Full Release Notes
Everything below covers the complete technical details of each release included in this update. See the release overview here.
Tool Simulators
Tool Simulators is a suite of 17 AI-enhanced business tools that help startup founders model finances, plan fundraising, assess readiness, map competition, and manage operations. Each tool persists data per startup profile, provides real-time client-side calculations, and uses Google Gemini for intelligent, personalized insights.
Finance (4 tools)
- Cap Table Simulator: Model equity ownership across shareholders and funding rounds, with AI-powered dilution explanations and CSV export.
- Unit Economics Studio: Input SaaS metrics (ARPA, gross margin, CAC, churn) and get computed KPIs (LTV, LTV:CAC ratio, payback period) plus AI analysis.
- Runway and Burn Scenario Planner: Model crisis, base, and growth scenarios with 24-month cash flow projections and AI analysis.
- Exit Waterfall Simulator: Simulate stakeholder payouts across exit valuations with preference stack logic and stacked bar visualization.
Strategy (3 tools)
- Business Model Canvas: Populate all 9 sections manually or with AI-assisted generation from a business description.
- TAM/SAM/SOM Builder: Estimate market size with structured AI generation, interactive parameter sliders, and concentric circles visualization.
- Competitive Positioning Map: Place competitors on a 2D scatter plot with custom axes and AI-generated battlecard insights.
Operations (4 tools)
- Hiring Plan Cost Simulator: Build a team roster with annual salary tracking and 12-month cost projections.
- Sales Pipeline Health: Track active deals with weighted forecast, quota attainment, and at-risk alerts.
- Onboarding Funnel Analyzer: Map user activation stages with conversion rates, bottleneck detection, and drop-off analysis.
- Pricing and Packaging Lab: Design pricing tiers with MRR/ARR projections and annual billing toggles.
Fundraising (3 tools)
- Exit Readiness Score: Complete a 10-question assessment to receive a weighted score (0-100), tier classification, and AI improvement recommendations.
- Investor Targeting Builder: Build an outreach list with AI-generated investor suggestions and personalized outreach emails.
- Fundraising Round Planner: Set a target close date and get a reverse-engineered timeline with milestone-based planning.
Governance (3 tools)
- Board Update Builder: Create professional board updates with AI-generated markdown memos and full history tracking.
- Data Room Generator: Organize due diligence documents by category with AI checklist generation and readiness scoring.
- Legal Readiness Checklist: Track legal compliance items by category with critical flagging, risk scoring, and AI-generated checklists.
Access: Tools require authentication and an active portal. Super Admins have automatic access. Other users must have a valid Stripe subscription and the VIEW_TOOL permission. All tool data is scoped to the authenticated user's active startup profile.
Export: PDF export available for Business Canvas, Runway and Burn, Board Update, Legal Readiness, and Data Room. Cap Table also supports CSV export.
Coming Soon: Onboarding Funnel, Pipeline Health, Board Update, Pricing Lab, Data Room, and Investor Targeting are fully built but marked as "Coming Soon" in the gallery.
Help Center
The Help Center is a platform-wide, searchable documentation system that provides step-by-step guides for every feature in Startup Science.
20 categories mirror the platform sidebar: Getting Started, Home, My Stuff, Startup Profiles, Activities, Programs and Events, Academy, Business Tools, Capital, Marketplace, Resources, Forums, Knowledge Base, Ping Chat, Nova, Mentoring and Relationships, Account Settings, Portal Management, Applications Management, and Landing Pages.
Full-text search returns results as you type (400ms debounce). Results display the article title, parent category, and a contextual snippet.
Contextual help icons on 25 feature pages link directly to relevant articles.
Cross-referenced articles connect related documentation across categories.
Access: Available to all authenticated users regardless of role, permissions, or subscription level.
App Engagement (Ratings, Likes, and Bookmarks)
A unified engagement system covering 14 entity types. Users can rate items on a five-star scale, like (favorite) content, and bookmark items for later.
Entity coverage: Full frontend rating UI on courses, course collections, tools, catalogs, and marketplace offers. API-level rating support on catalog items, forum threads, forum topics, programs, program events, events, and knowledge bases. Knowledge base pages support bookmarking only. Startup profiles support limited bookmarking.
My Stuff Saved tab provides three sub-views: Favorites, Bookmarks, and Ratings, each with type filters, count badges, and cross-tab engagement state.
Access: All authenticated users within their active portal. Engagement data is portal-scoped. Super Admins can query aggregate analytics via API.
Quick Wins (March 2026)
Program Archiving: Archive inactive programs. Hidden from all standard views. Accessible to administrators via filter toggle.
Conflict-of-Interest Certification: Evaluators must certify no conflict before submitting. Recorded for audit.
Form Section Reordering: Drag and drop sections in the form builder. Locked when applications are submitted.
Resend Invite: Re-send invite emails to members with expired password tokens.
Extended Password Token Expiry: Tokens last 72 hours (up from 24).
Members Table Pagination: Choose 25, 50, or 100 members per page.
Last Login Tracking: Accurate timestamps across login, logout, password reset, and OAuth.
Academy Natural Sort: "Course 2" sorts before "Course 10."
Redemption Instructions Display: Now visible on offer detail pages, modals, and post-redemption views.
Optional READ Content: Courses and bulk uploads no longer require read content.
Rich Text Editor Migration
Replaced CKEditor 5 with Tiptap across all 8 form-based editing surfaces and the Ping chat composer. Tiptap is an open-source Vue 3 editor built on ProseMirror. All existing content continues to render correctly through dual CSS compatibility. The migration is transparent to end users.
Form surfaces: Program details, startup profile forms, landing page builder, knowledge base pages, and academy course content.
Ping chat: Bold, italic, strikethrough, code, link formatting. Enter to send, Shift+Enter for newline. Improved @mention autocomplete with keyboard navigation. Emoji insertion and file attachment support.
Content rendering: Legacy CKEditor HTML and new Tiptap HTML both render correctly through the WYSIWYGRenderer component. All rendered HTML is sanitized with DOMPurify.
Signup CAPTCHA
Cloudflare Turnstile CAPTCHA on the direct founder signup form. Runs in managed mode, so most users will never see a challenge. Protects only the direct signup form. Admin-created accounts, team invitations, and OAuth signups are unaffected.
Hotfix included: Fixed invisible chart bars in the Hiring Plan, Onboarding Funnel, and Runway and Burn tool simulators caused by Tailwind opacity rendering.
Startup Science is the platform that unifies the startup ecosystem. Built on 35 years of research and the seven-phase Startup Lifecycle framework, we give founders the tools to build with structure and give the organizations that support them the infrastructure to operate at scale.
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