But this Austin Allred guy is one sketchy motherfucker.
And seeing PG not reacting about the shitty reviews LambdaSchool is getting is the most hypocrytic thing I've seen at all.
Aged like fucking milk.
And the potholes here are lay-offs for people who otherwise saw employment for a period with Lambda. Or payments to Lambda that trigger only when you're making money yourself. He might think of those as reasonable downsides en route to a more polished, future Lambda service.
The model itself (pay if you earn) isn't outrageous. We had something similar (but government-based) with HECS in Australia, that's evolved a bit since.
Austin may have been the right guy to start the company, but IMHO, he should've handed it off to someone with a background in education a long time ago.