Designing and running an accelerator or innovation programme involves two very different kinds of work: defining what the journey should look like, and then operationalising how it will run for real founders. In Bertie, these two steps come together seamlessly. Once your programme playbook has been translated into a structured digital framework, the next task is bringing it to life by setting up programme instances, onboarding cohorts, assigning mentors and Venture Partners, and ensuring the right people have the right visibility from day one.

This article walks through the full journey: mapping a playbook, creating a programme, configuring cohorts, managing roles and preparing your next intake for launch. It’s a practical guide for Programme Managers, university TTO teams, accelerator operators and corporate innovation leads looking to scale consistent, data-driven programme delivery with less operational overhead.

From Playbook to Programme: Structuring Your Framework

Every organisation already has a programme playbook, whether it lives in decks, spreadsheets, a Notion wiki or the collective memory of your programme team. Bertie simply helps you turn this into a structured, reusable programme framework built around four core components: business pillars, stages, tasks and milestones.

Business pillars define the key dimensions you use to evaluate venture progress, such as Market & Customers, Product & Technology, Business Model & Finance or Regulatory readiness. These pillars underpin the entire programme and allow consistent tracking across ventures and cohorts.

Stages break your journey into logical phases. An accelerator might use Application → Evaluation → Pre-Accelerator → Accelerator → Demo Day → Alumni, while a university TTO might follow Idea Capture → Proof-of-Concept → Commercial Readiness → Investor Path. Bertie allows you to configure, rename and reorder stages at any time to reflect how your organisation actually works.

Tasks, actions and questionnaires capture the real work founders must complete. Milestones highlight key achievements such as POC approval, problem–solution fit validation and pilot sign-off, which matter for governance and reporting.

With these elements in place, your playbook becomes a repeatable asset you can refine and use across multiple cohorts and programmes.

Creating a Programme in Bertie

Once your framework is defined, the next step is turning it into a live programme that real users interact with.

From the Programmes dashboard, Programme Managers can create a new programme from scratch or using templates such as a Generic Pre-Seed Accelerator, University Commercialisation Pathway or Corporate Innovation Challenge. Templates reduce setup time, but starting from scratch is ideal if your organisation has a detailed, bespoke playbook.

When creating a programme, you can specify:

• Name and description e.g. Spring Accelerator 2026 or HealthTech Commercialisation Pathway
• Programme owner and admin leads
• Application mode (open call vs invitation-only)
• Branding (logo, colours) to align with your organisation
• High-level settings including whether monthly velocity reporting is required

Once saved, your programme structure comes to life. You can explore each stage, such as Calibrate or Prototype, view the associated business pillars, and drill down into tasks, actions and supporting materials. Where needed, tasks can include prerequisites, ensuring founders complete work in a logical order.

This step transforms your playbook from theory into a digital workflow ready to support actual cohorts.

Onboarding a Cohort: Turning Structure into Delivery

Programmes are the structure; cohorts are the people moving through them.

A cohort represents a specific intake — Spring 2026, Autumn HealthTech, Corporate Batch #3. Within each cohort, ventures have unique timelines, needs and support relationships.

In Bertie, you can create and configure a cohort by:

• Setting start and end dates
• Capturing internal details such as capacity or funding source
• Adding ventures via:
  
  • Accepted applications through Bertie’s configurable application system
  • Import of a vetted list (e.g., researcher spinouts, corporate shortlist)
  • Manual entry for small, invitation-only groups

Within minutes, your cohort moves from an empty shell to a structured list of ventures, each with its own Venture Development Board ready to track progress across pillars, tasks and milestones.

This step alone significantly reduces manual admin by replacing spreadsheets, shared drives and inconsistent documentation with a centralised, consistent system.

Assigning Mentors, Advisors and Venture Partners

No programme is complete without its support ecosystem. Bertie includes profiles for mentors, Venture Partners, advisors and internal team members, each with clear permissions that reflect their real-world role.

You can invite people into the system via email or single sign-on. Once inside, you can:

• Assign specific mentors to specific ventures
• Add advisors to an entire cohort or only particular stages
• Give internal team members defined support roles (admin, data analyst, programme co-ordinator)
• Ensure evaluation committees or TTO oversight groups have the correct visibility

This clarity matters. It ensures:

• Founders get the right support at the right time
• Evaluation processes are traceable and transparent
• Sensitive data is only visible to those with legitimate access

Role assignment becomes even more critical for organisations running multiple cohorts, cross-functional programmes or university-wide commercialisation pipelines.

Managing Cohort Data, Access and Multi-Programme Operations

With your cohort set up and your support network in place, you can manage day-to-day operations from Bertie’s Cohort Overview. This high-level view shows:

• All ventures and their current stage
• Last activity and recent updates
• Assigned mentors, advisors and Venture Partners
• Quick links into Venture Development Boards

Within a venture profile, Programme Managers can update venture details, adjust support roles, review milestone progress and align tasks with real-world governance.

Access management is straightforward: TTO committees, corporate steering boards or external evaluators can be given controlled visibility without compromising confidentiality or overwhelming them with unnecessary detail.

For organisations managing multiple programmes simultaneously, including accelerators, commercialisation pathways and corporate challenges, Bertie’s sidebar allows instant switching between active, upcoming and completed cohorts. This consolidates programme oversight, replacing a patchwork of tools with a single, consistent system.

Conclusion: Launch with Confidence

Building a structured programme and launching a new cohort no longer requires juggling spreadsheets, email chains, shared folders and improvised workflows. Bertie brings everything together, including your playbook, programme design, cohort configuration, role assignment and ongoing delivery, into a single coherent system.

By following the steps above, Programme Managers can:

• Translate their existing playbook into a digital programme structure
• Create programme instances quickly using templates or bespoke setups
• Onboard new cohorts with clarity and consistency
• Assign mentors, advisors and Venture Partners with confidence
• Manage data governance and access seamlessly
• Run multiple programmes in parallel without losing oversight

Whether you're running a regional accelerator, managing a university innovation pipeline or delivering enterprise innovation challenges, Bertie provides the foundations for consistency, scalability and data-driven programme management.

If you're ready to streamline programme delivery, strengthen founder experience and gain real-time visibility across ventures and cohorts, explore how Bertie can support your next intake. Our team is happy to walk you through a tailored demo.

FAQ

Do I need to redesign my existing programme to use Bertie?
No. Bertie is built to reflect your existing playbook, not replace it. You can map your stages, tasks and milestones exactly as you already deliver them, then adjust over time as your programme evolves.

Can Bertie support multiple cohorts running at the same time?
Absolutely. The platform is designed for multi-programme, multi-cohort operations, allowing Programme Managers to switch views instantly and maintain consistent oversight at scale.

How flexible is the role and access system?
Highly flexible. Mentors, advisors, Venture Partners, admin staff and committees each have clearly defined permissions. You can assign roles at programme, cohort or venture level depending on your governance model.

Can I import ventures from external systems?
Yes. You can import vetted lists from spreadsheets, application funnels or internal selection processes, making it easy to onboard founders regardless of your sourcing workflow.

What if my programme changes year to year?
Your programme framework in Bertie is a living asset. You can iterate on stages, tasks and dependencies without losing historical venture data, ensuring continuous improvement without operational disruption.

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