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 fo

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.