Greeting Pioneers,

By 5 PM on Friday, HackKentucky Vol. 2 had 120 registrants — vets, newbies, high schoolers, CS majors, Code:You classmates, and beyond. Twelve bounties dropped. Forty Seven projects were submitted. Some teams shipped multiple. All grit, no brakes.

In the end, it was a Due Gooder bounty submission that reigned supreme. Alana Tinnell & Maeve Whitlock of A Fib brought home the win — sounds like they might’ve walked away with more than just first place 👀

HackKentucky Recap

Hackathons work because constraints create clarity: short clock, small team, one goal —ship and show. You get instant feedback, a portfolio piece you can point to, and momentum that carries past the weekend. For Louisville, they double as a recruiting engine – students meet employers, founders meet co-builders, and (as we saw) internships get set up on the spot. That’s why HackKentucky exists: to turn raw skill into visible outcomes and keep our best people building here.

Our first 24 hours edition of HackKentucky is in the books! 16 teams, 100+ participants and guests, 24 hours of coding, 60 pizzas, 12 bounties, and 10 internship interviews secured with Kentucky startups.

And the winner of hackkentucky is...

🥇 Team Afib!! 🚀🏆 Maeve Whitlock and Alana Tinnell with the DueGooder project. They won $250 DueGooder bounty, plus the $250 HacktheTrack Education prize, plus the Grand Prize of $600. 

🥈 In 2nd place for $300: Government Mandated Startups, Luis Finale & Garret Washburn with the Jokester bounty.

🥉 In 3rd $100: Decided, Griffin Hampton, Wyatt Lang, Landon Pantoja.

Thank you to our hackers, volunteers and mentors. & a big thank you to our sponsors: Citations Labs, Papa Johns, DataVue and HackTheTrack.

Startup Weekend Louisville

STARTUP WEEKEND RETURNS THIS WEEKEND Ideas to business in 3 days! Learn if your idea is worth building - before wasting months on something no one will pay for. The event is called Techstars Startup Weekend. Here’s how it works... Anyone can pitch an idea Friday night. Ideas with the most votes from the room become teams. Spend the rest of the weekend connecting with potential customers, building a prototype, getting feedback from mentors (including our Velocity founders!), and pitching to judges on Sunday night (including our very own Rachel Edenfield) Everything you need to build is included: access to mentors, workspace, workshops, seven meals, coffee, bevs, and more! Don’t have an idea? Join a team. Learn a new skill and put it into practice.

Meet your startup community. KYX subscribers get 50% off with code CINDERBLOCK.

Get tickets: swlou.com/tickets Date: Friday, Nov 14 @ 5PM - Sunday, Nov 16 (no overnights) Location: Story — 828 E Market St

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 ✌️