Your first week on upcoach

Your first week on upcoach

By the end of this guide, you’ll have a live program with real content and your first participants inside it. No guesswork, no wandering through menus — just the exact steps in the right order.

This guide covers the full path from fresh signup to a running program. Each step links to a deeper Help Center article if you want the details, but you can follow this page end-to-end and have everything working.

What you’ll need

  • An upcoach account (sign up at upcoach.com if you haven’t yet)
  • Your logo and brand colors (optional but recommended)
  • A rough outline of your program content — even bullet points on a napkin work
  • A Stripe account, if you plan to charge for your program

Step 1: Set up your organization

Your organization is the container for everything you do on upcoach — programs, participants, billing, team members. Before you build anything, spend five minutes making it yours.

Open Admin Area > Brand & Settings from the sidebar. You’ll see three cards:

Organization Details — Enter your organization name (this is what participants see when they log in), pick your timezone, and note your subdomain URL. The subdomain is how participants reach you — something like yourname.upcoach.com.

Theme — Choose a primary color that matches your brand. This color shows up on buttons, links, and accents throughout every program you run. You can also set the page and app background colors.

Brand — Upload your logo and favicon. The logo appears on the login page, in the sidebar, and in emails. The favicon shows up in browser tabs. Even if you skip everything else, uploading a logo immediately makes the experience feel professional for participants.

If you have your own domain (like programs.yourbusiness.com), you can connect it under Admin Area > Brand & Settings > Custom Domain. This is optional and can wait — your subdomain works perfectly in the meantime.

For the full walkthrough with screenshots, see Set up your organization.

Step 2: Create your first program

This is the moment things get real. You’re going to pick a program format, give it a name, and let upcoach build the structure for you.

Click the + button in the header and select Space. The program creation wizard opens in two steps: Choose Type and Configure.

Pick a program type

The type gallery shows every format upcoach supports, organized by category. Each card includes a description and a Details button that shows exactly what the wizard will generate — sections, activities, events, channels, everything.

Here’s a quick orientation to help you choose:

If you’re building…Choose this type
A cohort working through a curriculum with live group callsGroup Coaching
A peer advisory group with hot seats and mastermind roundsMastermind
A synchronized learning experience with assignments and deadlinesCohort-Based Course
An intense skill-building sprint with daily standupsBootcamp
A short activation sprint with daily tasks (great for lead gen)Challenge
Private 1:1 sessions built around coaching conversations1:1 Coaching
A structured 1:1 engagement with week-by-week curriculum1:1 Program
An ongoing community with rolling enrollmentMembership
Evergreen content that participants move through at their own paceSelf-Paced Course

Not sure which one fits? Browse the cards and click Details on anything that sounds close. You can also read Understand program types for a deeper breakdown of each format.

Configure and create

Once you select a type, the Configure step appears. Fill in:

  • Icon and color — Give your program a visual identity in the sidebar
  • Program name — What participants will see (e.g., “Leadership Accelerator Q2” or “12-Week Wellness Transformation”)
  • Type-specific fields — Depending on the format, you may see fields for start date, call frequency, session length, or other details

The summary panel on the right previews what the wizard will create. When it looks right, click Create Program.

You’ll land inside your new space with a Setup Checklist in the bottom-right corner. That checklist mirrors the remaining steps in this guide.

Prefer to build from scratch? Click Skip and build from scratch in the wizard header. You’ll get an empty space and full control. Most people find starting from a type faster, but both paths lead to the same place.

For the step-by-step with screenshots, see Create your first program.

Step 3: Customize your space

Your program space is where participants spend their time. Before adding content, take a few minutes to shape the experience.

Hover over the program name in the sidebar, click the ellipsis menu (three dots), and select Settings. The Space Settings panel has several tabs:

Details — Update the program name, set a subtitle that describes the program in a sentence, and upload a cover image. The cover image shows at the top of the space and makes a strong first impression.

Apps — This tab shows which apps are installed in your space (Coaching & Learning, Events, Channels, Feed, etc.). Program types pre-install the right apps for the format. You can add or remove apps here if you want to tailor the experience — for example, adding a Feed for announcements or removing Channels if your program doesn’t need group chat.

Availability — If your program runs on a schedule (a 12-week cohort, a 5-day challenge), toggle on Start & End Dates here. You can also enable Early Access so enrolled participants can explore the space before the official start date.

Welcome — Write a welcome message that greets participants when they first open the program. This is your chance to set expectations, explain how the program works, and get people excited.

For every option and tab, see Customize your program space.

Step 4: Add your content

If you used a program type, your space already has a curriculum skeleton — sections for each phase or week, placeholder activities, and built-in assessments. Now you fill it in with your actual material.

