# What founders see about their application

> Set your fund's contact address for founders, the reply time on their status card and your own names for each status, in Settings under Portal, then Founder status.

Source: https://delsivo.com/help/portal-and-branding/founder-status-settings · Updated 2026-11-07

## Key takeaways

- In Settings, under Portal, then Founder status, fund admins set a contact address, a reply time and the names of the founder-facing statuses.
- The contact address is the reply-to on every email founders get from your fund, and shows at the foot of your portal.
- The reply time shows as "We reply within 2 weeks" on the founder's status card while their application is Received or In review.
- A decision shows to the founder only once a person sends the decision message. Not now is its own status; Decision made shows the outcome you sent.
- Founders can send a new deck version or withdraw their application from their workspace until you send your decision.

Founders follow their application on your portal's **Application** tab. **Settings → Founder status** (under **Portal**) sets what they see beyond your decision messages: where their replies go, how soon you reply, and what each status is called. Fund admins change these settings; everyone on the team can read them.

## Set it up

1. Open **Settings**, then **Founder status** under **Portal**.
2. Under **Contact address**, enter a shared inbox, such as applications@ your fund's domain.
3. Under **Reply time**, choose **We reply within** 1 to 12 weeks, or **Don't show a reply time**.
4. Under **Status names**, type your own name next to any status you want to rename. Leave a name empty to keep Delsivo's.
5. Click **Save changes**. You see "Saved. Founders see it now."

## The contact address

When it's set:

- every email a founder gets from your fund replies to it: the application receipt, requests and their reminders, interview invitations, decision messages, pitch session invitations and cohort decisions
- your portal's footer shows "Questions for [your fund]? Write to" and the address
- the **Withdraw application** dialog tells founders to write to it if they want to pick the application up again

Without it, founder emails have no reply address and the portal shows none.

## Status names and when each shows

| Status | When the founder sees it |
|---|---|
| **Received** | Their application arrived and nobody has moved it yet |
| **In review** | The deal is in Screening, Interview, First meeting, Diligence, Committee or Terms, or you passed or parked it without sending a decision message yet |
| **Interview invited** | An interview invitation is open. The Interview stage alone never shows it |
| **Interview completed** | They finished the interview |
| **Information requested** | A request is waiting on them |
| **Not now** | You sent a **Not now** decision message |
| **Decision made** | You sent a **Pass** or **We'd like to invest** message, or the deal closed. The status card shows the outcome you sent |
| **Withdrawn** | The founder withdrew their application |

You can rename every status except the older **Interview requested**, which only applications from before this change can still show. When each status shows is fixed: nothing about a decision reaches a founder until a person sends the decision message. See [Founder decision messages](/help/pipeline-and-committee/founder-decision-messages).

The status card also shows **Updated** and the date the status last changed. Founders see your names in their Delsivo hub too.

## What founders can do from their workspace

Until you send your decision, a founder can:

- **Upload a new deck version.** It becomes the next version on the deal (Deck v2, v3), goes through the virus scan and analysis, and the earlier version stays with its citations. See [Deck versions and founder corrections](/help/applications/deck-versions-and-corrections).
- **Withdraw application.** The deal moves to **Passed** with the reason "The founder withdrew the application", open interview invitations and requests close with their pending emails, and any decision message still waiting for approval is discarded. Nothing is emailed. If you had already passed without telling the founder, the deal stays as it was, with your pass reason.
- **Correct facts read from the deck.** Once you send your decision, or the founder withdraws, corrections are read only.

## Frequently asked questions

### Can we rename a status for one founder only?
No. The names apply to every founder on your portal.

### Does the reply time change anything for the team?
No. It's a promise to founders. Use **Settings → Pipeline** stage reminders to keep it.

### Where do I see that a founder withdrew?
In the deal's stage history and activity, as "Withdrew their application", and in the activity log.