What EcoSync is, and where to start
One account that opens as much or as little of the startup ecosystem as you need - posting and messaging, communities and events, hiring, mentoring, investing, or running an incubation program. This page explains which part is yours and what to do first.
What you will learn
- What you can do here on the day you sign up
- Which parts open up once you add a role, and how to add one
- Where to go first depending on what you came here for
- What to do if a page sends you somewhere you did not expect
One account, as much of it as you need#
EcoSync is a network for the startup ecosystem - founders, mentors, investors, students, professionals and freelancers, plus the incubators that support them. You sign up once. What you see is decided by the roles on your account, and you can hold as many as genuinely apply to you: a founder who also mentors does not need a second login, and nothing you have already built goes away when you add one.
What you can do straight away#
None of this needs a role, an invitation or an incubator. It is what a new account opens with.
- Post updates, articles, images, videos, documents and polls, and follow the hashtags you care about
- Message anyone directly, or start a group conversation
- Join communities, or start one and set the rules people agree to
- Find and attend events, from a Thursday meetup to a weekend hackathon
- Search for people by what they do, and see who you already know in common
- Build a profile that is the thing other people find when they look for your skill
What opens up when you add a role#
Roles are added from Settings, then Roles. Adding one never removes another, and the role you mark as primary is how you appear by default when someone searches.
- Student - a way in that is not a cold email: internships, events and communities
- Professional - networking, jobs and events, without a company attached to you
- Freelancer - a profile founders find when they search for the skill they need
- Founder - a company workspace holding your team, documents, metrics and milestones, plus program applications and funding requests
- Mentor - publish the hours you are free and what a session costs, take bookings, meet over video, and get paid without sending an invoice
- Investor - run deal flow through stages, take a deal to committee, and follow a portfolio after the cheque
Two roles that work a little differently#
- VC Partner - for people investing on behalf of a firm rather than alone. You work in the investor portal against your firm's record, with your team, their permissions and committee voting; your own title, seniority and thesis sit on your profile.
- Incubation staff - if you work at an incubator or accelerator, your centre has its own private workspace and you sign in to that. It is separate from the public network on purpose: your programs, applications and cohort data are visible to your team and to nobody else here.
Where to go first#
Pick the row that sounds like you. Each one is a guide in this documentation.
| If you came here to… | Start at |
|---|---|
| Meet people, post, and see what is happening | Social Feed & Posts |
| Find a community worth joining, or run one | Communities |
| Go to an event, or put one on | Events & Meetups |
| Find a job, or hire someone | Jobs & Hiring |
| Find a mentor, or become one | Mentorship Marketplace |
| Apply to an incubator, or manage a company you founded | Startup Portal → Overview |
| Look at startups to invest in | Investor Portal → Overview |
If a page sends you somewhere unexpected
Opening a part of the product you do not have the role for takes you to Role Management rather than an error page. That is the system telling you which role to add, not a fault - add it there and come back.
