How the Platform Works
The life of a member from the intake form to a booked session, and what the platform does at each step.
This page follows a person through the platform end to end. Each section names the screen an admin uses and the piece of the system behind it, so the Admin Guides and the developer pages both hang off the same picture.
1. The Intake
Everyone starts at the same place: the intake form at /apply. It asks who they are, which role or roles they want (founder, mentor, volunteer, investor, partner), and then the questions for that role. A founder with a registered business also answers the business health assessment inside the same form.
Answers are saved on the person's own device as they go, so a dropped connection loses nothing. On submit, the application is stored and the Impact Hub team is emailed.
The questions are not fixed in code. Admins edit them under Settings, Forms, and every submission records which version of the form it answered.
2. Review and Invitation
Applications appear under Applications in the admin rail. An admin opens one, reads the answers, and accepts or declines. Accepting does three things at once:
- The applicant is emailed a decision.
- An invitation is created in Clerk (the sign-in service) carrying the role and capabilities they were approved for. Clerk emails them the link.
- A daily job watches for accepted applications with no invitation on record and sends one, as a backstop.
Sign-up is invitation-only. There is no way to create an account without being approved first, which is what keeps the directory a trusted space.
3. The Account
When the person accepts the invitation and creates their account, Clerk tells the platform (a webhook). The platform then:
- creates the member record with the approved role,
- builds their profile from their application answers, so the first page they see is already filled in,
- copies their name from the application if they did not type one,
- for a partner, brings their organization onto the platform with them as its administrator,
- joins them to any organization that invited them by email before the account existed.
On their first sign-in the account becomes active and the welcome email goes out (if that template is switched on).
4. Readiness and the Tour
A new member lands on the Overview. If anything is missing before they can be matched, a short list says what and links to it. A first-run tour points at the parts of the app that matter for their role. The tour runs once; it can be replayed from the user menu.
5. Matching
Every day the matching engine looks at founders who are ready (profile complete, business described) and proposes mentors for them. The ranking is done by Nexus, the partner matching service, from what each person said they need and can offer, their industries, and their stage.
A proposed match goes through two gates: the Impact Hub team reviews it under Matching, then the mentor is asked to accept. Either gate can be the end of it. Once accepted, both people are told, and after a set number of days the platform asks each how it is going. The admin gate can be switched off once the team trusts the suggestions; that switch is on the Matching page.
6. Office Hours
A mentor sets availability: which hours, how long a session runs, how many a week. A founder searches for a mentor in plain language under Office Hours and books a time. The session is written to both calendars and gets a video link (a Nexus room when configured, otherwise Google Meet). Reminders go out before it, and afterwards both people are asked for feedback. Sessions can be moved or canceled from either side.
7. Events and Volunteers
Admins create events under Events, invite members, and say what volunteer roles are needed. Volunteers raise a hand for a role. Founders and mentors can also submit an event for approval. Reminders and digests go out on a schedule, and attendance is recorded afterwards so contribution reports are right.
8. Resources and Partners
Tools and Templates is the library. Each resource carries the audiences that may see it, and a member sees only what is aimed at them. Partners lists partner organizations and their offers. A partner organization keeps its own listing current from its Organization page.
9. Email and Calendars
Every email the platform sends (confirmations, reminders, nudges, digests, match notices) is a template an admin can edit under Settings, Email Templates, and every send is logged. Calendars connect under Settings, Connections: Google through the platform's own OAuth client, Outlook through the Microsoft sign-in.
10. Staying in Touch
Members who go quiet get a nudge; members who stay quiet for six months are marked dormant and asked whether they want to stay. Mentors who never set availability, and volunteers who never signed up for anything, get a gentle reminder. All of it is scheduled, logged, and sent at most once per person per reason.
Where Admins Change Things
| To change | Go to |
|---|---|
| Who may sign in and what role they hold | Settings, Members |
| The questions the intake asks | Settings, Forms |
| The lists people pick from (industries, skills, ways to help) | Settings, Tag Lists |
| The labels on profile and company fields | Settings, Member Fields and Company Fields |
| The words in any email | Settings, Email Templates |
| Reminder timing, timezone, the tour switch | Settings, Notifications |
| Whether admins review matches first | Matching, the approval mode control |
| What partner organizations see about founders | Settings, Organization Sharing |
| Resources in the library | Manage Resources |