UC Berkeley SCET reaches founders before the program begins.

The challenge

A growing program is a growing inbox. Applicants ask questions at every hour, admitted founders need to hear from the program before it starts, and every cohort has sessions and deadlines that someone has to keep in front of people. That work was spread across staff inboxes, which meant it was spread across staff attention too.

A prospective builder's question at 11 p.m. in Singapore is a real question. Answering it the next afternoon in California is an answer, but it is a slow one, and an application in progress is easy to abandon while waiting.

What RevDesk took on

RevDesk answers applicant questions the same day they arrive, using the program's own information and nothing else. When a question needs a person, it goes to the right one with the context attached.

Once founders are admitted, the coworker reaches them before the first session, confirms they are ready to start, and answers the practical questions that come up between acceptance and day one. Reminders for sessions and deadlines go out on the program's schedule, on the channels each founder has agreed to.

How it runs

Every conversation lives in one shared history the program staff can read. A founder who asked a question during admissions, confirmed their spot, and got a reminder for the first session has a single thread, not three inboxes. Consent is captured at the start and respected throughout, so a founder who asks for email only gets email only.

What changed for the team

The staff spend their hours on the program rather than its logistics. Cohorts fill without a round of phone tag, applicants get answers while they are still deciding, and nobody has to remember who was told what.

Why it matters

A center that teaches entrepreneurship with AI should run on it. SCET does, and the founders notice first in the smallest way: they get an answer.