This is great news: it will allow new education startups to run for a whole year to validate whatever they've built in real classrooms. Because of the cyclical nature of the K12 school year, it can be hard to demonstrate traction without the means to operate for a full school year, and this new start fund move solves that problem.

I went through the first iteration of Imagine K12 with ClassDojo, and every member of the team was incredibly valuable in helping us launch the company. If you're doing an education technology startup, or thinking of starting one, I highly recommend you check them out.

I'm part of the latest cohort (co-founder, www.accredible.com) and I have found the programme to be enormously valuable. If you're starting an edtech company it's definitely worth going for. Really excited about the new format for the next cohort; some awesome changes. Happy to talk at length about my experiences if people request it. Also happy to chat with anyone interested in applying!

I was at a big edtech conference last week (Education Innovation Summit in AZ).

Something like a dozen of the 100 presenting companies came through Imagine K12, which is incredible. I know a lot of the people involved, and if you're thinking of starting something in edtech you should DEFINITELY apply. It's a great program.