The Distill - All in

Greeting Pioneers,

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The KYCombinator Project Has Arrived

We’ve always operated like a nonprofit—every volunteer hour and dollar went straight into Louisville’s builder community.

Now it’s official: our 501(c)(3) status is pending, which means future support is not just mission-aligned—it’s tax-deductible and comes with an extra layer of transparency and accountability as we scale.

How We Got Here

We started with a small group of people dreaming of communities we’d seen in other cities — wondering if we could start something like that here. Then we stopped wondering and started testing:

• Hosted headline events—LOUIES, HackKentucky, Build-n-Chill, Fire & Ice, Sandbox Networking, Vibe Code Night—that drew crowds of builders and doers, and sparked new ventures and job offers straight out of the community.

• Launched The Distill newsletter, giving Louisville’s builder scene a regular voice.

• Pulled people into the Founders Room to co-work and push each other further faster than we could alone.

For the hundreds who have shown up and contributed so far, thanks for voting with your feet.

What’s Happening Next

🎯 Mission: Build density of high agency doers who propel Louisville forward.

📈 Metric: Doers in Louisville launch 100 projects—something that adds value and is out in the world—in the next 12 months, proving we can bring ideas to life on Main Street, not just in Silicon Valley.

🏗️ Build In Public: We’ll put up a tracker on our website and plug any project that launches over the next year with details on how they connect to KYCP.

Next 6 Months:

• Casino Night: Our inaugural annual fundraiser.

• Velocity: Join the first of it’s kind competition that rewards execution over pitching. Can you build, deliver, and sell a product faster than your peers? Compete over 12 weeks in.

• Hell Week: Do you have what it takes to be a founder? Join the builders going the hardest and find out what you’re made of through an intense week of challenges across the human performance spectrum.

• HackKentucky: 48-hour sprint, on-site mentors, demo-day party, fun.

• More VCN, more Fire & Ice, more Build & Chill, and of course–more poker nights. Events where cool-people meet cool-people doing doing cool-shit. Plus, new circles spinning out of Founders Room like customer acquisition competitions, hardware nights, and whatever else we cook up.

Who’s Steering The KY Combinator Project

Meet the crew turning these visions into reality:

Dan Ross-Li: “I want a future where my kids can receive a great education in a great community and when they finish college, they see Louisville as the place where they can build their future.”

Rachel Edenfield: “I want Louisville to be the obvious choice for ambitious people. It could be a magnet—pulling in and leveling up bold founders, creatives, and high-agency doers who raise the bar by example. We already have plenty of talent with big dreams; the gap is turning “someday” ideas into “launched this morning” realities. That takes two things: 1) A startup launch lane—talent, capital, mentors, and startup-minded workspace all in Louisville, so founders don't feel forced to leave to find success. 2) A city that sells itself—walkable blocks, live music, public art, and neighborhoods that feel safe after dark. Personal litmus test: I can hire the product designers, engineers, and operators who unlock Swell’s next phase—and meet a co-founder who ships as hard as I do—without ever looking beyond Louisville’s city limits.”

Jack Crowdis: “Cities don’t coast their way to relevance. They earn it through action. I want to see us build, attract, and compound until we turn this city into the Southeast’s unavoidable gravity well. Where we forge high-agency killers faster than the city can mint street signs. Builders attract operators, operators become builders, and the steady churn turns Louisville into the obvious address for ambitious ventures. Policy modernizes → Infrastructure lands → Amenities sprout. And the old “Gilded Melancholy” fractures under the weight of outrageous momentum.”

Zeeshan Bhatti: “The pursuit of being useful to others is the defining impetus of all that I do. In being useful … in creating clear-to-see, unequivocal value for another, limitless potential is created for everlasting fulfillment, self-respect, and further fuel to keep the usefulness pursuit in perpetual motion. Imagine an ever-expanding cohort of convergent thinkers working to bring to market solutions that not only make life better for the many, but change the ancient bedrock of our economy and the way business is done. How does this get accomplished? Through creating a zeitgeist and concrete system that galvanizes the latent builders amongst us to recognize and relentlessly pursue skills and capacities that enable one to solve widely-experienced and difficult problem sets. I want a Louisville where there is a life style of usefulness optimization that follows from insatiable learning for the sake of becoming an ever-more effective problem-solver. Louisville is the place where this dynamic unfolded for me and I seek to build with my comrades a playground of problem-solving that produces what this city needs: self-starters hell-bent on tackling the hardest problems with the fundamental intention of creating value. Then, we can finally produce the growth and prosperity that all will seek to be a part of. ”

Nate Royal: “My vision is to help build and contribute to a thriving ecosystem right here in Louisville—one where entrepreneurs have everything they need to grow. I imagine a community where mentorship, funding, talent, and support are easily accessible and collaborative. I want to see Louisville become a launchpad, not a layover, for bold ideas and sustainable businesses. Building that kind of environment locally means founders like me don’t have to leave home to chase big dreams.”

How to Get Involved

KYX is a collective for high agency people–you'll fit in if you're a doer. Have an idea for an event or project and want to do it under the KYX umbrella? Yes. Decide what you want, then tell us what you need from us to make it happen.This project works because people like you decide to show up and ship. No permission needed.

How to get in touch?

• Reply to this email.

• Join our Slack.

• Swing by the Founders room - Story, 828 E Market Street.

That’s a wrap. 🎬
Keep showing up.
Keep shipping. 🚢
Peace, pioneers. ✌️