The Distill - HackKentucky - Fall 2025

Greeting Pioneers,

DRL take over. Always a good time - especially for the editors. Enjoy.

HackKentucky Vol. 2 is (Almost) Here

We’re less than two weeks out from HackKentucky: Fall 2025 - the next 24-hour sprint for builders, designers, and hackers across the state.

📅 Date: Friday, Nov 7 @ 5PM
📍 Location: Cinderblock — 1205 E Washington St, Suite 111

We already have 90 participants registered (with room for a few more). Register here.

What to Expect

• 24-hour hackathon (Friday → Saturday)

• No overnights - go home, recharge, come back ready to ship

• Projects: Bring your own or pick from the provided list (dropping next week)

• Prizes: $500 grand prize + bounty challenges

• Food:

  • Friday Dinner – Pizza sponsored by Papa Johns 🍕

  • Saturday Breakfast – Donuts & Chicken Minis 🍩🐔

  • Saturday Lunch – Locals 🫚

  • Snacks + drinks all weekend

Schedule

Friday
🕔 5PM — Doors open
🌙 11PM — Doors close (no overnights)

Saturday
☀️ 8AM — Doors reopen
🏁 5PM — Judging begins

Call for Bounties: HackKentucky Fall 2025

Bounty submissions are open: Submit a bounty here

If you’re looking to hire engineers, there’s no better place to find and vet talent than HackKentucky. It’s better than an interview; participants are tested in real time. You see their character, problem-solving and technical ability in action.

Last HackKentucky led to 6 direct hires. Let’s aim to get more this time!

On the fence? Submit a bounty and see what happens!

Note: the fall Hackathon is 24 hours instead of 48 hours. We recommend a prize of $100 to the “winning team”. More importantly your participation during the event at the start (Friday Nov 7th @ 5pm) and during judging (Sat Nov 8th @ 5pm) will make the biggest impact.

THE LOUIES ARE BACK 🏆

Nominations are OPEN!

Louisville’s favorite startup awards show returns December 4th, 2025 @ Cinderblock.

Nominate someone here ← yes this is HZZH Forms.

We kicked off KYX a year ago with The Louies - and now they’re back to close out our first inaugural year. Come celebrate new startups, shed a tear for the ones we lost, and cheer on the founders who crushed 2025.

Who will be Louisville’s Favorite Founder? Will we have embossed ribbons this year or return with the crowd favorite blank purple ribbon? Will we understand that the formerly named “Future Founder Award” was meant to celebrate kids born that year instead of nominating those who we though would be great “Future Founders” (congrats Savon!) Who knows?!?

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 ✌️