Latest / Best of Business / Jamie Beaton: Crimson founder on the company's plan to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs

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Jamie Beaton: Crimson founder on the company's plan to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks ed B.
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  Speaker 1: Follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
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  Speaker 2: Crimson founder Jamie Beaton is on a mission to find
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  Speaker 2: and inspire the next generation of entrepreneur In a joint
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  Speaker 2: venture with ice House, five high school students will be
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  Speaker 2: offered a fully funded scholarship to Crimson Global Academy and
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  Speaker 2: provided a year long immersive experience to pursue their entrepreneurial ambitions.
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  Speaker 2: Part of that will include one on one mentorship with
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  Speaker 2: the likes of Jamie himself. Jamie Beeton has been back
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  Speaker 2: in New Zealand this week and he joins me, now,
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  Speaker 2: good morning, Jamie.
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  Speaker 3: Good morning, how are you doing good?
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  Speaker 2: Thank you?
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  Speaker 1: Hey?
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  Speaker 2: Talk me through why you're so passionate about entrepreneurship and
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  Speaker 2: championing that to the next generation.
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  Speaker 3: So my entrepreneurial journey enabled me to take this passion
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  Speaker 3: I have education and build this organization that's helping not
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  Speaker 3: only Kiwis, but Ambitious High school is kindle worldwide with
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  Speaker 3: their universities and careers. And I think entrepreneurship is just
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  Speaker 3: sort of one of the most excited careers out there
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  Speaker 3: because it lets someone be creative not only create something
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  Speaker 3: of value for themselves, but also create jobs and really
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  Speaker 3: change the world for the better. So I want more
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  Speaker 3: young ke we's able to do this, and I want
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  Speaker 3: them able to do it earlier in their lives. And
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  Speaker 3: through my work at Crimson, I've seen many entrepreneurs who
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  Speaker 3: are twenty years old, twenty four years old in Silicon Valley,
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  Speaker 3: and I want New Zealand to be this kind of
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  Speaker 3: startup nation. And also big picture, it's incredible for economic
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  Speaker 3: growth long term as well.
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  Speaker 2: Why is the focus on founding your own business key
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  Speaker 2: to you?
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  Speaker 3: Well, when you create a company, not only are you
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  Speaker 3: creating an entrepreneur opportunity for yourself, but many of your
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  Speaker 3: staff for early staff are getting equity they can build up,
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  Speaker 3: you know, fantastic positions in the business. So I think
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  Speaker 3: entrepreneurship is not just about the founders, but it's about
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  Speaker 3: the whole community that comes with it. Take a company
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  Speaker 3: like rocket Lab. Rocket Lab has created a huge wave
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  Speaker 3: of trained engineers. It's spawned more startups with early founders
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  Speaker 3: like Craig Picket from Holter. Folks like Levi have gone
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  Speaker 3: on to found Partly, which raised no million dollars a
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  Speaker 3: couple of days ago, and then all the folks that
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  Speaker 3: have worked for these companies that have done very well
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  Speaker 3: through the stock option plans as Rocket laber is iPod.
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  Speaker 3: So startups really create a lot of wealth for a
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  Speaker 3: lot of the people in the businesses and also pushed
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  Speaker 3: nations forwards as well.
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  Speaker 2: Do we lack that at the moment? Do enough kids
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  Speaker 2: leave school with ambitions to be a founder, to start
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  Speaker 2: something up on their own?
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  Speaker 3: So I actually think the culture has been rapidly improving.
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  Speaker 3: When I was finishing high school, I thought entrepreneurship meant unemployment,
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  Speaker 3: and I didn't even know what really this thing meant.
