Executive Summary
The EC Program Finder Quiz is a 6-question interactive tool that helps prospective founders identify which EC program is the best fit for where they are in their business — without requiring them to know our programs in advance.
Each completion writes the founder to ActiveCampaign with a program-specific tag (e.g., quiz-inflight), triggers a tailored 4-email drip sequence, and redirects the founder to the right next step (the unified application at ec.co/apply or the membership page).
The quiz uses a weighted scoring matrix across five programs. Routing logic mirrors the new Accelerator Application Redesign rubric so a quiz-taker and a direct applicant get the same recommendation for the same answers.
6
Questions
5
Possible matches
~3 min
Completion time
4 emails
Drip sequence per match
Why a quiz?
Most prospective founders don't know the difference between PreFlight, TakeOff, InFlight, Project Healthcare, and EC Membership. Asking "Which program do you want?" forces them to self-diagnose — and they often pick wrong, or drop off entirely.
Research from Lenny's Newsletter on interactive onboarding flows backs this up:
- Trunk Club saw a 133% lift in signup conversion after adding qualifying questions before account creation.
- TytoCare reported 53% purchase rate for quiz completers vs. 37% for non-completers.
- Airtable saw a 20% lift in activation from a guided onboarding wizard.
The quiz turns a confusing decision ("which program?") into a guided diagnostic ("tell us where you are, we'll handle the matching"). This both reduces friction for the founder and gives EC structured data on every interested lead before they ever talk to staff.
How it works
- Lead capture. Founder enters first name, last name, email, and business name.
- 6 questions. Multiple choice, one screen at a time, with progress bar and back button.
- Scoring. Each answer adds (or subtracts) weight from each of the 5 program scores.
- Match. The highest-scoring program is the recommended match, subject to a healthcare safety check.
- Result screen. Personalized explanation referencing the founder's specific answers, plus EC impact metrics and a CTA.
- ActiveCampaign write. Contact created/updated, program tag applied, full quiz details saved as a note.
- Redirect. Founder is sent to ec.co/apply (for accelerators and preflight) or ec.co/membership (for membership).
Critical design choice
The ActiveCampaign write fires at the moment the result screen displays — before the founder clicks the CTA. If they bounce after seeing their result, the lead and tag are already captured, and the drip sequence has already started.
The 5 possible matches
PreFlight
quiz-preflight
Structured virtual program for idea-stage founders building toward accelerator readiness. Positioned as the launchpad, not a fallback.
TakeOff
quiz-takeoff
12-week accelerator for founders with MVP or early customers (~$0–$100K revenue) ready to nail go-to-market.
InFlight
quiz-inflight
12-week accelerator for revenue-generating founders ($100K+) optimizing operations and scaling.
Project Healthcare
quiz-healthcare
12-week healthcare-specific accelerator. Routes any healthcare founder here regardless of stage.
EC Membership
quiz-membership
$49/month community + advisor access. Routed when founder explicitly wants community support over structured programming.
The 6 questions
Question 2 (business stage) mirrors the 6 stages used in the new Accelerator Application Redesign verbatim, so the quiz and the application route on the same logic.
Q1 · INDUSTRY
Which industry best describes your business?
- Healthcare / Medical
- Consumer Products / Services
- Business Products / Services
- Technology
- Other
Q2 · STAGE
Which best describes your business today?
- I'm exploring an idea
- I've defined the problem and customer
- I'm building a prototype or MVP
- I've launched and have early users or customers
- I have paying customers and growing traction
- I have consistent revenue and am working on scaling
Q3 · REVENUE
What is your current annual revenue?
- Pre-revenue
- Under $100K
- $100K–$500K
- $500K+
Q4 · LOCATION
Are you able to attend in-person sessions in Nashville?
- Yes, I'm based in Nashville
- Yes, I'm elsewhere in Tennessee but can travel
- No, I need a primarily virtual program
Q5 · PRIMARY NEED
What area of support would most impact your business right now?
