The Distill - Stop Ghosting Your Accelerator

Greeting Pioneers,

Things feel a little stale up here. Probably fine, but the intrusive thoughts disagree. So I needed something shiny. Something new.

This week we present to you… drumroll please… the Table of Contents.

Woooooow. Amazing. Groundbreaking.

I know, I know. Enjoy.

1. ⚡ Vibe Code Night is Back

2. 💪 The Startup Gym Membership Problem

3. 🚀 Hack the Track 2025: Code for Our Community

4. 🧱 Cinderblock Update

⚡ Vibe Code Night is Back

When: Thursday 8/28 @ 5:30
Where: Cinderblock 1205 East Washington St, Suite 102
RSVP Here: https://lu.ma/0mh3xplv?tk=DhooP3

You’re not gonna wanna work Thursday night. You never do. No one ever does. Even if you grind every night, it’s never easy.

Netflix is easy. Video games are easy. Building that thing that makes your life better, work smoother? Not easy.

Guess what makes it easier? VCN.
Others doing the same. Plus pizza and refreshments.

Yes, of course there will be poker. Always poker.

Last Thursday of every month. This Thursday in this month.

Join us - https://lu.ma/0mh3xplv?tk=DhooP3

💪 The Startup Gym Membership Problem

Every January, gyms fill up with hopeful new members clutching fresh workout plans and protein shakes. By March, those same gyms are ghost towns, leaving behind only the regulars who were there all along. Sound familiar? Replace "gym" with "accelerator," "workout plan" with "curriculum," and "protein shake" with "pitch deck template," and you've got the startup world's dirty little secret.

The Comfortable Illusion of Progress

Paul signs up for a $3,000 online course promising to teach him how to build a SaaS business. He downloads all the modules, joins the Slack community, and even prints out the worksheets. He feels productive. He feels like an entrepreneur. But six months later, he still hasn't shipped a single feature or talked to a single customer.

The course wasn't the problem. Paul’s discipline was.

Just like gym equipment doesn't make you fit by proximity, startup programs don't make you successful by enrollment. The magic isn't in the membership—it's in showing up consistently, even when (especially when) you don't feel like it.

Why Smart People Fall Into This Trap

The Knowledge Trap: We mistake learning for doing. It feels safer to consume another framework, attend another workshop, or join another mastermind than to actually put our half-baked idea in front of real customers who might reject it.

The Community High: Accelerators and courses provide instant belonging. You're suddenly surrounded by other "entrepreneurs" using the same buzzwords and facing similar challenges. It's intoxicating. But community without execution is just an expensive book club.

The Structured Procrastination: Programs give us a socially acceptable way to delay the scary stuff. "I can't launch yet—I'm still in the program!" becomes a shield against the vulnerability of actually trying.

The Truth About "Using the Equipment"

The most valuable "equipment" isn't an accelerator’s curriculum, their free services, their network, or their demo day. It's the forcing function of a deadline and the peer pressure of others watching your progress.

But you can create these conditions yourself with a peer group, that’s what we’ve done at Cinderblock, and you can join us or do the same thing within your own groups.

Learning From Program Leaders

We’ve been talking to leaders of accelerators and thinking about this problem a lot as we’ve designed our own systems for Velocity and Cinderblock. Even the most selective, free programs—like the Vogt Awards and the Awesome Fellowship—face this challenge. They carefully vet applicants, accept only the most promising founders, offer incredible free resources, and then watch a chunk of their cohort ghost the programming.

Through these conversations, we've identified some patterns that seem to help:

Making Engagement Visible: Several programs have experimented with public dashboards showing each founder's participation. Nothing motivates like peer accountability. When everyone can see who's missing milestones and skipping events, social pressure does the heavy lifting.

