Jamie Beaton, co-founder of billion-dollar "unicorn" company Crimson Education, will teach a new course on entrepreneurship at the University of Auckland Business School.
Jamie Beaton, co-founder of billion-dollar "unicorn" company Crimson Education, will teach a new course on entrepreneurship at the University of Auckland Business School.
The Kiwi co-founder of billion-dollar company Crimson Education is set to share some of his insights with students at the University of Auckland Business School.
The Business Navigators programme offers an introduction to entrepreneurship and high-growth ventures through a New Zealand lens, providing students with a comprehensive understanding of venture formation, capital raising, product development and global expansion.
The course for Bachelor of Commerce students will examine some key New Zealand companies, including Xero, Rocket Lab, Crimson Education and PushPay alongside start-up investors like Icehouse and Movac, to understand the challenges they faced in scaling from the domestic market to becoming international powerhouses.
Dr Jamie Beaton (left), Professor Susan Watson and Crimson Education co-founder Fangzhou (FZ) Jiang have joined forces to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs.
Crimson Education co-founder Jamie Beaton, who has been appointed Honorary Associate Professor to the university, said he wants to catch young, talented students right at the start of their degree.
“I stumbled onto Crimson when I was about 18. I interned at Icehouse, I saw my mum building her own company growing up, and the experience of building Crimson has been this incredibly rewarding, super fun, amazing journey for the last 12 years.
“Reflecting back on the journey, there are many lessons from the early build-out years, how we went from New Zealand to the global market, how we scaled the company, many lessons that can be directly applied to Kiwis.”
He said some of his inspiration for the course comes from his time at Harvard Business School, particularly a transformative course titled US World 36 Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
Beaton said the lessons he took from the course were extremely impactful when it came to building his business, so the opportunity to inspire Kiwi students with a similar set of tools was too good to pass up.
He also hopes to draw inspiration from what he learned at the Stanford Business School, Princeton’s finance programme and what he has learned from other like-minded companies around the world.
Alongside the teaching opportunity, Beaton has also joined the advisory board of the university’s business school.
University of Auckland Professor Susan Watson, dean of the business school, said she hopes the course can attract top-quality students away from studying overseas.
Watson revealed she had discussed the idea of the course with Beaton, and his enthusiasm was certainly an encouragement.
“He was wildly keen on that and keen to be involved by offering a course like this, and it just seemed if he’s going to offer a course like this, this was the right place to have it,” Watson said.
“What an amazing opportunity for a student in their first year of university to come across all of that and to see what’s possible.”
Watson said the course would help give students a reason to stay in the country, noting the advantage of New Zealand’s closer population and the sense of one-degree-of-separation.
Dr Jamie Beaton (left), Professor Susan Watson and Crimson Education cofounder Fangzhou (FZ) Jiang outside the University of Auckland Business School.
Part of that connection is the ability for other Kiwi founders to take part in the course, with Beaton sharing that key executives from all of the case study companies are likely to be guest lecturers as well.
“The ones we’ve spoken to so far are extremely excited. In general, I think in the world of entrepreneurship, it’s very fast-paced and hectic, and there’s always a desire to go back to the community and help build the next wave of founders,” Beaton added.
Beaton’s already had the chance to meet some of the students and, said he was excited by the range of ambitions they share.
“The academic foundations of these students is sky high and they’re coming in with some great foundations, but they are very green when it comes to entrepreneurship.
“But they’re very talented, they’re very ambitious, and it’s a great cohort we have.”
Beaton and Crimson Education cofounder Fangzhou (FZ) Jiang will be teaching the bespoke project in BUSINESS 113 from next semester.
Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business, retail and tourism.
