Crimson Education has raised about US$60m, operates in 27 markets and has about 400 full-time staff.
Jamie Beaton builds Crimson by entering uncontested markets like Russia, Korea and Brazil before America or China, copying Uber's city expansion playbook.
Crimson Global Academy, its online high school, has students in more than 20 countries and is led by John Morris and Mark Phillips.
Crimson Education grew by entering the markets rivals ignored
Crimson Education turned tutoring for overseas university admissions into a global business. Beaton and his cofounders started at 18 and expanded by entering markets the big players had not contested, then professionalised the company with senior hires. Crimson Global Academy, its online high school, is the attempt to move from advising students to teaching them.
Takeaways
Crimson entered uncontested markets before the big ones. Beaton opened markets in Russia and Brazil first rather than fight in America or China, recruiting country managers through chance encounters and copying Uber's city expansion playbook. Systematising that hiring took Crimson from five or six markets to more than 20.
Crimson raised US$60m and operates in 27 markets. The company has about 400 full-time staff, a head office in Parnell and offices in more than 20 countries. China and America are among the largest markets by headcount.
Professional hires gave Crimson its systems. Chief people officer Penelope Barton, from Xero and Vend, put in place company values and performance reviews, and chief operating officer David Fried built the metrics. Beaton says the 2013 versions of the cofounders could not handle today's company.
Senior hires and India cost Crimson time. Digital marketing and technology leaders convinced Beaton they were experts, built large teams that were ineffective and had to be replaced. An India launch in 2016 was pulled after six months, and social media spend went unattributed until Crimson built end-to-end tracking.
Tutor supply is Crimson's structural constraint. Tutors are current students whose exams fall at the same time as their pupils', so supply is irregular exactly when demand peaks. Crimson recruits through Harvard word of mouth and campus ambassadors at Yale and Princeton, and matches tutors using an algorithm from his PhD.
Crimson Global Academy sells schooling online. The registered online high school teaches A-levels and AP, led by John Morris, formerly of Auckland Grammar, and Mark Phillips. Live classes hold six to 12 students, about 45% learn at an accelerated pace, and Beaton expects many families to adopt online schooling by 2030.
Beaton's path to Crimson
Beaton grew up in Glendale in a three-generational household with his mother and grandparents, where education was the central value. His grandfather won a full scholarship to a British boarding school at 14 but could not afford the uniform and spent about 50 years in manual work.
At about 14, Ben Kornfeld, the dux of King's College, told him on a train to consider studying overseas, and his goal shifted from medicine in New Zealand to Harvard and Cambridge.
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On this episode 2
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Crimson grew out of the advice he gave other students. The first event, at the Crowne Plaza in Auckland, drew about 200 parents while Beaton had about $40 in his bank account.