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The Distill - Feature Week
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Greeting Pioneers,
This week, we’re passing the pen to peers.
You’ll find guest posts, local spotlights, ecosystem takes, and one beautiful rant about Bam Margera’s reinvention arc.
Bam Margera's Louisville Visit: What Happens When You Stop Performing and Start Building
This week, Bam Margera rolled through Louisville. Not for chaos. Not for cameras. For community.
The former Jackass star showed up at Sprak Skatepark, signed boards, talked shop, and promoted a skate park project in Corydon, Indiana—or as he so lovingly referred to it, "Croydon." Maybe he's planning a second location in London, or geography was never his strongest subject. Either way, nobody corrected him because the energy was right.
From Performer to Builder
Margera built his brand on destruction. Stunts, chaos, rebellion—content that burned bright and burned out fast. The audience loved the spectacle, but spectacles don't scale. They exhaust the performer and bore the audience.
Now he's building infrastructure. Physical spaces where communities gather, kids learn, and culture develops organically. The shift from performing chaos to building platforms is everything.
The Louisville Lesson
Watch how Margera handled this visit: no manufactured hype, no PR stunts. He showed up, engaged directly, and let the work speak. The coverage happened naturally because the value was real. Because authenticity trumps perfection every time.
Cross-Border Thinking
Margera's promoting an Indiana project (wherever "Croydon" actually is) while visiting Kentucky. He's not thinking in terms of state lines or local competition—he's thinking ecosystem. Everyone wins when you expand the pie instead of fighting over slices.
The Real Reinvention
The most interesting part? Margera didn't abandon his expertise—he evolved it. Still in skateboarding, still building culture, still connecting with fans. But instead of destroying his body for content, he's creating lasting value.
That's the model: take what you're good at and ask how it serves something bigger than yourself.
Performance fades. Platforms compound.
Build the thing that lasts.
-Jonathan Vanderford
🛠️ Engineering a Stronger Startup Pipeline
Louisville has the bones of a thriving innovation economy—but realizing that future requires stronger bridges between our universities, startups, and industry.
Let’s zoom in on one piece of that puzzle: research and development.
R&D expenditures—the dollars universities spend on research—are the fuel that powers innovation on campus. They also create opportunities to launch startups, attract investment, and commercialize new technologies.
According to the National Science Foundation’s latest Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) survey, the University of Louisville ranked 133rd nationwide in 2023, with $220 million in total R&D spending. About 11% of that ($24.7M) went to engineering, with bioengineering making up roughly a quarter of that figure.
That’s a meaningful investment. But what does it produce?
Looking at national benchmarks, universities create one startup per $83 million in research spending. On that curve, UofL’s R&D footprint could be expected to generate around 2–3 startups annually.
So how do we expand the impact?
Louisville’s innovation strategy shouldn’t rely exclusively on academic spinouts. Instead, we should treat our university ecosystem as a launch platform—a toolbox of talent, expertise, and infrastructure that’s open to the broader community.
Here are a few ways to widen that aperture:
Promote university centers and institutes as a resource for local builders. Open access to faculty, labs, and facilities could fuel real-world experimentation beyond campus walls.
Expand industry-partnered capstone projects. These often end at the presentation stage—what if they became seedbeds for community-based startups, fueled by reverse pitches from local companies?
Engage national alumni networks. Tapping into grads in Boston, New York, Chicago, and SF can bring in fresh perspective, talent, and deal flow—plus new links to venture networks and operators.
Bottom line: we all have a role to play in tightening the weave between education, innovation, and entrepreneurship in Louisville. That includes UofL—but also the rest of us.
And some momentum is already building. UofL recently became the first university outside of Utah to launch a chapter of the Sandbox program—giving students credit hours, resources, and a structured launchpad to build startups from inside university walls. It’s a powerful signal that entrepreneurship is being taken seriously, not just in theory, but in practice.
-Andrew Steen
Subscribe to Andrew's newsletter for more insights: Liverpool Lane
🎥 KYCP Spotlight: Louisville at Tribeca Film Festival
We're proud to highlight a number of Kentucky contributions to this year's Tribeca Festival lineup:
Gill Holland, producer and Louisville’s indie-film champion, with Freeman Vines and The Travel Companion.
