Run applications, decisions and weekly check-ins in one place, from the open call to the last check-in.
A thousand applications in a form tool, scores in a spreadsheet, decisions in email, terms in a document and weekly updates chased by hand. VentureFract gives each cohort one workspace: a public application page, fair blind scoring, decisions and applicant emails, your standard terms, and a weekly check-in from every startup, so you always know who is on track.
No card needed. Set up your programme and preview your application page free. Opening a cohort to the public comes with the Accelerator plan, $450 a month.
Four tools and a lot of copy and paste.
A form tool for applications
Applications land in a sheet that nobody owns, with no check that the email address is real and no way to send decisions safely.
A spreadsheet for scoring
Reviewers see each other's scores and anchor on them. Weights live in someone's head. Nobody can say why one startup ranked above another.
Email for decisions and terms
The acceptance email, the terms attachment and who replied are tracked by memory. A slip emails the wrong person.
Reminders for weekly updates
Twelve weeks, fourteen startups, and you chase each one by message. By week four half the cohort has gone quiet and you only notice at demo day.
From setup to the last check-in.
1. Set up in minutes
Tell us about your programme: what you invest in each startup, the equity you take, how many weeks and how many startups. We draft your first cohort and the opening line of your standard terms from your answers. Preview the public application page privately before anyone sees it.
2. Open the call
Choose the questions you want answered and when applications open and close. Applicants use a public page with no account, and confirm their email address from a link we send, so you know every address is real.
3. Score fairly and decide
Reviewers score each criterion against your weighted rubric, blind to each other until they have scored. Move many applications at once, with a reason recorded for declines.
4. Welcome the cohort
Preview and send the acceptance, decline and waiting-list emails to confirmed addresses, with your standard terms included in the acceptance email. Add the accepted startups to your pipeline in one step.
5. Enrol the startups
Accepted startups with a confirmed email join the programme as members. You choose who is active, who has graduated and who has withdrawn.
6. A weekly check-in, without chasing
Pick the day and up to six questions, plus one number you want to track, such as weekly revenue. Every active startup gets its own link by email, with a reminder about three days later. A startup you enrol after your check-in day is first asked the following week. No account, and they can edit their answers for 14 days.
7. See who is on track
A grid shows every startup by week: answered or missing. Open any startup to read its answers. The report shows completion by week and your tracked number, with its total and median.
Reviewers score before they see each other.
- One rubric per cohort: you choose the criteria and their weights, reviewers score each from 1 to 5
- A reviewer sees the team's scores only after scoring that application themselves, so nobody anchors on a colleague
- Scores that are 1.5 points or more apart are flagged for a conversation
- Only admins see everyone's scores and the cohort's scoring progress; the report shows reviewer activity without names
- Scoring changes nothing about an application's status. People decide, not a formula
A home that is about the programme.
- One card per cohort: applications, how many are waiting for your review, unconfirmed email addresses, decisions still to email, terms still outstanding
- Startups in the programme and check-ins still open and unanswered
- Mentors with their own link to the startups you assign, and recurring programme sessions on the calendar (both are on each cohort's page and the calendar, not on Home)
- Reviewers see what is theirs to do; admin-only counts stay with admins
- A first-run checklist built for a programme: create the cohort, write the terms, open it, invite reviewers, add a fund for the startups you accept
Email that only goes where it should.
- Decision emails go only to applicants who confirmed their address, and each outcome is sent once to each applicant
- Weekly check-in emails go only to active startups you enrolled, one link each, never more than two a week
- You write the messages once and preview exactly what will be sent before you send
- Your standard terms are saved as numbered versions. A tracker shows which startups were sent which version, and lets you record who has accepted or declined
- Anyone can ask for their data to be deleted, and you can do it from the application: their answers, their check-ins and their links go with it. A deal already created from them stays in your pipeline; remove it separately
The terms tracker is your record of what was sent and answered. It is not an e-signature tool.
A report you can read in a minute.
Applications from received to accepted, how many applicants confirmed their email, how scores spread, the median days from application to decision, and the top five sectors, locations and stages that applied. Then the programme itself: how many startups are active, how complete each week's check-ins were, and the number you chose to track. Export the applications to a spreadsheet whenever you need to.
A plan built for programmes.
The Accelerator plan is $450 a month and includes 10 seats, up to 25 ($50 per extra seat), and 1 vehicle, up to 2 ($250 per additional vehicle). Firm ($900 a month) adds the LP portal, up to 4 vehicles and advanced reports, and also includes cohorts and check-ins. Reviewers are team members and use a seat each. Applicants and the startups you enrol never need an account or a seat. The free trial covers setting up and previewing one cohort, plus your pipeline, portfolio and funds on your own data (the trial holds 1 seat, 10 deals and 3 portfolio positions); opening a cohort to the public comes with a plan.
Accelerators, answered.
Do applicants and startups need an account?
No. Applicants fill in a public page and confirm their email address from a link we send. Enrolled startups answer their weekly check-in from their own link. Nobody is asked to create a password.
Can two reviewers influence each other?
Not before they score. A reviewer sees the other scores on an application only after scoring it themselves.
Do reviewers each need a seat?
Yes. Reviewers are members of your firm and use a seat. The Accelerator plan includes 10 seats and allows up to 25.
How do weekly check-ins work?
You choose the day, up to six questions and an optional number to track. Each week, every active startup gets an email with a link that is only theirs, and a reminder about three days later if they have not answered. They can edit their answers for 14 days. You see a grid of who answered, read any startup's answers, and get completion and your tracked number in the report. Emails go out at the same time each week, at 07:30 in UTC.
Can I email applicants who have not confirmed their address?
No. Decision emails go only to confirmed addresses, and the preview lists anyone who is skipped and why.
Does it send contracts or collect signatures?
No. It sends your standard terms in the acceptance email and tracks which version each startup was sent and what they answered. Signing happens wherever you already do it.
What happens to accepted startups?
You can enrol them in the programme for weekly check-ins, and add them to your pipeline in one step, choosing the fund they belong to. From there they are tracked like any other deal.
Does it find startups or match them with investors?
No. It is where you run your own programme. We do not match investors with founders.
Does the free trial include cohorts?
Partly. The trial lets you set up one cohort, write its questions, messages and terms, and preview the application page privately. Opening it to the public, receiving applications, emailing applicants and weekly check-ins come with a plan, because the public page sends email on your behalf.
What about mentors and a programme calendar?
Both are in the product. Add a mentor with a name and an email, choose the startups they look after, and they get one link to a read-only page with those startups' weekly check-ins, where they can leave a short note for your team. They need no account and do not take a seat; a mentor's link lasts 90 days from the last invitation, and removing a mentor stops it at once. For the calendar, create a weekly or fortnightly series of sessions in one step (up to 26), at the same local time through clock changes, link it to a cohort, and cancel this and all later sessions in one click.
Open your next call for applications.
Choose accelerator when you sign up and we will draft your first cohort and your standard terms from a few answers.