The Distill - Fall Forward

Hey Pioneers,

Jack picks up the pen for the first time in a minute. A convo with Nate and Ben sparked some inspo: you don’t know what you don’t know. Got it?

Velocity gets an Install, KYX conquers Rally and block updates keep updating.

🙋‍♀️ You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know 🙋‍♂️

Last week, Science published a study suggesting the human evolutionary timeline may have begun much earlier than we thought. Researchers digitally reconstructed a 1-million-year-old skull from China and found evidence that our ancestral lineages were already branching back then - pushing key events hundreds of thousands of years earlier than previously believed overnight.

My entire life, scientists confidently told us the universe was 13.6 billion years old. A pretty specific number. Accepted by basically everyone in the scientific community. Then the James Webb telescope comes online and suddenly they’re saying… eh… maybe it’s double that. Add an extra 13 billion years. Lol, okay.

If the best minds with the most advanced tools on earth are constantly revising what they know, what chance do the rest of us have at certainty?

We don’t know what we don’t know.

It sounds obvious, but living it out is hard. We want to be seen as sharp, capable, in the know. Admitting otherwise feels like weakness. But the real weakness isn’t in asking questions - it’s in pretending you already have the answers.

When you hold your breath and nod your head, you rob yourself of the chance to unlock something new. You pay an opportunity cost. You trade speed for pride. You spin your wheels instead of moving forward. Your momentum slips away not because the problem was unsolvable, but because you were too afraid to say, “Wait, I don’t get this. Can you explain?”

History’s brightest minds didn’t get there by hoarding pride. They asked questions relentlessly. They poked at assumptions. They made themselves uncomfortable. Einstein once said, “The important thing is not to stop questioning.” The people who go farthest the fastest are not the ones who pretend to know everything - they’re the ones willing to look stupid for a moment in exchange for wisdom that changes their trajectory.

Growth starts with admitting ignorance.

You don’t know what you don’t know.

The sooner you admit it, the faster you’ll grow.

🟪 Rally Recap

KYX had a fantastic trip up to the Rally Innovation Conference. Shout-out to Dave Knox and Zac Strobl for turning out the NKU students. Shout-out to Holland Evans of Louisville Collegiate for bringing the Entrepreneurship class; and a massive shout-out to all of our Kentucky attendees - a huge turn-out @ Rally!

Props to Kevin Gibson for presenting the Startup Opportunities Track. Congrats to Gobin and Zaid for placing 2nd at the Rally Hackathon, and huge congrats to Akhil of Louisville’s Xena Intelligence for winning the biggest software pitch competition in the Midwest (and taking home $1M).

Looking forward to the next KYX Rally road trip

🚀 Velocity Test Fund (launching this week)

Velocity companies are preparing to ramp up sales as each aims to earn their first revenue (or revenue gains) by week 3. That’s why we're opening up our G2M test fund this week - a drip of weekly micro-grants for sales and marketing experiments. At this stage, teams can tap up to $100 at a time to run small, falsifiable tests aimed at customers and revenue.

Ideas are peer-reviewed by the cohort and results are shared publicly so the best tactics spread fast.

Expect everything from mall interviews that turn into qualified leads to ambassador programs to the materials for a mascot costume the founder’s gonna wear to the next UofL game.

Watch these tiny bets turn into traction with highlights here in The Distill each week.

🦚 Blocky’s First Headline

Thanks Stephen Schmidt for stopping by Cinderblock and writing up our space last Tuesday. Check out our article in KY Inno to learn more about our shared ethos, getting startups from 0 to $1M ARR, and building the future of Louisville.

Interested in joining? Apply to Cinderblock here.

📅 KYX Calendar

🎉 Block Party - time to break this place in
🗓 Friday, October 17

💻 HackKentucky - mini hack loading
🗓 Friday, November 7

Note’s on The Distill’s EIC & Managing Editor: Jack Crowdis & Rachel Edenfield

Jack runs the newsletter, helps run KYX. He’s a career startup kid, past founder, and current operator. Weekly contributor. Always editor.

Rachel’s the Founder/CEO of venture-backed Swell, and a driver of KYX. Routinely delivers the city’s sharpest long-form startup advice. Always re-edits Jack’s edits (including this bio).

Know someone who should read this? Forward it, or send them this link.

That’s a wrap 🎬
Keep showing up 👊 
Keep shipping 🚢 
Peace, Pioneers ✌️

🎧Bonus Track: Another Week At The Block

Sunday @ Cinderblock

Phone Booth Is Coming Along

We’re building our own phone booths at Cinderblock. Why? Phone Booth kits cost >$6K and…how hard can it be?

Not too hard with a room full of founders. We ordered a door (not pre-hung and lacking hardware) and got it installed today.