The Distill - Ship Or Die

Greeting Pioneers,

@jack EIC is out this week. @rachel is taking over.

Find out more here: https://kycombinator.com/events/velocity
Apply as a startup here: https://form.kycombinator.com/velocity ← HZZH!
Register to attend here: https://lu.ma/velocityky

It’s all about Velocity.

Fourteen weeks ago, 12 startups applied to the KYX Velocity Gauntlet. We were supposed to run it in May during Derby Week, but pushed it to September 12th.

Theoretically that velocity cohort would be finished now. Yet most of those companies are exactly where they started. Waiting. Go to any networking event and ask how the last few months have been—you'll hear the same broken record: "There's no VC here in Louisville," "Fundraising is hard," “We need to hire a sales guy,” "The product is almost done," "I'm just too busy lately."

Meanwhile, some founder somewhere shipped, sold, and scaled. They didn't wait for perfect conditions or the right timing. They just executed.

On September 12th, that can be you. Enter the Gauntlet.

What’s different about Velocity?

Velocity isn't another pitch competition where the best deck wins. It's an accountability challenge where execution is the only currency that matters.

We're not here to listen to your TAM slides or hear about your "revolutionary" idea. We’re here to see work get done. Great execution in a small market beats average execution in a big market, every single time.

Demo Day is 12 weeks later: https://lu.ma/8rgsdubd If you’re selected for the cohort and you promise the moon on Sept 12th, then bring a slice of cheese Dec 4th.

The Only Resource That Matters In The Gauntlet

Your most important resource is your work ethic. It’s coming in every day and grinding on your startup. We create the environment where that can happen – you bring the hustle. Nothing can replace the grind. As Ben Horowitz said, "There are no silver bullets, only lead bullets."

Lucky for you, you don’t have to work alone. Cohort companies will be working full time alongside each other and other high-performing startups at Cinderblock, Louisville’s Startup War Room. These fellow founders are your second best resource. They’re in the trenches beside you, solving similar problems in real time – not "advisors" collecting equity for coffee meetings.

Focus: Customers + Revenue / Time = Velocity

Velocity has one scoreboard: customers and revenue. That's it. No vanity metrics. Just the two numbers that prove someone wants what you're building enough to pay for it.

The Rules

Who Can Apply:

• Startup less than 1 year old

• Less than $25K in total revenue

• At least one founder committed to working full-time (>40 hours), in-person for 12 weeks

Our panel of judges will select the 5 most promising roadmaps centered around the two things that matter for our first cohort.

What You Must Achieve in 12 Weeks:

• A real product that customers are actually using

• 10 customers OR 3x your starting customer count (whichever is greater)

• Some revenue OR 3x your starting revenue (whichever is greater)

How We Track Progress: Every Monday, we publish the leaderboard. Your customer count, your revenue, and how fast you're closing the gap to your targets.

What's at Stake: The team with the highest velocity at the end of 12 weeks wins a $10K MFN investment and a membership to Cinderblock.

The Math: Starting from zero? Hit 10 customers and generate revenue. Starting with 2 customers and $500 MRR? Get to 6 customers and $1,500 MRR. Starting with 8 customers and $5K revenue? Get to 24 customers and $15K revenue.

Different starting lines, same finish requirement: prove you can accelerate.

Why These Metrics: Because everything else is noise. You can have a million signups, but if none of them pay, you don't have a business. You can have the most elegant code, but if customers aren't using it, you've built nothing.

Customers and revenue are the only proof that matters. Get there first. Get there fast.

The Culture

Show up at Cinderblock ready to work, not hang out. Everyone here is grinding—expect to do the same.

When you ask for feedback, execute on it immediately. No more "I need help with X" followed by disappearing for a week. Fix it right there, in real time, while the advice is fresh.

Get to the end quickly. Your startup isn't a chronic disease that drags on for years. Give it a real shot, then either scale it or kill it. There are better things to do with your time than zombie startups.

The Uncomfortable Truth

Some of you will fail, and that's exactly what should happen. We'll celebrate your startup’s funeral at the LOUIES because knowing when to quit is as valuable as knowing when to push. Failed founders make the best employees at successful startups—hint, hint.

The goal isn't to keep every startup in the Louisville ecosystem afloat. It's to surface the founders who can actually execute when it matters.

Ready to Prove It?

Stop planning. Stop validating. Stop waiting for the perfect moment. Enter the Gauntlet.

Questions

If you want to know more, shoot us a reply or check out the resources below:

Find out more here: https://kycombinator.com/events/velocity

Apply as a startup here: https://form.kycombinator.com/velocity

Register to attend here: https://lu.ma/velocityky

Hope to see you Sept 12th.

Looking For Funding? Register For These 45Fest Events.

During next month's inaugural 45Fest, there are two events on September 18th geared toward getting startups checks.

Angels In The Outfield 
There's no crying in baseball, unless it's tears of joy from landing a check from an angel investor. Join a group of angels from our region in the Owner's Suite @ Slugger Field as the Louisville Bats host the Nashville Sound. You've got nine innings to get some funding.

On The Runway For Some Runway 
Pitch your startup to a group of VCs on a private jet at Bowman Field. Whoever gets funded is flying on the jet to Elizabethtown for lunch and to sign paperwork, then it's back to Bowman to wrap up the event. Register here

Register here to take part in either of these events.

 📅 September 13-15 — Come collide.
🔗 Learn more at 45fest.com
🎟️ Get Tickets here

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