Steve Zahn and Ouita Michel in the deeply rooted Southern documentary You Belong Here, contributing Kentucky flair to a broader culinary and cultural story.
🎞️ Freeman Vines (Short Documentary – 14 min)
What it’s about:
At 82, self-taught luthier Freeman Vines continues to carve guitars by hand in rural North Carolina, searching for an elusive tone. His raw materials carry history—the lumber came from a tree used in the lynching of Oliver Moore, and Vines channels that painful legacy into art and healing.
✈️ The Travel Companion (Feature – 91 min)
What it’s about:
Simon (Tristan Turner), a struggling indie documentarian, leans on free flights through his roommate Bruce’s airline perks. Jealousy and obsession flare when Bruce starts dating filmmaker Beatrice, threatening Simon’s creative ambitions—and his sense of entitlement to the “travel companion” lifestyle.
A deadpan comedy-drama exploring creative angst, blurred friendships, and the price of personal loyalty.
🍽️ You Belong Here: Where Food Meets Memory and Memory Meets Home (Documentary Series)
What it’s about:
This beautifully composed culinary documentary explores the ways food, memory, and identity intersect across regions. In the Kentucky episode, we find Steve Zahn, beloved actor and longtime resident of rural Kentucky, alongside celebrated chef Ouita Michel, as they reflect on what it means to belong, cook, and live in the Bluegrass.
Their segment brings Kentucky's hospitality and storytelling into sharp focus, reminding us that the soul of Southern cuisine is as much about people as it is about recipes.
🏇 BONUS: Backside (Short Documentary – 19 min)
What it’s about:
Set behind the scenes at Churchill Downs, Backside offers a rare, intimate look at the Latin migrant workers who care for the racehorses that make the Kentucky Derby possible. Filmed over the course of a racing season, the documentary captures their early-morning routines, long hours, and deep bonds with the animals they groom, feed, and calm—seven days a week.
👾🛠️ VibeCodeKY
VibeCodeKY is a grassroots tech movement based in Louisville, KY where we teach and learn the art of vibe coding—building cool, useful apps using modern AI tools and web tech.
We’re bringing together curious minds, creatives, and coders to explore how software can solve real problems in our city. As we learn, we build. As we build, we create value—for ourselves and for Louisville. Whether you're brand new to code or looking to level up, this is a community-driven lab for local innovation, entrepreneurial energy, and digital experimentation.
It’s about learning in public, scheming smart, and building what matters.
➕ Bonus Track: Reverse Pitch Competition
The Root is flipping the script on hiring.
The Root’s Reverse Pitch Competition puts students in the driver’s seat. Instead of job seekers pitching companies, employers pitch themselves—highlighting why their team, culture, and growth trajectory are worth joining..
🗓️ Thursday, June 19
🕒 5:30–7:00 PM
📍 The Root at Novaparke
🍕 Food provided
🤝 In partnership with Kevin Gibson of Founder45 and IU Southeast
🎤 Still accepting final companies — email [email protected] to claim a spot.
Part of the Innovation Expo at Novaparke Innovation & Technology Campus!
Free coworking and special programming: Learn more
Big thanks to the Indiana Economic Development Corporation for making it possible!
🎉 KYCP Events This Week
🎲 Game Night
Poker, board games, and light degen activity.
Catch us in the Founders Room for a night of chips, strategy, and fun.
👉 RSVP here
💻 Vibe Code Night
Where productivity meets community.
Build, brainstorm, or just vibe with other high-agency doers. Drinks, prompts, and pizza provided.
👉 RSVP here
❄️🔥 Fire & Ice
Cold plunge + sauna > awkward coffee chats.
Forget small talk—this is where builders bond through discomfort. Shock the system. Spark real conversations.
👉 RSVP here
Thats a wrap. 🎬
Keep showing up. 💪
Keep shipping. 🚢
Peace, Pioneers. ✌️