Diaspora NZ with David Booth
00:00:43 · David Booth
[00:00:43] S0: Welcome back to diaspora.nz, where we're on a mission to seek out and profile the hidden gems, the best founders, operators, researchers, and emerging leaders of the great Kiwi expat community. Today, we're chatting with Jamie Beaton, founder and CEO of Crimson Education. His journey is nothing short of extraordinary. An applied math undergrad degree from Harvard, four master's degrees, a JD in laws from Yale, a PhD from Oxford, and a Rhodes Scholarship. He he once went viral for what many called the most absurd education history of all time. But that's not even his main thing. Today, we're talking about Crimson Education, now ten years into its journey, helping ambitious students from around the world get into top universities, and how that core mission has expanded into a global education platform. We explore the breadth and depth of the Crimson family, talking about Crimson Global Academy, their online high school, talking about their study resource platform, Revision Village. We talk about the democratization of elite education with Jamie sharing stories of students from places like Kurikuri or Mount Mauminui making it into Princeton, Harvard, or Caltech. We go deep on the business side, how he's scaled to over 800 staff, the acquisitions they've made, and what's coming next after their recent series d. And we discuss a little bit about the future of higher education globally. Which education institutions, which universities are set to thrive, which have seen better days, and how AI is revolutionizing learning. Jamie splits his time between New York, Singapore, and still maintains strong ties to New Zealand. So this conversation offers a truly global perspective on education's future. This is the diaspora.nz podcast, and here's my conversation with Jamie Beaton. Jamie Beaton, great to see you, David. What a pleasure to have you in here. Your journey is nothing short of extraordinary. I wanted to read this piece out. While building Crimson, Jamie got an applied math undergrad degree from Harvard, four master's degrees, a JD in law school from Yale, a PhD in Oxford, a Rhodes Scholarship. You went viral for having what many called the most absurd education history of all time. I love that one. I figured you're like a Pokemon master. You gotta catch all the IVs. What's going on here? What what are you up to? Give us the download.
00:02:47 · David Booth, Jamie Beaton
Where where is Jamie today? So I'm ten [00:02:49] S1: years into building Crimson. And when I first set out to launch Crimson, my goal was to help ambitious Kiwis to get into the world's best schools. As the journey evolved and our mission got bigger and bigger, we've continued to launch new parts of Crimson. And also as a leader, I've been trying to level up in different ways. I started with business school, law school, and actually, a lot of these different programs I've been on have given me, you know, new angles into the world of Crimson. At this point, I have to say, though, this is mainly for fun, love of learning. Probably five degrees ago, it stopped being purely only for my Crimson needs. [00:03:18] S0: Yes. At some point, you'd you'd say this man has to just love... He's he's enough for the joy of it. He's an... Also, as an example of what you set out to build, I I actually recall, it was probably about ten years ago when you were first getting started. [00:03:29] S1: That's right. [00:03:29] S0: You were pitching that original vision. It's the... You're helping ambitious Kiwis make a dent on the world stage, get into the the institutions they aspire to. I remember thinking, this is noble. This is awesome. This didn't really feel much like a start up, but yet here we are ten years later, and you built a machine. That's huge. Tell us, like, did did you expect this? Did did it play out as planned? Or if you reflect on the the first angel pitch you ever gave, how have you sort of grown into that reality?
00:03:55 · Jamie Beaton
[00:03:55] S1: Great question. I actually think the angel pitch, which was to build the world's biggest college counseling company, helping ambitious kids get into these top universities is largely what we've stuck to. What's changed is as we hit or got close to that mission, we added new units like our online high school, like our online study resource platform, Revision Village. But the core of our mission has actually stayed extremely tight to that initial pitch, I would say. As far as has it played out the way I thought it would, you know, certain things have been totally different. Other things have been very straight down the center. I think one thing that I was convicted in in that first pitch, though, was I'd seen these huge companies in China that deeply valued education, a cultural phenomena of students that wanted to get into these top schools, and it seemed inevitable that that same passion for top universities would be spreading around the world. The world would only get more aspirational, and we've kind of seen that play out. So now today with Crimson offices from Korea to London to, you know, Vietnam, there's a global aspirational, you know, love of these top universities that kids are wanting to work hard for, and that's really driven Crimson's growth internationally.
00:04:57 · David Booth
[00:04:57] S0: Have you seen that... I mean, you're quite right, Collette, in in some countries. Have you seen that spread sort of more broadly? Seems like the world is getting smaller. Anybody can work from anywhere, and that there is a a real trend where people who might have once gone to, you know, aspired to the top local or national university has, you know, now aspired to the top global university. You know, has New Zealand been behind the curve on that one, or or where are we?
00:05:20 · Jamie Beaton
[00:05:20] S1: I mean, that... That's exactly right. So, I mean, what's happening is in every country, previously, the smartest kids or the most ambitious kids in high school or the top athletes might stay on a local university scholarship. But today, there's more funding than ever for these top schools. More and more universities have financial programs, big scholarships, and so there's this global, you know, mobility, really, in education that's super exciting. So as long as you have the hustle in high school to put in the work, a lot of these institutions want you, and that's really, you know, driven this. And New Zealand certainly has been a key beneficiary of this. Of course, Crimson's been operating in New Zealand for ten years now, so we've sent hundreds of Kiwis to these top schools. And now we've got students like Zhong, who went from Pakuranga to Caltech to NASA and Tesla, or folks like, you know, for example, Sayun, who went from Australia to Princeton to Citadel. And, you know, there are so many of these crazy success stories. So I would say it's great as a Kiwi, selfishly, that we started in New Zealand.
00:06:16 · David Booth
[00:06:16] S0: Yeah. I'm excited to hear more about some of the the network that have come through it. I'm sure you've kept tabs on them as they go. Tell me about how it actually works, because we're gonna get into some of the the... I I wanna trace this thread through from a little bit earlier on the journey, how it's evolved, a few of the different acquisitions have plugged in into the sort of the broader outlook on the industry. So I think it's a fascinating vantage point that you have. Yeah. How does it actually work? What is the core of the Crimson offering? Obviously, starting a couple of years out before you want to go and get into the the college of your choice, there's a lot of things you should be doing to get your your CV in order, your your sort of your academic extracurricular pursuits in order. What is the core thing that you're paying for and participating in?