Cohorts
A cohort is one intake cycle under your programme — for example, “Cohort 3 — Q1 2026.” Each cohort has its own application form, applicant criteria, and pipeline of submissions. A programme can run as many cohorts as it needs, one at a time or in sequence.
The cohort lifecycle
Section titled “The cohort lifecycle”Every cohort moves through four stages:
Draft → Open → Closed → Completed| Stage | What it means |
|---|---|
| Draft | The cohort is being configured. No applications are accepted yet. |
| Open | The public application form is live. Founders can apply. |
| Closed | The application window has ended. No new submissions are accepted, but existing ones can still be reviewed. |
| Completed | The cohort is finished. All submissions are archived. |
A cohort requires Studio Tokens to go live. See Launching a cohort below.
Creating a cohort
Section titled “Creating a cohort”Go to Cohorts in the sidebar and click New Cohort. You’ll be walked through a setup wizard covering four sections.
Basic details
Section titled “Basic details”- Cohort name — e.g. “Cohort 4 — 2026” or “Spring Intake.” Visible to your team only.
- Duration — e.g. “12 weeks.” Informational.
- Location — Country and state where the programme runs, if applicable.
- Delivery mode — In-person, hybrid, or remote.
Applicant profile
Section titled “Applicant profile”This tells the platform what kinds of founders you’re looking for. It calibrates the AI-generated application form and fit scoring.
- Applicant types — the stage or profile of founder this cohort targets. Options include: Ideator, Early Startup, Operating Business, Student, Technical Founder, Social Impact, Workspace Seeker. Select all that apply — the form and scoring adjust to the combination.
- Gender — open to all, or restricted to male or female founders. If restricted, a guard rail is added to the form automatically.
- Target sectors — e.g. fintech, healthtech, agritech. Leave blank to accept all sectors.
- Target locations — the countries and states you’re accepting applications from. Leave blank to accept from anywhere.
Capacity
Section titled “Capacity”- Expected applicants — your rough estimate. Used for analytics.
- Shortlist size — how many you intend to accept into the programme.
Eligibility rules
Section titled “Eligibility rules”Set hard rules that automatically flag non-qualifying applications:
- Minimum and maximum age
- Required business registration
- Allowed sectors or locations
- Commitment hours per week
- Required documents
These rules are converted into guard rails on your application form — each one runs automatically on every submission and flags anything that doesn’t qualify before a reviewer opens it. The more specific your rules, the less manual screening your team has to do.
Launching a cohort
Section titled “Launching a cohort”Everything on the platform runs on Studio Tokens — there is no separate cohort payment. To open a cohort, you need at least 1 Studio Token in your programme’s wallet.
Once you have tokens, go to the cohort settings and set the status to Open. Your application form link goes live immediately.
How tokens are used
Section titled “How tokens are used”| Action | Tokens consumed |
|---|---|
| Opening a cohort | Requires a non-zero balance — no tokens deducted |
| AI form generation | Requires a non-zero balance — no tokens deducted |
| Test submission | Requires a non-zero balance — no tokens deducted |
| Processing a submitted application | 5 tokens per submission |
Tokens are shared across all cohorts in your programme. If your balance runs low mid-cohort, incoming applications will queue and wait — they are not lost. Top up and they resume automatically.
See Studio Tokens for how to check your balance and buy more.
Closing and completing a cohort
Section titled “Closing and completing a cohort”When your application window ends, go to the cohort settings page and update the status to Closed. This stops new submissions without affecting your existing pipeline.
Once you’ve finished reviewing all submissions, mark the cohort as Completed.
Cohort overview
Section titled “Cohort overview”Each cohort has an Overview tab showing live stats across the full pipeline:
- Total submissions received
- Breakdown by pipeline status (pending, processing, complete, failed)
- Breakdown by review status (pending review, approved, rejected)
- Average fit score across complete submissions
- Strength band distribution (Strong, Promising, Unclear, Weak)
- Top sectors represented in the applicant pool
Use this tab to track your team’s progress and spot patterns across the cohort before you’ve finished reviewing.