A student's zip code should not decide their future. Penelope Barton built a school in 70 countries to prove it.
Penelope is the CEO of Crimson Global Academy and co-founder of Crimson Academies, a group of five schools serving students from age five through eighteen, online and in person. Last year her team ran 144,000 classes. Some of her students learn from boats, connected by satellite internet.
She grew up in rural New Zealand before the internet, where one teacher covered English, math, and science, and you got whoever you got. That is the problem she has spent six years dismantling.
We talk about how she scaled it: starting with two years of high school and one curriculum, then adding learning modes, ages, and countries as students asked for them. She places kids by ability, not age. Seven-year-olds are building apps. A venture capital firm is funding five of her seniors to launch real businesses before graduation. And she just opened a tuition-free school funded directly by the New Zealand government, which took three years of proving results first.
She also says something most founders will recognize: the hardest thing she manages is not scale or regulation. It is her own impatience.
Chapters:
🌏 03:11 Penelope Barton on growing up in rural New Zealand before the internet
🗺️ 05:22 A student's zip code should not dictate their outcome
🧩 10:45 Full-time, part-time, group class, or one to one
🪜 15:22 Scaling in very small steps toward something that looks huge
🧒 20:46 Seven-year-olds building apps and learning to pitch them
🔁 23:03 The hardest thing she manages is her own impatience
🏛️ 29:53 Three years of proven results before a government funded a free school
👂 42:09 You are never too big to run discovery calls
Links:
Website: https://www.crimsonglobalacademy.school/
Social: @crimsonglobalacademy (https://www.instagram.com/crimsonglobalacademy/)
Reach out to Penelope Barton if you have a teacher in the family looking for something different, or if you run a school or a government trying to widen access to great teaching.
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XO
Adrienne
• (03:11) - 🌏 Penelope Barton on growing up in rural New Zealand before the internet
• (05:22) - 🗺️ A student's zip code should not dictate their outcome
• (10:45) - 🧩 Full-time, part-time, group class, or one to one
• (15:22) - 🪜 Scaling in very small steps toward something that looks huge
• (20:46) - 🧒 Seven-year-olds building apps and learning to pitch them
• (23:03) - 🔁 The hardest thing she manages is her own impatience
• (29:53) - 🏛️ Three years of proven results before a government funded a free school
• (42:09) - 👂 You are never too big to run discovery calls
