
IK12 and YC - hepha1979
http://blog.ycombinator.com/ik12-plus-yc
======
ladon86
I went through the first class of IK12 back in 2011 with ClassDojo. My
cofounder and I arrived in California with no connections at all, and only the
beginnings of an idea.

Tim, Geoff, Karen and the whole IK12 family have been a huge source of support
over the past 5 years, helping us scale to the point where ClassDojo is used
daily in >50% of US schools.

From the beginning they've been driven by the idea of creating large-scale
improvements to our education system, and right from the start they committed
to that goal for the long term. I'm delighted by this news, because YC's
network and resources will only accelerate progress towards that goal.

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dalyons
As someone who went through IK12 a few cohorts ago, I'd say it was an amazing
experience. The team there blended the depth of general startup knowledge from
YC with a huge amount of education-specific coaching/learning/networking.

Although we were part of the 20% (from that article) that didnt make it, we
learnt a huge amount, and it helped inspire me to continue to work in the ed-
tech space till today.

I do hope that after the merge they can continue to offer the same deep-dive
education specific talks/mentors/networks/etc that were so valuable, as it is
a space with very different challenges than your typical B2B/consumer app
plays.

As a benefit, I suspect the YC "brand" will be a big help to future edtech
graduates when it comes to raise money; as typically they've struggled much
more to attract investor attention than startups in other verticals.

~~~
S4M
> Although we were part of the 20% (from that article) that didnt make it, we
> learnt a huge amount, and it helped inspire me to continue to work in the
> ed-tech space till today.

I read the article several times but I can't see where they talk about
companies that didn't make it.

Also, I am sorry that your company failed. I know from personal experience
that it can be hard to get people to use your education product, so glad that
you are persevering and still working in that field.

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tomasien
I think it would make sense at some point to do this for financial services /
fintech. I think there is infrastructure that is very specific to fintech that
some accelerator out there will nail at some point and it will help them
become the default go-to for aspiring fintech companies.

Making commercial relationships with banks (money transfer, payments, account
opening, lending balance sheet, etc), institutional compliance knowledge, etc
would actually "accelerate" an aspiring fintech company in a way nobody really
has. I think YC has the pull to actually do it.

~~~
mikeleeorg
I agree. I was a part of IK12 and there is a lot of industry-specific
knowledge, activities, and connections that a vertical can offer that a
general accelerator cannot.

For instance, IK12 has a "Teacher Day" that's similar to Demo Day, except
startup founders present to a room full of teachers and school administrators
instead of investors, with the intent of getting advisors, feedback, and even
pilot customers. It also doubles as good practice for Demo Day, though the
pitch is very different.

I could see similar industry-specific verticals playing out well in YC too,
especially as it continues to grow.

~~~
timv
I previous worked for an EdTech startup that didn't go through an accelerator
(but did have some great advisors)

While it won't necessarily be the right fit for every company, I definitely
see the value in having an education specialists within an accelerator, and
merging IK12 into YC allows founders to pick an accelerator that is
simultaneously strong across the whole startup space as well as the edtech
niche. The alternative is that you feel like you might need to made a trade
off on education-focus _vs_ general expertise/ecosystem.

My experience was that succeeding in EdTech requires so many of the same
things that other startups need, but it has quite niche requirements around
how to build a business in that sector. Dealing with school boards can be
hard, getting busy administrators to notice you, and take the time understand
the your value you bring. Understanding how the school year needs to fit into
your sales cycle, etc.

Now, all of that is true of other sectors. Fintech is different to Medtech.
Software is different to hardware. B2B is different to B2C. But it means that
there is immense value in getting advice that is specific to your particular
sector, without thinking that your sector necessarily plays by totally
different rules.

In the end if you're aiming for VC money then the pitch guidelines are much
the same. The issues and questions around term sheets, hiring, infrastructure,
UX, culture, etc aren't so different that you need (or want) to be in an
isolated accelerator, just that you want to know that your accelerator has
good skills and experience in your space.

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sethbannon
This is great news for education tech. Also very interesting that YC is
focusing so heavily on the "education vertical". Can't help but wonder if this
is only the first such consolidation. Could easily imagine YC joining forces
with other vertical accelerators that have deep expertise and networks in
things like synthetic biology, hardware, food, etc.

