Getting Started with the Incubation Portal
Your incubation centre runs on spreadsheets, email threads, WhatsApp groups and a shared drive that nobody can find anything in. The Incubation Portal replaces all of that with one place where your programs, startups, mentors, office space, funding and paperwork live together. This page shows you how to sign in and find your way around.
What you will learn
- What the portal replaces and why your team will be faster with it
- How to sign in and pick the right organisation
- What every menu on the left-hand side is for
- Which day-to-day jobs each person on your team will do here
- Where to go next once you are comfortable
What the portal does for you#
Think of the Incubation Portal as the operating system for your incubation centre. Every application, startup, mentor session, desk booking, cheque and announcement is recorded in one place, so nothing depends on one person's inbox. When a board member asks how many startups you onboarded last quarter, the answer is on screen in seconds instead of a two-day scramble.
One home for every program
Run your pre-incubation, incubation, accelerator and funding schemes side by side, each with its own application form, evaluation criteria and cohort.
Applications that manage themselves
Startups apply online, you review, ask for missing documents, send it to your evaluation panel and onboard the winners - all without a single email attachment.
Your physical space, tracked
Desks, cabins, meeting rooms and labs with pricing, who is sitting where, and what is booked this week.
Money you can account for
Record your funding sources, allocate them to programs, release money to startups in tranches and keep a clean trail for your auditors.
Mentors and sessions in one list
Bring mentors on board, connect them to the right startups, and see who actually met whom and when.
Everyone kept in the loop
Announcements, tasks and chat so your team, your startups and your mentors always have the same information.
Your portal is yours alone#
Your incubation centre gets its own private workspace inside EcoSync. Nobody from another incubator can see your startups, your applications, your funding figures or your documents - and you cannot see theirs. Your logo, your name, your data. If you want to show a funder or a government department around, you can do it without worrying about what else is on screen.
Where to sign in
Everyone signs in at the same place - www.ecosync.co. There is no separate address to remember, nothing to install, and no software for your IT team to host. Once you sign in you land straight in your centre's workspace. If you work with more than one incubation centre, you can switch between them from the top bar without signing out.
Signing in for the first time#
You will not create your own account. Someone at your centre - usually the admin who set the portal up - adds you and sends you an invitation. Once you have your email and password, signing in takes under a minute.
- 1
Open your portal address and sign in
Enter the email address your admin invited you with, and the password you were given. The eye icon at the end of the password box lets you check what you have typed. If you have forgotten your password, use 'Forgot password?' and you will get a code on the same email.
The sign-in screen. Ignore 'Create one' - incubation staff are always invited by an admin, never self-registered. Tip: Bookmark this page. Every day starts here.
- 2
Choose the organisation you want to work in
Some people work with more than one incubation centre - for example a consultant who advises two universities. If that is you, a list appears after sign-in and you pick which one you are working on right now. If you belong to just one centre, you will skip straight past this. You can also switch at any time from the organisation name in the top bar.
- The label under each name tells you your position there - Admin, Member or Panel Member.
- 'Active' means the portal is live. 'Inactive' means that centre's subscription is paused, so you cannot enter it.
- A tick marks the organisation you are currently working in.
The organisation switcher. Below the list of centres sit your account items - this is where billing lives. Tip: Worth knowing early: Subscription Plans, Billing & Invoices and Add-ons are only reachable from this menu, not from the left-hand sidebar.
- 3
Land on your dashboard
This is your morning screen. It shows how many startups you have, what is happening across your programs, applications waiting on you, and recent activity from your team.
The dashboard answers 'what needs me today?' before you have finished your first coffee.
Nobody can sign in until you invite them
There is no public sign-up. If a colleague cannot get in, it is almost always because they have not been added yet. Head to Users & Permissions and add them - it takes about thirty seconds.
