Ask HN: Is EdTech a Good Bet for Venture Capital?

So, I've been messing around in EdTech for like 3 years now, both as a user and as a startup founder.

Using MOOCs and CBCs, I've seen how they can cut the cost of sharing educational stuff big time. But that doesn't mean people are actually learning more because of it.

I get that it's not a simple issue. There's a ton of factors in the mix. But I haven't seen an education company yet that's really blown up in size while actually making good on its promise to help students learn.

Take Duolingo for example. I think they cracked the code on the whole lack of motivation and discipline thing for some users, thanks to gamification. But just because you've got a "streak" going doesn't mean you're actually learning anything.

So yeah, just throwing some thoughts out there. I'm really into the whole education space and I've still got a lot to learn. But it makes me wonder: should EdTech even be trying to shoot for Unicorn status?

nope - too political. it's worth doing, but not "a good bet for venture capital"

There is opportunity in edtech, but it's much harder to find viable business models that have VC-worthy returns than in most other verticals. Most edtech companies are either B2C or are selling to school districts or universities. Selling to school districts has unique changes due to school boards and often grant-based funding models. This makes getting initial traction and scaling up more difficult. If you look at successful companies in the space like teachers pay teachers, or clever you'll see that many have relatively small amounts of funding and have been around for more than a decade in order to get acquired.

Speaking from personal experience as an educator and entrepreneur in this area.

Education is not a commodity.

It’s a very delicate and fragile process.

You can scale marketing, sales, but you can’t scale real learning of anything more complicated than hammering nails.

However big is EdTech it will always be a fragmented carpet made of small (and some big) patches.

Think of Harvard or any university you consider the best - why didn’t it conquer the world by opening offices all over the world?

The same reason why there will never be a Google of EdTech.

Learning is not a hamburger.

Internet doesn’t change the nature of education, it is just a distribution channel, one of many possible.