ASU+GSV 2026 with the USC EdTech Accelerator

Apr 16

By Erica Crane, EdD

At the conference, we spent time in Accelerator sessions and conversations with educators, founders, investors, and system leaders exploring what peer-driven learning at scale could actually make possible for the future of education. We shared how sideby is helping individuals and organizations deepen professional learning, support competency-based models, and make growth more visible and actionable.

Pitching as a part of the USC EdTech Accelerator

As members of the USC EdTech Accelerator’s 8th cohort, Mike and Erica pitched sideby to conference attendees and shared about our vision for professional learning across education organizations.

Our Cohort

We learned together throughout the school year and had the chance to finally meet in person at the conference. Huge gratitude to Doug Lynch and Marc DeGennaro for building such an incredible program for us to engage with experts in the field, gain feedback on our pitching and storytelling, and to support our attendance at the conference by securing scholarships for us. We can’t recommend this Accelerator enough. At the conference, we met with other graduate student scholarship recipients with an opening session featuring Michael Crow from ASU, John Katzman from Noodle, Richard Culatta from ISTE, and Stephen Arnold from the George Lucas Foundation. We also connected with the following organizations through our learning sessions before the conference: HolonIQ, Amplify, Bisk Ventures, Cooley, Edvice, Whiteboard Advisors, Virginia Venture Partners, Learning Tapestry, and Digital Promise.

Co-Founders in Person

Mike and Erica connected at the conference in person, with the chance to check in on how the strategic plan for this quarter was shaping up. We started sideby together in January 2025, got folks into the app in February 2025, and were pitching at one of the largest EdTech conferences in the world in April 2026. It was a great opportunity to reflect back on where we’ve been and where we’re going.

What We Learned

AUS+GSV 2026 gave us space to reconnect with people thinking deeply about learning across classrooms, districts, nonprofits, and edtech. More than anything, it reminded us why educator agency and learner-centered design have to stay at the center of this work. We left with new relationships, sharper questions, and a renewed sense of possibility for where learning can go next. Here are a couple of our favorite sessions: