Greeting Pioneers,

HackKentucky Fall 2026: Come Build With Us

Huge shout out to Zaid Bulbul for refreshing the site.

HackKentucky is back. Our Fall 2026 edition will be a 2-day 29 hours of coding, learning, and shipping at Genuine Works. Thank you Lee Weyland and Weyland Ventures for sponsoring and providing the amazing space.

Build, Learn, and Network

It's free. Free food, caffeine and WiFi. That’s all you need!

Come solo or bring a team of up to four. Students (high school and college), pros, first-timers, and grizzled veterans are all welcome.

The basics

• When: Friday, September 11 (4PM) → Saturday, September 12 (10PM)

• Where: Genuine Works, 750 E Jefferson St, Louisville, KY 40202

• Cost: Free — food and caffeine included

• Teams: Solo or up to 4 people, all skill levels

What’s Different - A Hackathon / Conference

We’re mixing it up this year. There will be a Learn-a-thon on Friday 5pm covering 5 tracks: Software, Hardware, AI, Startups, and Sustainable Fashion. These sessions are hands-on and practical: bring your laptops and get from 0 → 1.

On Sat, we’ll be continuing the conversation in the stadium seating with a career speaker series starting at 10am.

With all that going on, we’ll have builders throughout the space (1st Floor and 2nd Floor). There will be private space, small offices, open tables and common areas to work in. Whether your team wants to hunker down quietly or be out in the open, there will be space for either.

→ Register on Luma: luma.com/hy24ycd1 
→ Join the Slack: join.slack.com/t/kycombinator

Sponsors: get in front of the room

We're funding food, prizes, and a great weekend — and sponsors make it happen. Every tier puts your brand in front of a room full of builders, with real recruiting access to exceptional talent. Already HackKentucky has placed 20+ people to jobs and opportunities.

• Neon — $100: Logo on the site and t-shirt, named at opening/closing, a social shout-out, plus swag in the welcome bag.

• Chrome — $500: Everything in Neon, plus a 35-minute Learn-a-thon speaking slot, on-site mentors Saturday, résumé book access, and the ability to post a bounty. Set the challenge, teach the room.

• Purple — $5,000 (only one available): Title billing — presented by you. Everything in Chrome, plus a judging-panel seat, a Saturday guest-speaker slot, and your logo on all venue signage.

Want teams to solve a specific problem? Post a bounty (recommended $250) — set the prize, and teams opt in and build against it over the weekend.

Deadline: commit by August 14 to get your logo on the t-shirts.

→ See the tiers: hackkentucky.com/sponsor 
→ Reach out: [email protected] or Dan Ross-Li at 502.521.2872

Speakers: teach a track

Friday's Learn-a-thon is where a lot of the magic happens — short, practical sessions that send builders into the weekend sharper than they came in. We're looking for speakers who want a 35-minute slot to teach something you're great at: a framework, a tool, a technique, a war story worth learning from.

There's also a Saturday guest-speaker slot for a headliner talk to the full room.

If you'd like to speak, sign up here

Whether you come to build, back the event, or teach the room — we'd love to have you. See you September 11.

Hack Kentucky Fall 2026 · hackkentucky.com

Note’s on The Distill’s co-EICs: 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 ✌️