Markets with Madison
00:18:43 · Jamie Beaton, Madison
[00:18:43] S1: to join them. [00:18:44] S0: How do you at Crimson approach pricing education products and services in this world? Do you start to adopt that Y Combinator approach, and rather than charging somebody to go to a university or charging the fee to get access to it, do you start then taking a percentage of their income in their first job at Tesla or SpaceX or like a percentage of equity in their idea like a Y Combinator would? Do you think that that's sort of a future approach? [00:19:12] S1: So we actually have a great fund, Crimson Accelerate, which invests in some of our best and brightest young alumni. So already we've had folks like Young Fun, a guy from Auckland who's been off to Stanford, he just raised about 8,000,000 for a cyber security company in his, you know, mid-20s and so you know, we invested for example in the first round with him. So we of course love to get behind our alumni, but I think for the core Crimson service model, you know, charging for the education delivery is probably how it will stick. Because I think when you start doing income sharing agreements as your main revenue model, you know, it's tricky and also if a student has massive success, don't want be charging them sort of massive fees. It's much better in my opinion to, you know, really make that a more consistent function for all students. So I would say no income share agreements for us for a little while.
00:19:12 · Jamie Beaton, Madison
[00:19:12] S1: So we actually have a great fund, Crimson Accelerate, which invests in some of our best and brightest young alumni. So already we've had folks like Young Fun, a guy from Auckland who's been off to Stanford, he just raised about 8,000,000 for a cyber security company in his, you know, mid-20s and so you know, we invested for example in the first round with him. So we of course love to get behind our alumni, but I think for the core Crimson service model, you know, charging for the education delivery is probably how it will stick. Because I think when you start doing income sharing agreements as your main revenue model, you know, it's tricky and also if a student has massive success, don't want be charging them sort of massive fees. It's much better in my opinion to, you know, really make that a more consistent function for all students. So I would say no income share agreements for us for a little while. [00:19:53] S0: I'm interested in where specifically you see growth coming from. Is it in something like Crimson Accelerate or is it something in like Crimson Rise, which is your for 11 to 14 year olds? Do you see that addressable market expanding in age and also in career for the students that come through your system?
00:20:09 · Jamie Beaton, Madison
[00:20:09] S1: So definitely it's around age, but also it's around ambition. Which country are applying to? So Crimson's now helping kids from age five all the way at Numberworks across New Zealand and our adorable learning centers with these cute little kids, all the way through to you know, these postgrads who are applying for their PhDs and their fellowships. Our students are going from applying to just The US to now US, UK, EU, Singapore, you know medical schools, a whole variety of different pathways, and then learning model from our of course flagship 101 training at Crimson Core, all the way to our physical school we just opened in Takapuna, to our online school. So many different learning models, but the core of Crimson Today that's driven really massive growth, particularly this year in North America, is just the huge volume of increased applicants going to US schools and the global demand for these top universities. Because people actually are asking the same question you are, which is what's the value of this local university degree? What am I actually getting? And should I in fact be applying globally and actually comparing this opportunity to schools in Australia or schools in The US, and then, you know, making that best choice on the world stage? And so education is fundamentally becoming a global marketplace. I wanted to [00:21:10] S0: ask you about these acquisitions that you've made recently, not only the physical school in Takapuna, which is down the road from my house, so I know exactly [00:21:15] S1: Oh, where it nice.
00:21:15 · Jamie Beaton, Madison
[00:21:15] S1: Oh, where it nice. [00:21:16] S0: But also one of the earliest acquisitions you made, which was Medview and also Numberworks and Words. Funny story, my first ever job was as an English tutor at Numberworks and Words. [00:21:24] S1: Oh, I love it. I was a student there when I was five to eight. Amazing place. [00:21:28] S0: And look at you now. It obviously worked. [00:21:30] S1: Look at you now. [00:21:30] S0: But I'm interested in these acquisitions that you've made from the more online space into the physical schooling space. What's the long term play? And I'm interested as to why you're getting into the physical aspect of it when everything seems to be going into sort of like the online course AI domain at the moment.
00:21:48 · Jamie Beaton
[00:21:48] S1: So in general, Crimson's a heavily online ecosystem. So we've got these offices in 20 countries, but the core delivery model is when you sign up for Crimson, most of your sessions are online through our app with live coaches around the world, different content, AI tutors, things like this. So the flagship is online, but there are some experiences where physical is really beneficial. Take a student who's eight who wants to rebuild their passion for math. A number works physical academy where they can sit next to their tutor and have that experience when they get a bit stuck or bored, have that tutor support them physically gets much better results in online in that kind of context. Where online is very powerful is typically for older students in high school or even an intermediate school that are quite motivated. That's where online is really great because it's flexible, it's convenient and of course you can tap into experts from anywhere in the world. You know, just before this I was coaching a boy who's at a boarding school in The US over in North Carolina. And so, you know, that access is much better than someone you can find, for example, within that local community. So online is the heart of Crimson, but take for example our new physical school in Takapuna. If you're a student who wants a personalized learning experience, which also is going to use Crimson's online learning too, but also you've got that physical community, which is great for a school as well in those formative years, you know, year one to year eight. That's where I think physical is still in its element.
00:22:59 · Madison, Jamie Beaton
[00:22:59] S0: So you think there's still gains, in fact, more gains to be had in the bricks and mortar of education as opposed to online, because all of the progress has been online to Yeah, [00:23:09] S1: mean, I think online will keep ripping and online will be the majority, but I think blended will become very powerful where, you know, you'll have a student say sitting in Takapuna, they'll be taking their math class in person, then they'll be doing an online research project with a professor who's currently at Columbia. And they'll be learning what it's like to, for example, do their first literature review or use a JSTOR database. And that experience couldn't be easily facilitated in just a physical school. And, you know, I think that will ultimately be the future, hybrid learning models around the world. [00:23:34] S0: You are a lifelong learner. You're also now becoming a professor at the Auckland University through their entrepreneurialism degree. Do you feel like you also want to educate when you have enough on your plate running a unicorn business?