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  Speaker 3: But you know, through an experience of the ice house,
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  Speaker 3: I interned for a guy called Robbie Paul and he
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  Speaker 3: took me under his wing. He showed me what it
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  Speaker 3: meant to create companies. And then I also saw my
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  Speaker 3: mum boarding her company body corporate administration as well, and
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  Speaker 3: so then I got into it. But I think in
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  Speaker 3: the last thirteen years since I began Crimson, many more
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  Speaker 3: young Kiwis are aware of this path. I think folks
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  Speaker 3: like Harry Melsop, Young Van and Mayagaweal, a lot of
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  Speaker 3: these guys that have come through our training and have
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  Speaker 3: launched their own businesses, or they've been in as mentors
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  Speaker 3: or things like that. So the culture is changing, but
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  Speaker 3: we need way more of them because entrepreneurship gives young
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  Speaker 3: people a hope of being able to build their economic future,
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  Speaker 3: particular at a time where our national growth is a
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  Speaker 3: little bit challenged.
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  Speaker 2: Jamie, can you inspire it in young people or do
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  Speaker 2: you think they have to have some kind of in
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  Speaker 2: built drive.
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  Speaker 3: So I would say entrepreneurship is probably about sixty percent
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  Speaker 3: nature and environment and about forty percent genetic parents influence
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  Speaker 3: this kind of thing. However, I think what you can
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  Speaker 3: do is you can make someone's odds of launching the
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  Speaker 3: company go up. So they're a lot of i'd say
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  Speaker 3: headed entrepreneurs walking around that have the potential to build
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  Speaker 3: companies but don't feel like they've got that social license,
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  Speaker 3: don't feel like they've got the buy in of maybe
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  Speaker 3: their parents or their friends, or they don't even know
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  Speaker 3: what this feeling is and what they can do with it.
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  Speaker 3: So I think it's really about making sure that everyone
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  Speaker 3: who's got the entrepreneurial spirit, who's trading things on trade
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  Speaker 3: me or you know, is selling things in a market
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  Speaker 3: school can tend it into actually a much bigger, more
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  Speaker 3: visionary business backed with professional capital as they get a
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  Speaker 3: bit older and have that more full of vision. At
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  Speaker 3: the same time, there are many individuals that don't need
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  Speaker 3: to create their own company, but they can work for
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  Speaker 3: these startups, or they can bring that entrepreneur mindset to
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  Speaker 3: larger companies. Imagine a place like Air New Zealand right
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  Speaker 3: now it's going through all kinds of changes with oil
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  Speaker 3: shocks or competition from companies like Quantas, and having more
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  Speaker 3: entrepreneur young people inside those companies can actually up and
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  Speaker 3: innovate change and compete more effectively. So it's about that
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  Speaker 3: mindset that can really apply to people that are just
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  Speaker 3: working in jobs or founding companies too.
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  Speaker 2: Jamie, you've commented that thirty is old in Silicon Valley,
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  Speaker 2: So anyone aspiring and accepta really kind of needs to
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  Speaker 2: hit the ground running given that sort of age that
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  Speaker 2: you need to be. If you've got the idea, should
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  Speaker 2: you skip UNI should you just leap into founding something?
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  Speaker 3: So first of all, I was being a bit cheeky
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  Speaker 3: on that one. There are I mean entrepreneurship. I think
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  Speaker 3: about Crimson, you know, I'm thirty one now. I began
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  Speaker 3: this when I was eighteen, and I've had thirteen pretty
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  Speaker 3: intense years where it's been pretty pedal to the medal
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  Speaker 3: pretty much, you know, day and day out building the
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  Speaker 3: business in all these different countries, and it's been really
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  Speaker 3: the right of my life so far. So I mean
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  Speaker 3: that journey can take place when you're sixty two, Like
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  Speaker 3: I think the founder of KFC began, you know, very
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  Speaker 3: late in his life. But you know, I guess it's
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  Speaker 3: something that if you do have that entrepreneurial bug, you
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  Speaker 3: should just swing a lot earlier. So I think university
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  Speaker 3: on the whole is a great pathway for most folks.
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  Speaker 3: We've got many good universities in New Zealand that are
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  Speaker 3: ranked you know, pretty well globally. And also it's very
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  Speaker 3: easy for kiwis now to get into top us UK
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  Speaker 3: or Ozzie universities even going off to Europe. So for
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  Speaker 3: most people, university is a great pathway. And I'd actually
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  Speaker 3: focus on getting more people that aren't going to university
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  Speaker 3: into university. But yes, for real people on occasion, not
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  Speaker 3: going to university and building a business straight away is
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  Speaker 3: a totally great path I mean there's the whole cast
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  Speaker 3: of characters in Silicon Valley called tear fellows that do this.
