REPLAY: Geoff Ralston – How YCombinator is Working to Save the US Education System from Collapse

Geoff Ralston (@gralston) is the founder of Imagine K12, an education-focused vertical within the super successful startup accelerator YCombinator. Collectively, Y Combinator and Imagine K12 have backed over 100 education technology startups. In addition to his work with YC, Geoff’s a prolific angel investor, with over 80 portfolio companies and 18 exits to date.

Prior to joining YC as a Partner, Geoff was the CEO of Lala Media, a music startup which was acquired by Apple for $80M in 2009. He also spent 9 years at Yahoo and was the Former Chief Product Officer a decade before the company became irrelevant.

In our wide-ranging conversation, we cover many things, including:
- The major problems with America’s education system
- How startups and YC are working to redesign education
- Is college still necessary?
- How venture capitalists can make outsized differences in the world
- Why education and healthcare as so expensive and slow to adapt
- What angel investors need to know to avoid losing money
- How Geoff thinks about industries and investment philosophies
- Why Geoff started an edtech accelerator and merged with YCombinator
- The reason Geoff is incredibly optimistic about biotech and AI
- The ethical issues of education and access and how we can fix them
- Why education NEEDS to be personalized
- How to hone your craft and becoming worldclass
- Which industries Geoff is most excited about