HN Explorer

Tell HN: Gauntlet AI Is BloomTech/Lambda School

16 points by danpalmer ↗ HN
Gauntlet AI is advertising on HN today, for a “free”, expenses paid, AI training course in Austin, Texas, with a “guaranteed AI job” at the end.

Reading the advert, it screams scam to me, but wasn’t immediately apparent how until I saw “copyright BloomTech” at the bottom of the page.

Given Lambda School’s rocky history, it seems likely that people would want to know who it was running Gauntlet. The fact this is their third name is quite indicative of how they are perceived by the industry.

8 comments

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999900000999
Good for calling them out, in this economy there's absolutely no way you're taking people from zero technology to 200k job offers in 3 months. Even during 2020 that would have been a very rare exceptional case.

Knowing how income share agreements work, it wouldn't surprise me if you had a 200k salary on paper, but 45% of it was taken to repay lambda School

HPMOR
From personal experience in Gauntlet, I've learned nothing from the actual program. However, I am an Ivy League CS alum. And there are several peers from my Uni in the program. Also, many of the people have pretty impressive CVs before this. I would say anybody getting the job at the end could have easily been recruited elsewhere already. It has felt much more like a recruitment/long work trial, more than any form of schooling tbh.
bitwize
Yeah, I saw that ad too. It reminded me of Unbounded Solutions/BrighterBrain/EnhanceIT. They would fly you out to Atlanta, train you in a "free" intensive course for a few weeks, then make you sign a 2-year contract of indentured servitude, or be charged tuition for your "free" training (which they assess at $20,000 or more). You also are given a fake CV which you have to promote as your own per contractual obligation, and someone in India will take interview calls posing as you.

I didn't even scroll to the bottom, I was like okay, what's the catch here? Good find. It's clear that they're doing the same shenanigans as Unbounded to escape their own shitty reputation.

minimaxir
I suspect it's located in Texas because California really does not like them.
jarsin
I saw that and I was curious if they don't get you the job, then what is their angle?

Are they getting devs to build apps for their clients for free as part of the bootcamp?

bitwize
Based on similar programs I've seen elsewhere, my guess is they will make you pay off your tuition by contracting with them for a period of time, they can place you anywhere they please, and they'll pocket a big chunk of your pay as a fee for the training.

Oh, and if you don't want to sign their onerous indenturement contract, you're on the hook for the entire cost of the training.

meiraleal
Yes, that was quite the weird ad. I read HN every day so I don't think I missed it but why advertise the "training course" a couple weeks after the application ended? Quite suspicious.
HPMOR
Currently in the program. So far it's been pretty disorganized, and fairly self motivated (to be fair so are many of my university classes). Assignments are extremely trivial, thus far. Some extremely strong engineers are definitely in the cohort, as well as peers from top tier Universities. I would say the cohort itself is pretty strong independent of the program.

Like anybody still doing it is just a fairly competent/OK engineer. Austen has said we're hearing logistics around the move to Austin this week, so we'll find out details then. With regards to financial arrangements, Austen Allred has been banned by CFPB from engaging in any sort of loans or loan devices. Gauntlet has felt much more like a recruitment play than Lambda school but still early days. We've been given no contracts to sign as of yet, and nobody has claimed we will sign any contracts.