Startup Accelerator Program

[Kieran_Gartlan]

Hi Community, as a brand new user of Airtable, my question is more general in nature and related to how to set up a project. I am creating a startup accelerator program and would like to use Airtable to manage the process of creating application forms, and evaluating candidates (with the help of a number of evaluators/judges). This is where I am so far:

• I have created a new base called Startups
• I have created an application form with all the relevant fields for the information I need from startups.

The next steps are where I have some doubts

• Should I create fields for the evaluators within the same form as the startup application or create a new separate evaluation form and link it to the startup?
• Ideally, I would like the evaluator to score applicants within the same form but allow for each evaluator to start with a blank field (ie not see the other evaluators answers, to avoid bias). Is this possible?
• The end game is for each evaluator to score the startup and finally, I would be able to aggregate scores from each evaluator and rank the startups according to their average score. I assume this is possible?

Thanks for any help advice offered.

[Kamille_Parks]

I would recommend creating a table for {Startups} with a form view where each startup adds themselves to your base (sounds like you’ve already done this), and another table for {Evaluations} with a form view where each evaluator will evaluate each startup. These two tables should be linked together, that way in the {Startups} table you could have a rollup field average/total scores.

[Kieran_Gartlan]

Thank you Kamille for the very useful and timely feedback. I’m actually not sure that I did exactly what you suggested (I didn’t create a table, but rather a form), so I am going to start again and follow your suggestions. I may still be a little confused about what a table and a form are, so I need to do some homework!!

[Kamille_Parks]

You can’t have a form without a table, an airtable form is just a type of view for a particular table. Views come in 4 types: grid (default), form, kanban, and gallery.

[Kieran_Gartlan]

Yes, just realized that now. Would I be right in assuming that I just use the Form view to alter the fields in my table?

[Kamille_Parks]

No, every submission to a form creates a new record. Form views are unique amongst the view types in that all other view types are meant to edit and create existing data, form views are only for submitting new entries.

[Kieran_Gartlan]

Great, that makes sense and was actually my next question. So each time I send a link to edit a form, it will create a new entry in the table as opposed to overwriting an existing one? Sorry for the basic questions and thanks for your patience. Once I get over the initial set up, I should be able to figure out the rest.

[Kamille_Parks]

That’s correct. A new record can be created in any view, but an existing record cannot be edited via a form view.

[Kieran_Gartlan]

Ok, so I have the {Startups}Table under control. Now beginning the {Evaluations} table and I am in doubt as to what to put in the Primary field? I thought I would be able to link it to a specific startup from the Startup table, but that is not possible for the primary field. I am thinking about creating another table for {Evaluators} and then maybe I could have the primary field of the {Evaluations} table as a mix of the startup name and evaluator name. Would that be the way to go?

[Kamille_Parks]

That’s a great way to do it.