In 2017, one of the largest investments in education reform in California's history came to an end. The James Irvine Foundation announced that it was shifting its investment focus from Linked Learning, a college and career readiness high school reform, to other projects (Linked Learning Alliance 2017). Unlike the Gates Foundation's well-publicized failure to discern much positive effect from its nine-year, two-billion-dollar investment in small high schools, the Irvine Foundation was not admitting defeat, but instead declaring success (Gates 2009). In just over ten years, Irvine leveraged a $200 million investment to yield over $8 billion in public funding for a reform that restructured schools in California serving over 300,000 students, in addition to many thousands more in other states and overseas. Irvine accomplished this through a carefully planned and well-executed strategy that included building a model for reform, measuring and reporting its impact in key outlets, generating popular support for the reform, and turning that support into legislative action. Key to that strategy was enlisting the right players to carry it out, and Irvine recruited a visionary activist, an experienced education specialist, several influential academics, a savvy political strategist, and a skillful legislator. This article describes these individuals and their efforts to build a far-reaching, sustainable high school reform movement.