NZ Business Podcast - Paul Spain
00:28:21 · Jamie Beaton
[00:28:21] S0: I think what Sundeep teaches is that even if you are in totally different industries, whether it be, you know, an AI lab or whether it be Crimson or whether it be a law firm, a lot of the time, teams that can't quantify success and just vaguely aim for goals and, you know, it's kind of ambiguous, always underperform teams that have a clear North Star metric that you drive towards. And in his career, almost every team that doesn't have that clear North Star metric basically struggles and underperforms. And almost every team that really cranks at an elite level, whether it be Google search or ride sharing excellence at Uber or now data labeling, has those really effective North Star metrics. And I think as an entrepreneur, it's easy to have a sense that, oh, we vaguely know what the goals are or we kind of know. But going beyond just like, you know, revenue or something to clear operational metrics that the whole team is aligned behind and truly is aligned from your, you know, base new new recruit all the way to your exec is is really critical. So I think that is a very simple concept, but actually one that few companies truly execute on. And I I think that will be, you know, one great example. The second piece that I would say I've really learned from Sundeep would just be around what in the new a... The new AI era will be driven by human teachers versus AI, and where that settles out. And those discussions, debates with them have really helped form my view for kinda what I'm betting on at Crimson.
00:29:34 · Paul Spain, Jamie Beaton
[00:29:34] S1: And let's talk about you. What what what really drives you? What drives every day? Because you seem to be seem to be working, studying, you know, you don't seem to slow down at all. And, you know, I think we were chatting before we we kicked off, and you were saying, yep, no, things haven't slowed down since we last talked. I thought you'd [00:29:54] S0: going speed up a little bit, to be honest. [00:29:55] S1: You'd be going at an insane pace. So, you know, what is it that drives you, and what does that does that look like for you kind of, you know, day to day? How do you how do you get some some balance in there?
00:30:06 · Jamie Beaton
[00:30:06] S0: So at the core, I feel like I'm I'm truly obsessed with learning, and that can be, you know, a new academic concept in health care policy. It can be a new scaling challenge in entrepreneurship in India. But I I I hate to be static, and I think I like, you know, max challenge, max learning in all areas. So I think that's really drawn me to many of these universities to keep discovering new fields, whether it be law or journalism, whatever. And then in the business context, it really inspires me to push into new divisions, new units, embrace new technology, and try to push ourselves to grow at faster rates and achieve more excellence. So I I think for me, that desire to to learn drives a lot of things. Because if you do things slowly, you know, you you often will get into quite a routine and rhythm. But I think it's that agility to to learn that is very inspiring for me. Of course, there are many other things like impact, but I think I think probably if there was one thing, it's it's... I like to put myself in an environment where, you know, the learning curve is very steep. And so that tends to be perhaps why, you know, at Crimson, we go into a lot of different new units, and we're always trying new countries, new approaches, why I'm always studying at different university programs, and also the cast of characters that I've surrounded myself with in The US and in general, generally folks that, for example, are at the coalface of different industries. I think one of my best buddies is a guy called Apov who's investing in Altimeter Capital. You know, they've become become one of the biggest investors in open AI, and I just love chatting with him about all these different trends across different industries. Certainly, back when I was doing stock investing at Tiger, I loved it because you're studying many different industries, long, short, seeing which companies will be disrupted, which companies won't. And so it's just max, you know, learning and and challenge. So I think for me, that's probably what drives me the most.
00:31:41 · Paul Spain
[00:31:41] S1: And and how do how do you put it all together? You know, studying and running the business and, you know, having a personal life too.
00:31:51 · Jamie Beaton
[00:31:51] S0: Fortunately, in Crimson, I've I've found this, you know, beautiful vehicle in which all my learning curiosity basically helps. So every new program that I do at a great place like Columbia Journalism School or something, there's, you know, more more learning, more knowledge, more insights to help me build Crimson. And then, you know, Crimson ultimately is about taking the passion that many of our team have for learning and inspiring tens of thousands of kids around the world to really do so in their own journey. There And are many young people today who aren't inspired by learning. They go through high school, it's quite dreary and not so exciting. And when I come across a student that has a little bit of that spark, and we can kinda convert that into this burning passion of what comes next, I think that's really epic. And I think about, for example, a boy Ty Renna. I was just actually catching up with him in in the Joe's Cafe at Columbia. You know, he was the head boy of Wellington College, super ambitious guy. We helped him get into Columbia. He won his full scholarship there. And I think he's he's going to first perhaps do something like management consulting, but I think he'll be able to do big things for New Zealand in the future. And, you know, playing a role and igniting that curiosity in others has always been really exciting. I definitely have a fun personal life. I I probably like theme parks a bit too much. And, you know, I've built a great community around me in in New York in The US. But I always love spending time at home with my family back here in NZ, so looking forward to getting a couple of quiet days with them on this trip.
00:33:03 · Paul Spain
[00:33:03] S1: Yeah. Fantastic. And how do you, you know, look at things like time management and, yeah, other aspects of the way that, you know, life kinda intersects? You know, what are some tips and tricks? Are you up at, you know, 4AM? Are you, you know, what are those things that, you know, are your every day?