# Austen Allred

> Austen Allred is the founder of Lambda School (rebranded Bloom Institute of Technology), the income-share-agreement coding bootcamp that raised $129M+ and peaked at a $200M valuation before a CFPB enforcement action in 2024. Undeterred, he launched Gauntlet AI in Austin - a fully employer-funded, invitation-only AI engineering program that is 100% free for participants, guarantees $200K+ job offers on completion, and has already trained engineers reporting 50% productivity gains.

- **Role:** Founder & CEO at Gauntlet AI
- **Organizations:** Gauntlet AI, Bloom Institute of Technology, Lambda School, GrassWire, LendUp, Stryde
- **From:** Springville, Utah, USA
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** Dropped out - no degree, College (unnamed)
- **Known for:** Raised $129M+ for Lambda School / BloomTech from Google Ventures, Ashton Kutcher, Y Combinator, Gigafund, Stripe, Sequoia, Grew Lambda School to 2,700+ students and $200M+ valuation at peak, Co-authored 'Secret Sauce: The Ultimate Growth Hacking Guide' - bestseller that sold $33K in week one

## Career timeline

- **2008-2010** — LDS Mission in Donetsk, Ukraine - became fluent in Russian
- **2013-2015** — Social Team Lead at Stryde (digital marketing agency)
- **2014-2015** — Co-founded GrassWire, a crowdsourced real-time newsroom
- **2015** — Co-authored 'Secret Sauce: The Ultimate Growth Hacking Guide' with Vin Clancy - sold $33K in week one
- **2015-2016** — Drove to Silicon Valley, lived out of his Honda Civic, learned to code at a Palo Alto co-working space
- **2015-2017** — Senior Manager of Growth at LendUp (fintech/payday lender in San Francisco)
- **2017** — Co-founded Lambda School with Ben Nelson; joined Y Combinator S17
- **2018** — Lambda School raises $4M seed post-YC; grows to 700+ students
- **2019** — Raises $14M Series A, then $30M Series B (Google Ventures, YC, Ashton Kutcher); 2,700+ students. California fined $75K for unlicensed operations.
- **2020** — Raises $74M Series C (Gigafund, YC, Stripe, Sequoia's Shaun Maguire). Peak valuation >$200M. First layoffs (19 staff).
- **2021** — Lambda rebranded to Bloom Institute of Technology / BloomTech. 65 more employees laid off.
- **2022** — 88 employees (50% of staff) laid off in December
- **2023** — Another 50% staff cut; all full-time instructors removed; pivot to MOOC model
- **2024-04** — CFPB consent order: BloomTech fined $64K, Allred personally fined $100K, banned from student lending for 10 years
- **2024** — Founded Gauntlet AI in Austin, Texas - employer-funded AI engineering program, 100% free for participants
- **2025** — Launched Gauntlet for America - AI engineering pipeline for US public sector. Active angel investing through Austen Access Fund.

## Achievements

- Raised $129M+ for Lambda School / BloomTech from Google Ventures, Ashton Kutcher, Y Combinator, Gigafund, Stripe, Sequoia
- Grew Lambda School to 2,700+ students and $200M+ valuation at peak
- Co-authored 'Secret Sauce: The Ultimate Growth Hacking Guide' - bestseller that sold $33K in week one
- Pioneered income share agreements (ISAs) in US coding education at scale
- Admitted to Y Combinator S17 cohort
- Built BloomTech's backend engineering curriculum in partnership with Amazon
- Founded Gauntlet AI - first employer-funded AI engineering bootcamp with $200K+ job guarantee
- Gauntlet AI reports 50% quarterly productivity gain from Trilogy cohort of 100 engineers
- 500+ production AI applications deployed by Gauntlet AI graduates
- 65+ hiring partner companies for Gauntlet AI
- Became fluent in Russian during LDS mission in Donetsk, Ukraine
- Launched Gauntlet for America for public sector AI engineering (2025)
- Active angel investor - 15+ portfolio companies through Austen Access Fund
- Member of Founders Pledge

## Latest updates

- **2025-04** — Gauntlet AI running multiple cohorts with 5,000+ applicants per cycle; 65+ hiring partner companies
- **2025-01** — Launched Gauntlet for America to build AI-native engineering capability for the US public sector
- **2025-01** — Spoke at Forward Future Live alongside leaders from Box, Harmonic, and Ramp
- **2024-12** — Gauntlet AI Chose Austin as base - appeared on Austin Next Podcast to explain why
- **2024-04** — CFPB issued consent order: Allred personally fined $100K, banned from student lending for 10 years. BloomTech fined $64K and permanently banned from consumer lending.
- **2024** — Founded Gauntlet AI in Austin, Texas - employer-funded AI engineering bootcamp with $200K+ job guarantee for graduates

## Links

- Website: https://www.austenallred.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/austenallred
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/Austen
- GitHub: https://github.com/austenallred

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/austen-allred
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-04-29