Diaspora NZ with David Booth
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?
00:06:54 · Jamie Beaton
[00:06:54] S1: Yeah. Great question. So the typical student is applying to The US and The UK. To get into a great US university like a Harvard or a Yale, you need to do academics, extracurriculars, leadership, essays, interviews. A student's gonna do five different major competitions. They need three different references. They're gonna write about 30 essays in that final year, and all their academics count from age 14 to 18. They've gotta take a standardized test, SAT. So all of that goes into this application, which then gets submitted to a wide range of schools. Our typical student today applies to about 13, 14 universities. So when they come to Crimson, you know, what do they get? They get access to counselor, somebody like me, that's been through the application journey firsthand. It can help them figure out how they can best enhance their profile, what they should spend time on in high school, what activities to do. They're gonna have a network of usually four or five different tutors. Could be a debate coach, could be a model UN coach, could be a tutor for their a levels, and then access to our Crimson app, which is a software platform with lots of interesting data analytics on your admissions odds to various schools, resources for what competitions you can do over the summer, and a lot of parent reporting as well. So mom and dad can sort of follow along on the journey. And we'll work with you typically for about three, four years, training you up and then sending you off to one of these great universities.
00:08:07 · David Booth
[00:08:07] S0: The story sort of goes or or the or the... As the journey evolves, I as you're involved in these kids' lives earlier and earlier, more opportunities to provide more to them. So Revision Village, I believe, came about as you were just looking for ways to to plug in to give more to people pre Crimson off sort of further upstream. Another was the CGA, the Crimson Global Academy. I'm fascinated when you think about one of those I mentioned, I believe, was acquired in. It was sort of an existing asset. You said this makes more sense to exist within our family. Another was built internally. It was an opportunity identified. What's the difference between those two, and and why would you buy versus why would you build an asset from a a business point of view as well as a product experience point of view?