Weekly-Commitments Over Macro-Visions: Instead of asking for broad commitments to "build a great company," the most engaging programs we've studied focus on weekly, specific actions. "Will you talk to 5 customers this week?" is much easier to say yes to—and much harder to ignore. Awesome Fellowship does a version of this with their monthly accountability metrics. They pushed me to make input goals within my scope of control instead of only impact ones. I personally broke them down to weekly while I was there, which helped me get a lot out of the program.

Consequence-Driven Design: Even free programs need stakes. Removing companies from the cohort when they miss X number of events. Having any associated funding being contingent on hitting so many input-driven KPIs. Publishing metrics on demo day. There are different ways accelerators have done this. They work because free programs need a way to signal that participation matters.

Progress Gates, Not Time Gates: I talked to some leaders about progress-based advancement - ie don't graduate people based on calendar dates, graduate them based on hitting their milestones. You advance when you hit specific goals, not when the calendar says it's time. We’re trialing a version of this for the first Velocity Gauntlet with milestone-based financial drips, and will report back on how it goes.

No More Finger Pointing

The gym membership problem won't be solved by founders alone or programs alone—it requires both sides to change. As founders, we have to stop mistaking acceptance for execution. It’s not enough to be picked. As program designers, we have to stop mistaking access for activation.

Your startup gym membership isn't worthless—but it's only as valuable as the discipline you bring to it. The equipment is there. The question is: Will you actually use it?

-Rachel

Plugs

Velocity Gauntlet. 12 weeks where founders and startups build towards customers and revenue starting Sept 12th, 2025. We index on accountability and building in public. Find out more here: https://kycombinator.com/events/velocity

You can also check out Cinderblock. This is where we create density of high-agency builders and in a high-performing environment to help founders and startups move faster: https://kycombinator.com/cinderblock

🚀 Hack the Track 2025: Code for Our Community

KYX is teaming up with Hack the Track to bring Kentuckiana’s first-ever high school hackathon to Louisville.

On September 5–6, 2025 (Fri 5PM – Sat 9PM), students in grades 8–12 will gather at Story (828 E Market St) to form teams, build apps, and design websites that tackle real-world community challenges.

Highlights:

• 💰 Cash awards

• 🎤 Media recognition

• 🤝 Mentorship opportunities

• 🍕 Meals provided

• 👥 Team formation + project judging

It’s completely free to participate, but spots are limited. If you know a high schooler who wants to build, create, and solve, send them here: 👇 tinyurl.com/hackthetrackregister

We do need some help. If you’re technical and can help mentor these young students we would appreciate your help. Please register here: https://form.kycombinator.com/to/ca338fb1-3391-464e-a727-48d71eeb8226

KYX is proud to back the next generation of makers.

🧱 Cinderblock Update

As you know we’re currently squatting in Suite 102A (the annex from Swell’s office at 102B). We’ve had a great time there as we wait for our eventual landing spot to be finished. Well the wait is over! The wall is up! Cinderblock is ready to move to its permanent location: Suite 111!

Blockheads.

The time has come. We have manifested our new space.

Now, it is time to make THE TREK. Sat, August 30th, 10am

Your faith in the space has resonated across the community. But this is just the beginning. Once we reach our destination, we must set out to do the work of turning vision to reality.

Papa John will provide sustenance. We will refresh our spirits with water(loo). And your hands will shape the land.

But seriously, come move desk and all the stuff Sat, August 30th, 10am. Register here: https://lu.ma/thetrek Sat, August 30th, 10am

Lastly I want to say thank you to you all. If you’ve made it this far you’re the reason we’re doing all this. You’re the reason we’ve gotten this far.

But this is just the beginning. We need to fill up Cinderblock. We need to get more startups started and going. We need more activity here. We need more jobs, density and wins.

And to do this we will either find a way or make one. For we have most powerful weapon in the world: the most tenacious and resilient people. This is who we are. This is KYX.

-DRL

Note’s on The Distill’s EIC: Jack Crowdis

Jack runs the newsletter, helps run KYX. He’s a career startup kid. Past founder. Current operator. Weekly contributor. Always editor.

Know someone who should read this? Forward it, or send them this link.

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