Open the Coaching & Learning app from the sidebar (it’s the main content area of your program). You’ll see a three-level structure:

  • Sections — Top-level groups like weeks, phases, or modules (e.g., “Week 1: Foundations”)
  • Modules — Groups of related activities within a section (e.g., “Goal Setting”)
  • Activities — Individual pieces of content (e.g., a lesson, worksheet, or task list)

Replace placeholder content

Program types generate sections with placeholder titles and descriptions. Click into each one and replace the placeholder text with your own. A leadership consultant might rename “Week 1: Discovery” to “Week 1: Assessing Your Leadership Style.” A fitness trainer might change “Phase 1” to “Phase 1: Building Your Base.”

Add activities

Click Add Activity inside any module. The activity types available include:

  • Page — Rich text content for lessons, guides, and instructions
  • Worksheet — Interactive forms with question types like text fields, scales, and rankings. Ideal for reflections, assessments, and intake forms
  • Task List — Structured to-dos that make between-session work visible and trackable
  • File — Upload PDFs, slides, templates, or any resource participants need
  • Embed — Embed external content like videos, Miro boards, or Loom recordings

You don’t need to add everything at once. Start with enough content for the first week or phase. You can keep building while the program is live — participants only see what you’ve published.

Schedule content releases

If you want content to unlock over time (week by week, for example), you can set release dates on individual sections. This is especially useful for cohort-based programs where you don’t want participants jumping ahead.

For the full guide on building content, see Build your curriculum.

Step 5: Set up payments (if applicable)

If you’re selling access to your program, you’ll want to create an offer with a checkout page. If your program is free or you’re inviting participants manually, skip to Step 6.

Connect Stripe

Open Admin Area > Sell and connect your Stripe account. This is a one-time setup — once connected, all your offers use the same Stripe account.

The connection process redirects you to Stripe to verify your business details and bank account. Once complete, you’re back in upcoach and ready to create offers.

See Set up payments with Stripe for the full walkthrough.

Create an offer

Still in Admin Area > Sell, click Create Offer. An offer defines:

  • What participants get — Which program (or programs) the offer grants access to
  • What they pay — One-time payment, recurring subscription, or free enrollment
  • How they sign up — Each offer gets its own checkout page with a shareable link

Give the offer a clear title (e.g., “Leadership Accelerator — Spring 2026 Cohort” or “Executive Mastermind — Annual Membership”). Add a description that tells prospective participants what they’ll get.

Once the offer is saved, you can grab the checkout page link and share it anywhere — your website, email list, social media, or directly with prospects.

For pricing options, enrollment limits, and checkout customization, see Create an offer.

Step 6: Invite your first participants

There are two ways to get participants into your program: direct invitation or checkout page enrollment.

Direct invitation

Open Admin Area > Users and click Invite. Enter up to 20 email addresses (paste a comma-separated list if you have them ready), choose the Client role, and select your program under Add to Spaces. Click Send Invitations.

Each person receives an email with a link to join. New users create an account; existing upcoach users are added directly. Participants invited this way skip payment, even for paid programs — useful for beta testers, scholarship spots, or existing clients you’re migrating in.

Checkout page enrollment

If you created an offer in Step 5, share the checkout page link. Participants who complete the checkout are automatically enrolled in the program, added to your organization, and given access. No manual work on your end.

Add existing members to a program

If someone is already in your organization but not yet in this program, open the program, go to Members in the sidebar, click Add Members, and search by name or email.

For all the details on invitations, roles, and resending, see Invite participants to your program.

Step 7: Go live

You’ve built the space, added content, and have participants ready to go. Time to publish.

Open your program, hover over the program name in the sidebar, click the ellipsis menu (three dots), and select Publish.

A confirmation dialog explains what happens:

  • Participants see the program in their sidebar and can open it
  • Your checkout page (if you have one) starts accepting sign-ups
  • Participants begin receiving notifications from the program

Click Publish to confirm. The status badge changes from Draft (amber) to Live (green).

There are no prerequisites for publishing — you can go live at any point and continue building while the program runs. Many program operators publish with the first two weeks of content ready and stay a few weeks ahead as they go.

For details on unpublishing and scheduling, see Publish your program.

What you’ve accomplished

In seven steps, you’ve gone from a blank account to a live program:

  • Your organization carries your brand — name, logo, colors, and domain
  • You have a structured program built on a proven format
  • Your content is in place (or at least the first phase is ready)
  • Payments are set up and participants can self-enroll through a checkout page
  • Your first participants are inside, and the program is live

That’s a complete operating program. Everything from here is refinement.

What to do next