- Access to capital and funding connections
- Community and peer support network
- Structured curriculum and business education
- Industry-specific mentorship and connections
- Strategic planning and growth strategy
Q6 · DEMOGRAPHICS (OPTIONAL, DOES NOT AFFECT SCORING)
Do you identify as a person of color?
- Yes (adds
Demographic-POC tag in ActiveCampaign for targeted resources)
- No
- Prefer not to say
How scoring works
Every answer adds (or subtracts) a weight from each of the 5 program scores. After all 5 scoring questions are answered, the highest-scoring program wins (subject to safeguards below).
Weight values used in the matrix
+3
Strong fit — this answer is a defining signal for the program
+1 / +2
Moderate fit — supporting signal
0
Neutral
−1 / −2 / −3
Poor fit — answer disqualifies this program
Strong negative weights (−2, −3) matter as much as strong positives. They prevent a wrong recommendation when a founder is clearly not a fit for a particular program (e.g., a $500K+ revenue founder will never be matched to PreFlight, even if other answers point that way).
The scoring matrix
Each table below shows how the answers to one question affect the 5 program scores. Read across each row to see what the founder gains or loses for each program based on their answer.
Q1 · Industry
| Answer |
PreFlight |
TakeOff |
InFlight |
Healthcare |
Membership |
| Healthcare / Medical | 0 | 0 | 0 | +5 | 0 |
| Consumer Products / Services | +1 | +2 | +2 | 0 | +1 |
| Business Products / Services | +1 | +2 | +2 | 0 | +1 |
| Technology | +1 | +2 | +2 | 0 | +1 |
| Other | +1 | +1 | +2 | 0 | +1 |
Healthcare gets a +5 because the new rubric says healthcare founders should route to Project Healthcare regardless of stage. This single answer is enough to dominate scoring unless the founder is clearly an InFlight-stage founder, in which case healthcare and InFlight compete.
Q2 · Stage
| Answer |
PreFlight |
TakeOff |
InFlight |
Healthcare |
Membership |
| I'm exploring an idea | +3 | −1 | −3 | +1 | +1 |
| I've defined the problem and customer | +3 | 0 | −2 | +1 | +1 |
| I'm building a prototype or MVP | +1 | +3 | −1 | +1 | 0 |
| I've launched and have early users or customers | 0 | +3 | +1 | +1 | 0 |
| I have paying customers and growing traction | −2 | 0 | +3 | +1 | 0 |
| I have consistent revenue and am working on scaling | −3 | −2 | +3 | +1 | 0 |
Notice healthcare gets +1 at every stage. The rubric says healthcare founders are valid candidates at any stage, so we don't penalize them for being early.
Q3 · Revenue
| Answer |
PreFlight |
TakeOff |
InFlight |
Healthcare |
Membership |
| Pre-revenue | +3 | +1 | −3 | +1 | +2 |
| Under $100K | 0 | +3 | 0 | +1 | 0 |
| $100K–$500K | −3 | −1 | +3 | +1 | −1 |
| $500K+ | −3 | −2 | +3 | +1 | −1 |
Q4 · Location
| Answer |
PreFlight |
TakeOff |
InFlight |
Healthcare |
Membership |
| Yes, I'm based in Nashville | 0 | +0.5 | +0.5 | 0 | +0.5 |
| Yes, I'm elsewhere in TN but can travel | 0 | +0.5 | +0.5 | 0 | +0.5 |
| No, I need a primarily virtual program | +2 | −3 | −3 | +1 | 0 |
"Virtual only" is a strong negative for TakeOff and InFlight (both require in-person attendance) and a strong positive for PreFlight (the only virtual program).
