Jamie Beaton: Crimson Education CEO unveils new business venture

Crimson Education head Jamie Beaton has set his sights on a new business venture.

Concord Visa is an immigration consultancy project designed to streamline how startups and talent access new markets.

Beaton explained how this venture would help people reach new oppurtunites.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
After turning the overseas education industry on its head, Jamie
Beaton is setting a sites on a new venture. He's
created a spin off of Crimson Education that will focus
on getting key we startups access to the US market.
It's called Concord Visa. It will guide users through the
confusing US immigration process and help them secure special visas.
So heay, let's have a chat to Jamie. Jamie, Hello,

(00:21):
how are you doing very well? Have we found you
yet again at an airport?

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Yes, we have, but I've just walked outside of the door,
so it should be quiet. Now.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
I feel like every time I talk to you, Jamie,
you're at an airport. Do you just live in airports
at the minute?

Speaker 2 (00:35):
It does feel that way. Yes, well that's.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
What happens when you're a hot shot. Hey, now tell
me how this venture works. Is this just aimed at
startups or is it also students? Is it for everybody?

Speaker 2 (00:47):
So for the last twelve years, we've been helping so
many ambitious kiwis getting into these amazing universities and they
get these F one visas to stay in the country.
And when I finished my own program, I need to
find a way to keep building Crimson in the States,
and so I found this obscure visa category called the
one visa, which helped me to actually begin being able
to work in the US. And so the first folks

(01:08):
we helped were students, ambitious kids that wanted to actually
take advantage of these degrees and keep going. And then
we realized actually there were all these high growth companies
like Tracks in New Zealand that were trying to expand
in the US market, and we could actually not just
help individuals, but help whole teams, whole companies with this
rapid expansion. So we've expanded from just students to companies
and other organizations.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
Are these people who want to go over to the
US temporarily or set up shop there permanently.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
So take a company like Zero or you know, for
example Holt or Rocket Labs. They initially start in New Zealand,
but they want to have this massive ability to tap
into the US market, which now has become, for example,
Crimsons biggest market. So often they want to send staff
from the New Zealand team to America to crack the
market higher local teams and then often bring those kiwis
back or to a new market and so often it's

(01:56):
sort of the shop troops, those sales and marketers as
revenue leaders, maybe the founders who want to go over
there and get the business going, and it so often
it's a it's about global expansion for QV companies.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
How do you think this business that's going on in
the UK and the US, sorry at the moment, with
people ending up in ice detention centers, including a Kiwi
at the minute, is that going to put people off?

Speaker 2 (02:19):
No? So, you know, I've been on the ground in
New York for the last four years and there's definitely
a lot of media hysteria around some of these ice attentions.
But for a Keiw or you know, someone who's building
a company in the States, it's really two different realities.
You know, It's kind of unfortunate, but I think that,
you know, it's really really different. Kettle of fish. So
a lot of our folks are looking to move to
places like New York or California, these amazing hubs of
economic activity, business opportunity, growth opportunity, and naturally where our

(02:43):
students and our companies are working with the focused.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
On Jamie, how much are you loving the fact that
NCEA has been put on the bin.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
I'm glad it's in the trash, and you know it's
it really honestly has been haunting students for a while
now because you know, I've seen twelve years of Kiwis
doing nca Cambridge and IV and you know, the reality
is NCAA has these internals that are really low integrity.
A lot of students now use GPT. It isn't world class.
It's super confusing. It's like hieroglyphics, and so getting rid

(03:14):
of that and having a truly world class stands it
actually means dark Kiwis can compete on the world's biggest stages.
People talk about equity education, but actually the way to
start equity is really to have people taking a curriculum,
a public school curriculum that actually can take you anywhere.
And so I'm pumped about this and honestly it's very inspiring.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
Do you think they've made the right call here though,
in setting up yet another New Zealand that bespoke certificate
or should we actually have gone with ib or Cambridge?

Speaker 2 (03:42):
So, I mean Singapore took the A levels from the
UK and they tuned them up, made them even more rigorous,
incorporated some local history, and that's been wildly effective there.
I think as long as the curriculum that is being
developed has you know, research around international math and English
standards and it's really exam based, there aren't these kind
of ways to get around those exams with internals that

(04:03):
aren't you know, that aren't great properly, I think that
could be a really good outcome, you know, from a
cost efficiency standpoint. Taking an international curriculum is also very exciting,
but I think the approach is going to look great
and honestly it's a massive step forward. And also, you know,
there are many folks and for example, the Ministry of
Education that are quite vested in the national curriculum and
so you know, I mean this also helps to get

(04:24):
their buy in as well.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
Yeah, Jamie, Hey, thanks very much. Enjoy your flight. That's
Jamie Beaton, Crimson Education Founder. For more from Hither Duplessy
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