The Collab Lab kicked off our first cohort on August 22, 2019. In the 10 months since, demand to participate in the program has been steadily strong. This is great because it tells us we’re filling a real need! What’s been not so great has been the experience for people applying to be in the program. So we’re making some changes.

What’s changing?

Starting now, for each new cohort, we will be opening a one-week window during which applications to participate will be accepted.

In more concrete terms, we will kick off our next two cohorts on August 2, 2020. The application window for these cohorts will be July 5 – 11. We will review applications submitted within those dates and make decisions the following week.

🚨 If you have applied before, you will need to apply again! 🚨

For future readers of this post, you can always visit the-collab-lab.codes/apply for the most up-to-date info about upcoming cohorts.

Why are we making this change?

Until now, when you applied to participate in The Collab Lab, you essentially joined a long and growing waitlist.

Then…you waited. Sometimes for a long, long time.

How long? Since we started tracking it, people who have been selected for a cohort have waited an average of 122 days between their application and their acceptance. And that wait time has grown over time.

That’s unacceptable.

Making it all the more frustrating for you, the applicant, is the fact that once you applied, the process was for all intents and purposes opaque. To many of you, it wasn’t even clear you were putting your name on a waitlist!

What does it mean for you?

At its simplest, the new process means that if you apply there will be two possible results:

1. 🤗 You get accepted. Yay! We’ll be in touch with next steps.
2. 😥 You get rejected. For now…try again!

We anticipate more applicants than we will have slots. If you’re qualified, but the numbers just didn’t work out, we’ll let you know that and you can totally apply the next time using the same info. If, on the other hand, we evaluated your experience and determined you didn’t meet the minimum requirements in some way, we’ll let you know that, too. That way you can put in the work to increase your chances of being accepted before the next application window opens.

So, yes, you may have to apply multiple times in order to be selected. At least with this new process, you’ll know where you stand!

So…what now?

As we said earlier in the email, our next two cohorts will kick off on August 2, 2020. The next application window will be open from July 5 – 11.

If you’re interested in applying for our upcoming cohorts, visit the-collab-lab.codes/apply to sign up to be reminded to come back to the site to submit your application that week.

We welcome your feedback on this new process. Thank you for hanging in there in these early days as we iron out how to scale up the program. We look forward to working with you in a future cohort!