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  Speaker 3: They begin their business when their nineteen or twenty and
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  Speaker 3: just begin to grow in that company. So it's not
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  Speaker 3: for reverent but for a small section of people that
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  Speaker 3: have a very clarity of what they want to build. Sure,
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  Speaker 3: but on the whole, my message to a typical young
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  Speaker 3: person or to a parent is get those good grades,
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  Speaker 3: get to university, get that world class training. That's normally
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  Speaker 3: the path of success for most people.
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  Speaker 2: While I've got you, i'd love your thoughts on where
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  Speaker 2: education is at here. This government has made a lot
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  Speaker 2: of changes in the education space. Do you feel more
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  Speaker 2: confident with these changes that we're heading in the right direction?
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  Speaker 3: I actually really do. For a long time, I watched
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  Speaker 3: what was happening in is Yal on education with a
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  Speaker 3: lot of pain because I was seeing students going through
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  Speaker 3: these NCAA systems and you know, they were experiencing radically
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  Speaker 3: different learning based on what school they went to. The
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  Speaker 3: grading is very variable. It was very easy for students
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  Speaker 3: to pass these credentials, and you know, people feel like
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  Speaker 3: they're doing well. But what happens is the universities have
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  Speaker 3: to dilute their standards and you basically get these meaningless
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  Speaker 3: qualifications because the pass rates are too high because the
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  Speaker 3: content is just too easy. So I'm actually really excited
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  Speaker 3: by these changes because now we have a more back
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  Speaker 3: to basics rigorous set of exams. And actually, for me,
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  Speaker 3: this is not sort of political or ideological. I've seen
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  Speaker 3: countries that have sort of fluffy education systems, and I've
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  Speaker 3: seen countries that have a more exam based, rigorous system
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  Speaker 3: with higher standards, and the second ones just dominate, whether
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  Speaker 3: it be Singapore, whether it be Korea, whether it be
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  Speaker 3: the British A levels in the UK, and so I'm
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  Speaker 3: really excited that. You know, frankly, we tried other stuff
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  Speaker 3: but now that didn't work. So we're moving hardcore towards
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  Speaker 3: this rigorous, high standard. And I think, you know, there
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  Speaker 3: are some teachers who are frustrated by the speed of
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  Speaker 3: the rollout, but with three year political terms in New Zealand,
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  Speaker 3: you have to move fast otherwise you just get caught,
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  Speaker 3: you know, in another election cycle without any progress. So
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  Speaker 3: I think the speed's necessary and I'm feeling really excited
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  Speaker 3: by these changes. I also love the charter school changes
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  Speaker 3: because it means that at a time when New Zealand
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  Speaker 3: high schools are really struggling, you know, a wave of
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  Speaker 3: innovators can enter the sector with fairly modest funding and
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  Speaker 3: spit up some alternative education models and you know, the
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  Speaker 3: scoreboard will be their student outcomes, their student results, which
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  Speaker 3: are all transparent for everyone to see. So I think
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  Speaker 3: it's a great opportunity for innovation and to raise the bar.
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  Speaker 3: Last comment is I think this band of cell phone
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  Speaker 3: and schools is just brilliant because there is nothing more
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  Speaker 3: distracting for a high schooler than their TikTok, their YouTube,
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  Speaker 3: their Instagram, their snapchat. Particularly for a young woman. It's
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  Speaker 3: really tough on things like you know, body image, and
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  Speaker 3: I think it's it's really quite toxic, and it's actually
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  Speaker 3: gotten much worse since I was in high school because
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  Speaker 3: these algorithms have gone from being quite engaging to being
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  Speaker 3: like borderline, you know, drug addicting levels of you know intensity.
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  Speaker 3: So I think that cell phone ban will really enable
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  Speaker 3: focus in the classroom.
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  Speaker 2: Jamie Beaton, thank you so much for your thoughts this morning.
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