Alpha School expands to New York backed by a billionaire ambassador — and Joe Lamont's lore runs deep
Aug 21, 2025
Key Points
- Alpha School, a K-12 private school that compresses core subjects into two hours daily using AI tutoring, expands to New York in September backed by billionaire investor Aman.
- Joe Lamont, a decabillionaire who founded Trilogy Software and has been largely silent for 25 years, emerges as Alpha's principal and primary evangelist for the school's model.
- Lamont's reemergence as a public figure around Alpha School after decades of silence suggests the education venture represents an ideological statement rather than a financial play.
Summary
Alpha School, a K-12 private school that compresses core subjects into two hours daily using AI tutoring software, is expanding to New York in September with backing from billionaire investor Aman. Co-founder Mackenzie Price claims students learn twice as much as those in traditional schools despite the condensed schedule. Afternoons are freed for hands-on workshops where students learn practical skills like running an Airbnb, managing a brokerage account, or building a drone.
Aman learned about Alpha School at Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting this year through Sahil Bloom and has become a de facto ambassador, hyping the school to parents and his social circle. On Friday, Aman will appear on a panel discussion about K-12 education at his Hamptons home alongside Price and Joe Lamont, a Texas-based billionaire who serves as Alpha's school principal.
Lamont founded Trilogy Software in 1989, which made him a Forbes cover twice as America's youngest self-made billionaire by his late 20s. Trilogy built SalesBuilder, an expert system from the 1990s described as the world's first billion-dollar artificial intelligence product in all but name. Through ESW Capital, his investment arm since 2000, Lamont has acquired hundreds of software companies and accumulated a reported decabillionaire fortune. He has been almost entirely silent for the past 25 years, showing little interest in discussing his past achievements or the controversial practices he pioneered, including remote work monitoring, surveillance software, and offshore contractor recruitment.
Lamont's public reemergence centers entirely on Alpha School. He will talk for hours about the school's model. Students who score over 90 percent on coursework achieve mastery in just two hours daily via AI tutoring apps, and top performers test in the 99.9th percentile nationally. The remaining four hours go toward workshops teaching practical business skills. His return as a public figure after 25 years of silence suggests Alpha School represents a capstone project or ideological statement rather than a financial play.