~~~
tlrobinson
In the hardware vertical YC has also partnered with Bolt [1][2][3], but that
seems to be a partnership rather than acquisition, and I'm not sure if Bolt
considers themselves an accelerator.

[1] [https://medium.com/@BenEinstein/bolts-partnership-with-y-
com...](https://medium.com/@BenEinstein/bolts-partnership-with-y-
combinator-2c37ef78d884)

[2] [http://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-for-
hardware](http://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-for-hardware)

[3] [https://www.bolt.io/](https://www.bolt.io/)

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morgante
It's amazing how much YC is doing these days. It seems like there's a major
announcement nearly once a week.

Sam might turn out to be the most effective VC in the world.

~~~
sama
Thanks but doing a lot of things is at best neutral; at worst it distracts you
and you miss the next Airbnb (though on the inside at least, it feels like we
say no to a LOT of thing we could do).

~~~
simonebrunozzi
I disagree, Sam.

By doing many things, you are naturally exploring new trends and topics that
will bring the next AirBnB. It's a necessary cost.

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ChrisCinelli
So if you were a ImageK12's company, does it make you a YC alumni? =)

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hodder
Working at yc must be fun. The huge number of announcements is crazy.

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BinaryIdiot
This is good. There has been a lot of criticism in YC as of late due to batch
size increases and lower quality of companies at and past demo day; this
should help bring in more experts when helping education related start-ups
which will hopefully return higher quality at demo day.

I do wonder if there is a certain limit to how many companies YC can help
shape. After a certain point it's going to be hard to scale helping companies
to get off the ground and YC as the brand won't be valued as highly, right?
Just thinking out loud here.

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edanm
Is this specifically because of the history of IK12 and YC?

I'm wondering if YC is planning to merge with any other accelerators. It would
be an interesting way to grow YC.

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jinal
This is super exciting. I am a big fan of YC and My company SchoolMint was
part of the ImagineK12's 2013 cohort. From day one, Geoff, Tim, Karen and the
whole IK12 advisory network has been extremely helpful with everything
(funding, hiring, distribution, employee-motivation0. SchoolMint would not
have existed without IK12. I look forward to being part of this much bigger
network now and get more help on scaling.

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an4rchy
This is a great move. I've never heard of IK12 before, I thought Panorama
Education was funded by YC but it's great to hear they're creating an
Education vertical. I'm really interested in how the EdTech space will change
in the near future and it's great to hear YC is going to be a big part of it.

~~~
catuong-ik12
Panorama Education was a graduate of both YC and Imagine K12. Great to hear
your excitement!

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lindseya
I'm wondering if you select edtech when you apply to YC? My company, a social
robot for kids, could be considered edtech but it is also a toy and a
therapeutic tool. Who decides if my company is considered edtech or not?

~~~
bliti
How do you market it? Ed tech is more than products for kids. Your product
must be geared towards educational goals and how the district staff will
interact with it. If you need help shoot me an email. I'll gladly chat about
it.

I was at ISTE 2015, did you attend? We probably met if you did. :)

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bliti
As someone who works ed tech this is great news. There are so many areas to
explore within this industry. Having more focus from major players is always
good.

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dudurocha
Thats amazing! Ik12 was already known as the "ycombinator of edtech". Joining
forces will help both sides to thrive.

Congratulations to the team!

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germinalphrase
It's exciting to see so much new investment in education focused products and
companies.

We need some new tools, new infrastructure.

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free2rhyme214
Sam what to you think of Andy Rubin's hardware incubator Playground Global?
($300m funding round)

[http://playground.global/](http://playground.global/)

[http://venturebeat.com/2015/10/07/andy-rubins-playground-
inc...](http://venturebeat.com/2015/10/07/andy-rubins-playground-incubator-
has-closed-its-funding-round-and-is-now-a-vc/)