Q5 · Primary need
| Answer |
PreFlight |
TakeOff |
InFlight |
Healthcare |
Membership |
| Capital and funding connections | +0.5 | +0.5 | +0.5 | +0.5 | +0.5 |
| Community and peer support | 0 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +3 |
| Structured curriculum and education | +2 | +2 | +2 | +1 | +1 |
| Industry-specific mentorship | 0 | +1 | +1 | +2 | 0 |
| Strategic planning and growth | 0 | +1 | +2 | +1 | 0 |
"Community" is the membership differentiator. A founder who selects community wins membership over PreFlight even at the idea stage — because membership is what they actually need.
Routing safeguards
Beyond the raw scoring, two safety checks ensure clean routing:
-
Healthcare requires the healthcare industry answer.
If a founder doesn't select Healthcare/Medical in Q1, we hard-cap Project Healthcare's score at −10 — making it impossible to win. This prevents a non-healthcare founder from being routed to Healthcare based on stage and need scores alone.
-
Demographics never affect scoring.
Q6 (POC identification) is optional, only adds an ActiveCampaign tag for resource targeting, and never influences which program a founder is matched to.
Worked examples
Five scenarios showing how different founder profiles route through the scoring matrix.
Example 1 · Idea-stage healthcare founder
Industry: Healthcare · Stage: Idea · Revenue: Pre-revenue · Location: Nashville · Need: Mentorship
PreFlight6.0
TakeOff1.5
InFlight−4.5
Healthcare9.0
Membership3.5
Match: Project Healthcare. Healthcare wins decisively even at the idea stage — exactly what the rubric calls for.
Example 2 · Early-stage tech founder
Industry: Technology · Stage: Building MVP · Revenue: Under $100K · Location: Nashville · Need: Curriculum
PreFlight5.0
TakeOff10.5
InFlight4.5
Healthcare−10
Membership5.5
Match: TakeOff. Stage, revenue, and curriculum need all point clearly to TakeOff.
Example 3 · Growth-stage B2B founder
Industry: B2B · Stage: Growing · Revenue: $100K–$500K · Location: Nashville · Need: Strategy
PreFlight−4.0
TakeOff2.5
InFlight10.5
Healthcare−10
Membership0.5
Match: InFlight. Negative weights actively disqualify PreFlight and Healthcare.
Example 4 · Community-seeking idea founder
Industry: Consumer · Stage: Idea · Revenue: Pre-revenue · Location: Nashville · Need: Community
PreFlight7.0
TakeOff3.5
InFlight−2.5
Healthcare−10
Membership7.5
Match: Membership. The "community" answer is the differentiator — a near-identical idea-stage founder who picked "curriculum" instead would match PreFlight.
Example 5 · Virtual-only idea founder
Industry: Other · Stage: Exploring · Revenue: Pre-revenue · Location: Virtual only · Need: Curriculum
PreFlight11.0
TakeOff1.0
InFlight−4.0
Healthcare−10
Membership5.0
Match: PreFlight. Virtual-only requirement combined with idea stage and curriculum need makes PreFlight the only viable option.
What happens after the result
Three things fire when the result screen displays:
- ActiveCampaign write. Contact created or updated via the
contact/sync endpoint. Program tag applied (quiz-takeoff, quiz-inflight, quiz-healthcare, quiz-membership, or quiz-preflight). A note is attached to the contact with the full quiz result and answer data — so program staff can see exactly how each lead answered.
- Drip sequence triggers. The program tag triggers a 4-email automation over 14 days (Days 0, 3, 7, 14). Each sequence is angle-shifted — Day 0 validates the next step, Day 3 shares proof from a past founder, Day 7 surfaces an unexpected benefit, Day 14 closes with a direct ask.
- Redirect. Founder clicks the CTA and goes to ec.co/apply (accelerators and PreFlight) or ec.co/membership (membership). The redirect happens on click, but the lead is already captured at step 1 — so even if they bounce, EC still has the lead.
Note
Once the application form has its own ActiveCampaign integration, applying the applied tag at form submission will automatically end the drip sequence — so founders stop receiving "did you apply yet?" emails the moment they apply.