The Interview: Adam Braun
Editor’s Note: Adam Braun is the CEO & Co-Founder of MissionU. He was previously founder and CEO of Pencils of Promise. He is a New York Times bestselling author and has been featured as a speaker at The White House, the United Nations and the Clinton Global Initiative.
Braun was on the path to a successful Wall Street career, but while traveling abroad as a college student he met a young boy begging on the streets of India, who when asked what he wanted most in the world, simply answered, “a pencil.” This small request became the inspiration for Pencils of Promise, the organization Braun would leave Bain & Company several years later to start with just $25. Using his unique “for-purpose” approach, he led the organization through $30M of funds raised before focusing his efforts to reimagining the broken higher education system in the US through his new venture MissionU. This interview originally appeared in the September 2017 issue of the 1635 newsletter. Subscribe here.
1. My experience in my public school was…
One that challenged me greatly. I found myself consistently interested in a variety of topics and often times only studied what was necessary to get an “A” in a course or on a test, but in college I found that the most valuable courses were independent studies that enabled me to build business plans for real ideas that I wanted to bring into the world. It was the courses and professors that encouraged me to look beyond just introductory classes and really explore the areas that connected to the real world that helped me one day envision getting to the place of building organizations and companies that I find myself in today.
2. When I think of public education, I…
…think of opportunity. The reason I have focused about a decade of my career in education is because I think it is the world’s single most powerful enabler of greater opportunity from one generation to the next and it is also the great equalizer for our society and the many people who start in different places but should all have the chance to fulfill their true potential and find their version of success.
3. If I were telling the story of public education…
I would speak about its origins in one-on-one communications that are highly personalized between a parent and a child. The home is actually the foundation of any form of education and over time education has been industrialized into a mass market product that has created systems that at times have helped the world. The current system that we have in place of higher education is one that I fundamentally believe needs significant transformation. In building MissionU as a debt-free, college alternative for the 21st century we are seeking to do just that.
4. I saw a video you posted to Instagram saying the “one-size-fits-all-system” of education is broken. What did you mean by that and how is your latest venture, MissionU, attempting to solve that issue?
I believe we position the bachelor’s degree as a one-size-fits-all-system and that we encourage every single student regardless of their ambitions or experiences to pursue this one singular pathway that simply is not working as well as other pathways could for a large group of the American population. MissionU is a one-year, debt free, college alternative that is built for the 21st century. We charge zero dollars in upfront tuition and instead when you get into MissionU we commit to investing in you for that full year and you only pay us back when you find career success. What we mean by that is that you contribute back 15% of income for three years, but only once you are making $50,000 or more. If you don’t reach that threshold within seven years after the program, you actually end up paying us nothing at all as that is a failed outcome in our minds. Instead, what we are targeting is for you to earn significantly higher than that minimum threshold immediately after completion of the program. It is also designed for flexibility because 80% of the program is online and 20% is in person. We enable you to have a holistic experience that develops both your soft skills as well as your hard skills and technical skills while being part of a cohort that has a superior technology-enabled experience that also comes together every other week to build lifelong friendships and a powerful network.
5. You’ve done some amazing things with Pencils of Promise and now with MissionU. How did you discover your purpose along the way?
I discovered my purpose by leaving my comfort zone. I believe true self-discovery begins where your comfort zone ends. In college that began by traveling through the developing world and later in life it surfaced once again when I started spending time on college campuses around the country speaking to students about the theories in my book “The Promise of a Pencil: How An Ordinary Person Can Create Extraordinary Change”, and I kept on hearing back from these students that as much as they believed in the value of education abroad, they felt that we had a broken system here at home that was hurting them more than it was helping them. It was hearing their voices in communities and campuses far beyond where I ever thought I would end up that I discovered my next sense of purpose in building MissionU.
1635 is a newsletter and a monthly moment to propel us forward in public education. Each month it features long-form content from those working both inside public education and from those on the outside looking in. We can learn so much from both viewpoints. The newsletter delivers the last Tuesday of every month. Subscribe.
