Hello Fellow Pioneers!

What a start to the new year! I hope you all are staying warm (and productive)! We have an exciting series of events coming.

First off, congrats to the 25 companies selected for KY Inno Startups to Watch! I’ve had a chance to connect with a number of the companies already, it’s a fantastic cohort.

A lot of the startups are out-of-town, to assist with travels Story is offering complimentary Startups to Watch Coworking - Tues, Jan 28th, all day @ Story! (and if you're local, you're welcome to join too!). Register here.

Story has phone booths available for meetings, the Founders Room for some quiet space, and the common area if you want to meet and mingle. You can park for free at the parking lot next door at Five Iron. Thank you Natalia Bishop and the whole Story Team! Email Janna Gottbrath of Story if you have more Qs.

Amplify Startups x HackKentucky Partner!

Amplify Startups is a Partner sponsor for HackKentucky! Thank you Larry Horn and team for your support! Additionally we’ve added Invest Blue as a Community sponsor!

Calling all companies!

Are you a tech-forward company and looking for a unique channel to source and connect with TOP TALENT? Submit a project for our hackers to work on!

This is a great, non-traditional way to source and pre-qualify talent. Participants are coming in on the weekend and working for 48 hours straight! Can you imagine a better employee? Give them a peek at what your company does. We recommend posting a $500 prize (cash or in-kind) to entice them to work on your project!

Submit a project here

For more info check out www.hackkentucky.com
Register here

Events

Checkout other events here. Submit your event here.

FIRE AND ICE NETWORKING (POSTPONED - New Date) - Sat, Jan 25th, 10am @ Story
Startups to Watch Coworking - Tues, Jan 28th, all day @ Story
KY Inno Startups to Watch - Tues, Jan 28th, 4:30 @ IceHouse
Poker Night - Thurs, Jan 30th, 5pm @ Story
HackKentucky - Fri, Feb 21st, 4pm @ Story

Business Connection

Alyssa Morehead offering her opinion and solution on the Louisville business community, take a look here.

We of the Louisville business community have a big problem (and a solution!)- We think we can run our businesses alone or mostly alone, we seek help WAY too late, and we don't know who to hire to help us when we are ready.

As a Louisvillian who's from here, went to NYC for 12 years, and returned in 2022, I was magnificently impressed with how much the Louisville entrepreneurial community has grown, from brick and mortars, to events businesses, to coworkings, startups, and everything in between.

However, after talking with 100s of local Louisville businesses over the last 2+ years, I've found a startling lack of connection between local businesses and other local business services that can support them (read- "business services" like websites, marketing, PR, lead generation and community management, influencer marketing, ads, events, collabs, and more).

In my opinion as a business owner of 10 years at Nerve Client Studio, a sales-focused consulting and business services company, if you're looking to grow your business, increase consistent sales, diversify your sales streams, you WILL need help, now or later. Business is NOT a solo activity. Period. The businesses I see thriving have teams- they have help with business services.

The businesses I see struggling or close, don't have business services. The lack of connection between the business community and the business services community is a massive problem for Louisville. In 2 years, I've seen countless, countless Louisville businesses fail (brick and mortars, startups folding, etc). It is not a mystery to me why these businesses fail. It's a tragedy. All of the businesses I've spoken with that have struggled to stay afloat thought they could do it all alone, weren't willing to spend money (to make money) with service providers, and when they needed help, they sought it way too late and didn't know where to look. Please note- I'm not even talking about hiring a service provider (like a marketer) for $1000s per month. I'm talking about even a one-time cost of $500.

My solution- Under my business, Nerve Client Studio, my idea to resolve this lack of connection between the local business community and the business services community is a "matchmaking" concept. I cannot overstate this fact- there is a massive well of Louisville "talent" just waiting for you to tap into and get support. You can give your business the best chance of being sustainable, rather than worrying whether you will "make it." I will be taking clients under Nerve Client Studio, and "matchmake" you with whomever you need.

Feel free to email me, Alyssa, at [email protected] if you'd like to discuss details or have a call/coffee chat. Thanks for reading!

Deep Work Enclave

Our solution to brain drain and unicorns.

What is it? See it here
Read why here

Best of Luck Fellow Pioneers!