I’m one of Australia’s richest people: Here’s why I refuse to send my kids to a private school

A tech millionaire won’t send any of his five children to private schools because he wants them to have as normal a childhood as possible.

Sam Kroonenburg and his wife Claire, who live in Victoria, will instead enroll their children, aged six to 13, in public schools.

After inspecting the state’s top private schools, Mr Kroonenburg said he felt uncomfortable with what quickly felt like a “race for status”.

He believed that his children should focus on themselves and their passions so that they could grow up independently, and not be led by the life that was handed to them.

“I think if it’s too easy, or if it’s handed to you, you might lose the passion for it,” Mr Kroonenburg told the Australian Financial Overview.

“I don’t know. I could be wrong. We’ll find out if I was wrong.”

Mr Kroonenburg pocketed $500 million after selling his online education company A Cloud Guru, which he founded with his brother Ryan in Karratha, Western Australia.

Mr Kroonenburg is one of the richest people in the country and was ranked 137th on the Financial Review Rich List in May 2024.

Mr Kroonenburg and his wife Claire inspected the very best private schools in Victoria, but ultimately decided that life should not be ‘handed over’ to their children

Mr. Kroonenburg turned to the company after being rejected for a job at Amazon. The product was initially intended to help others secure a well-paying job at the same company that had rejected him.

The two built the program in three weeks from Mr. Kroonenburg’s bedroom in 2015 and sold it six years later to American company Pluralsight for 2 billion dollars.

When Mr. Kroonenburg started building the software seriously, he quit his job as an IT consultant and moved to a new house with his wife and children.

‘“I felt pressure to do it for her and the kids,” he said.

‘I could only devote all that time to the business because my wife kept things going at home and did everything she could for the children and the family to keep the part going that I myself had abandoned.’

He said this struggle to set up his own business was the reason he resisted the easy path that private schools would provide for his children.

Mr Kroonenburg is convinced that the best people in life are those who have worked hard to prove themselves, adding that these people usually end up in better positions.

Instead, Mr Kroonenburg admires those who have completed the ‘journey’ of building something from nothing.

He said his children would not be able to develop this motivation and determination in a private school.

Mr. Kroonenburg co-founded an online education company called A Cloud Guru with his brother Ryan (left), eventually selling it in 2021 for $2 billion (A Cloud Guru instructor Faye Ellis, right)

Before starting his own company in 2015, Mr. Kroonenburg was an IT consultant who couldn’t find a job at Amazon (pictured in 2008 with Ms. Kroonenburg, before they married)

Mr. Kroonenburg’s wife is the center of his business ventures and the millionaire encouraged others to involve their families in their work.

Within a year of founding A Cloud Guru, Mr. Kroonenburg and Ryan were offered $8 million to sell, but Ms. Kroonenburg urged him not to do so.

Mr Kroonenburg says that at one point his mother-in-law took him aside while his wife was busy with the children to tell him how difficult it was to see her daughter coping during these difficult times, but that they persevered anyway.

Since selling A Cloud Guru when he was 40, things have been uphill for Mr. Kroonenburg, who has since co-founder of another company called Cuttable.

He hopes that the challenges he faced while setting up his first company will help him make Cuttable, an advertising agency, even better.