Finding your way around#
Everything is reached from the menu down the left-hand side. It is grouped so that related jobs sit together, and you will only see the menus your role gives you access to - so your screen may look shorter than a colleague's, and that is normal.
| Menu group | What lives here | Who uses it most |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | Your dashboard - the numbers and activity summary for the whole centre. | Everyone |
| Operations | Startups, Mentors, Events, Investments, Office Management and Facility Management. The day-to-day running of the centre. | Incubation and operations managers |
| Programs | All Programs, Create Program, and a shortcut to each individual program you are running. | Program managers |
| Collaboration | Tasks, Announcements, Chat and Notifications. How your team and your startups talk to each other. | Everyone |
| Presentation | Website - the public information you choose to publish about your centre. | Marketing and communications |
| Settings | Users & Permissions - invite colleagues and decide what each of them can see. | Admins only |
The top bar#
Five controls run across the top of every screen, and they are easy to overlook because they never change.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Search box | Searches programs, startups and mentors from anywhere in the portal. |
| Subscription badge | A green 'ACTIVE Subscription' pill. If this ever says otherwise, that is why things have stopped working. |
| Organisation name | Switches between centres, and holds your account items - plans, billing, add-ons, support. |
| Bell icon | Unread notifications, with a count. Your queue of things waiting on you. |
| Your name | Your own profile and sign-out. |
Tip
The search box is faster than navigating. If you know a startup's name, type it there rather than going to Startups and filtering.
Who does what on your team#
You decide what each colleague can see and do. Rather than everyone having the keys to everything, you build roles that match the job. A front-desk coordinator who books meeting rooms does not need to see your funding figures, and an external panel member should only ever see the applications you have asked them to score.
| Typical person | What they usually get | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Centre Head / Admin | Everything, including inviting users and changing roles. | Accountable for the whole centre. |
| Program Manager | Programs, applications, startups, tasks and announcements. | Runs cohorts end to end. |
| Operations Coordinator | Office space, facilities, events and bookings. | Keeps the building running. |
| Finance Officer | Funding, investments, billing and invoices. | Handles money and audit trails. |
| Evaluation Panel Member | Only the applications assigned to them for scoring. | Usually external; should not browse your data. |
Important
Take five minutes to set roles up properly before you invite your team. It is far easier than tightening permissions later, once everyone has already got used to seeing everything.
A typical week in the portal#
Most centres settle into a rhythm within a fortnight. Here is what that usually looks like.
- 1
Monday - clear the queue
Open the dashboard, see which applications came in over the weekend, and review them. Ask for missing documents where needed.
- 2
Tuesday - move applications forward
Send shortlisted applications to your evaluation panel and check the scores that have come back on earlier ones.
- 3
Wednesday - look after your startups
Check task progress with your cohort, confirm mentor sessions, and approve any desk or meeting-room requests.
- 4
Thursday - money and space
Release any funding tranches that are due and reconcile office rentals for the month.
- 5
Friday - communicate
Post an announcement to your cohort, publish anything new to your public website page, and glance at the dashboard numbers before you leave.
Where to go next#
You do not need to learn everything at once. Most teams get value in their first week by doing just two things: inviting their colleagues, and setting up their first program.
- Start with User & Role Management - get your team in and give them the right access.
- Then read Creating a Program - this is where most of your work will happen.
- Once applications start arriving, move on to Program Management and Evaluation Panels.
- Come back to Office Space, Facilities and Funding when you are ready. They can wait.
Common questions#
No. Your portal is completely separate. Other centres cannot see your startups, applications, documents or figures, and you cannot see theirs.
No. One email address, one password. After you sign in, a list appears and you pick which centre you want to work in. You can switch between them whenever you like.
No. You are seeing exactly what your role allows. Ask your centre admin to adjust your role in Users & Permissions if you need that access.
Not here. Startups have their own portal where they apply to your programs, submit documents and track their progress. What they do there arrives in your portal automatically.
Your plan sets how many colleagues and startups you can have, and which features are switched on. When you are close to the limit you will be told, and the plan can be upgraded from the billing section without any interruption.
