Five weeks, one cohort, zero fluff
What actually happens inside a Best Seeds hybrid cohort, day by day.
The clearest way to answer 'what do you actually do in the cohort' is to walk through the five weeks. This is the version we send to parents who ask.
Week 1: onboarding and scoping
Monday: introductions, tools setup, and the one rule we care about most, which is 'ship something a stranger uses.' Tuesday through Thursday: each student picks a problem and gets it scoped down by a mentor. Friday: pitch day. Everyone gets ten minutes to explain their scope. Nobody's allowed to say 'I want to help people.'
Week 2: build
Standups on Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Fifteen minutes each. In between, students work on their project, either together or independently. Mentors are on call for two office hours a day. This is the week where the scope usually shrinks again. It's supposed to.
Week 3: the first user
By Wednesday of week 3, every student has to put their project in front of someone outside the cohort. Not a friend. A stranger. This is the week where the project becomes real, and where most students realize they built the wrong thing first.
The rewrites happen fast. Nobody has time to mourn.
Week 4: polish and profile
Half the week is finishing the artifact. The other half is the professional profile: LinkedIn rewrite, resume clean-up, and the two-minute video intro. This is the week that quietly does the most for placement, and nobody thinks it's the most interesting week.
Week 5: demo and case study
Monday through Wednesday: writing the case study. Thursday: demo day, in front of the mentor network and a small group of employer partners. Friday: retro, one-on-one feedback, and the plan for the next 90 days.
That's the cohort. Five weeks, three artifacts, one paid stipend, and a network the student didn't have on day one. There's no fluff because we don't have time for any.