Billion-dollar business lessons for Business School students from a Kiwi entrepreneur

Big news for budding business students: Jamie Beaton, the youngest New Zealander to build a billion-dollar company, is returning to the University of Auckland.

With degrees from several of the world’s top universities, the Auckland-raised entrepreneur knows the value of higher education. He’s now giving back to the next generation by leading a bespoke project for first-year commerce students participating in the new Business Navigators programme.

Beaton, whose grounding in mathematics and economics at the University of Auckland helped him compete at several ivy-league universities, started his company Crimson Education at 17, making him the youngest founder in New Zealand history to build a billion-dollar ‘unicorn’ company by the age of 27.

Crimson, an admissions consultancy supporting students to study at the world’s top universities, employs more than 850 full-time employees across 23 countries, has more than $200 million in revenue and has raised $170 million in venture capital from leading investors like Tiger Global and Icehouse Ventures.

“Business Navigators is an exciting new programme that will expand the horizons of our most enthusiastic and capable business students,” says Professor Susan Watson, Dean of the Business School.

“We're thrilled to welcome Jamie back to the Business School, alongside his trailblazing co-founder Fangzhou, to share their unique insights and expertise with our students. This collaboration enhances the University’s long-standing reputation for fostering innovation and entrepreneurship.”

Beaton is joining forces with Crimson co-founder, board member and chief product officer Fangzhou (FZ) Jiang to lead the project.

Jiang graduated from Rangitoto College as Dux. He later completed degrees at the Australian National University, Stanford, and Tsinghua University, and earned the John F. Kennedy Fellowship to pursue joint degrees at the Harvard Kennedy School and Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Jiang and Beaton plan to distil everything they’ve learned from the world’s best universities and their experience with Crimson into a high-intensity entrepreneurship-focused project for Business Navigators students.

“I aim to bottle my learnings from some of the world’s best universities and our baptism-by-fire journey of building Crimson from a living room in Auckland to a world leader in education into a fast-paced entrepreneurship-focused project," says Beaton.

"We’ll combine the Harvard Business School case method with practical insights, and will cover every stage of the founder journey, from ideation to capital raising to global go-to-market with a deeply practical, applied Kiwi focus.” 

Drawing from his experience building Crimson’s technology products and leading its expansion across Asia Pacific, Jiang, a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, will share insights on scaling tech innovation, navigating global markets and fostering global leadership.

“My goal is for New Zealand’s next unicorn founders to emerge from this project,” he says.

The project will cover key concepts taught through case studies of Crimson and other Kiwi growth companies.

Students in the Business Navigators programme go into a stream that best suits their personal interests and goals. As they progress, they participate in customised courses, extracurricular and community-building activities that help them develop key skills for future career success.

The programme is about inspiring and shaking up the way students think about business, and with Beaton and Jiang sharing their expertise, participants will get an unfiltered look at how to turn bold ideas into billion-dollar successes.