through 5 pilot applications.
The rules don’t apply to the New York chapter of Founders School or Alpha School because they aren’t formally acknowledged by the New York State Education Department. Technically “learning centers,” mother and father wishing to enroll their kids must file formal documentation with the state designating them as homeschoolers.
Inside Founders School. The space is shared with the New York outpost for the AI-powered Alpha School. Neither is acknowledged by the New York State Education Department and so they’re formally thought of “learning centers.” Courtesy of Founders School
Laurie Kopp Weingarten, co-founder of a school counseling service for high-achieving college students in New Jersey, questions whether or not Founders School is asking college students to do an excessive amount of too soon. Online studying also issues her due to dips in studying and math scores post-COVID.
“It sounds very sexy, but what’s the big rush to be an entrepreneur?” Weingarten requested. “I don’t see why it has to come at the expense of traditional schooling.”
In a assertion supplied to the Post, Founders School said, “Nothing comes at the expense of academics. Founders students complete a full academic curriculum, but it’s delivered through a personal learning platform, instead of a lecture-based classroom. Kids don’t move on until they truly understand a concept and don’t get to participate in entrepreneurial activities until they complete their work.”
The mom of one Founders School scholar isn’t involved about the distinctive schooling model.
“I think we’re all very realistic about what’s going on here,” said the mother, who requested to stay nameless to shield her baby’s privateness. “They’re building the car as they’re driving it, and it’s full of our children … But we’re comfortable going along for that ride.”
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