Louisville Tech Ecosystem Guide
This guide is an intro to Louisville so founders of all backgrounds can utilize its resources. If you’re looking for more resources outside of Louisville and in the Southeast, make sure to head to buildinse.com and subscribe to #BuildinSE’s Substack to learn more.
#BuildInSE is an organization with a mission to increase the number of startup success stories in the Southeast by leveraging a cross-regional collaborative network.
Louisville is the home of Muhammad Ali, the Kentucky Derby, and Kentucky Fried Chicken. Louisville is Kentucky’s largest city with a population 1,089,000 and sits on the Ohio River along the Indiana border.
With a renowned culinary scene, iconic attractions, vibrant hotels, and a booming bourbon renaissance, Louisville is a beautiful place for innovators to thrive.
The Tech Ecosystem of Louisville
From supply chain, logistics, agtech, edtech or healthcare, Louisville has amazing fast-growing entrepreneurs with incredible potential who need continued support to reach impactful scale. El Toro, an ad tech firm has been vital to the ecosystem as they recently moved their headquarters from downtown to Nulu and has plans to add 400 jobs and invest $10.5 million into Louisville. Nulu is becoming the startup of Louisville as companies are being intentional around creating density within the city. It is prominent for vibrant coffee shops and restaurants, boutique hotels, coworking spaces, and headquarters of many startups now.
The ecosystem is not only exciting Louisville, it is also elevating. In June of 2021, Climavision, a weather technology and intelligence platform looking to mitigate the economic risks of climate change and weather-related events received a $100 Million dollar investment from San Francisco based investment firm, TPG. Wins like this will only spur additional innovation and showcase representation that outside eyes are looking at this city for growth and potential.
Louisville’s startup ecosystem is diverse and has been very focused on being inclusive. With the push of the universities and corporations to get more active and work collectively together, Louisville has the opportunity to scale as a top tier ecosystem. The flywheel is being created!
Startups To Watch:
- BrainSTEM — BrainSTEM created the first metaverse for STEM education
- Forcastr — Forecasting software that allows startups and businesses to forecast with confidence.
- FreshFry — Food-tech startup using upcycled food waste pods to clean fry oil for longer safer use
- GoodMaps — GoodMaps Explore is an accessible wayfinding app designed primarily for people who are blind or visually impaired
- GoWild — Social media for the outdoors community
- Kare Mobile — Kare Mobile’s dentist and hygienist partners providecomprehensive, concierge dental services from our state-of-the-art mobile clinics.
- RXLightning — Simplifying specialty RX enrollment
- Resolv — Teen and young adult programs for better mental health, delivered via cool tech and even cooler humans.
- Spiritless — Non-alcoholic spirits
- Stuccco — Virtual staging software for home sellers
- SwitcherStudio — Switcher Studio lets you easily capture video from multiple camera angles — and edit it in real time — helping you share your message with the world.
- Untitled — Deploying modern data stacks, resulting in faster time to insight, decreased operating costs, increased revenue and advanced ML and AI capabilities.
- Virtual Peaker — The world’s most advanced distributed energy platform
- Captain- Built for contractors doing insurance claims
Funds:
- Connetic Ventures
- Venture First’s Strike Fund
- Render Capital
- Unbridled Ventures
- Bluegrass Angels Fund
- Keyhorse Capital
- Poplar Ventures
- Thornton Capital
Pitch Competitions
- Render Capital — The Render Competition invests $100,000 into eight companies each year, encouraging their growth within and beyond our region.
- Venture Sharks — The competition is open to businesses or entrepreneurs from any industry in Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio and Tennessee, but presentations for the preliminary and final rounds of competition must be made in person, in Louisville, KY.
- 5 Across — 5 local startups will compete for 5 hundred dollars! Friends, food, and plenty of fun for the whole family. 5 Across.
Angel Groups:
- Bluegrass Angels
- Lincoln Trail Angels
- Derby City Angels
Accelerators:
- Vogt Awards — The Community Foundation of Louisville’s Vogt Invention & Innovation Awards, focused on supporting entrepreneurship in the Louisville region, is the longest-standing program of its kind.
- Xlerate Health — XLerateHealth selects promising healthcare startup companies to participate in an intensive 12-week Accelerator, working with a team of coaches and mentors to support the commercialization of innovative life science, med-tech, and digital healthcare technologies. Our Accelerator aims to bring early stage startups to a level where they are attractive to customers and investors.
- Awesome Inc Fellowship — A mentor-driven program designed to accelerate your high tech startup. The program is tailored to your startup’s needs and runs on a flexible timeline unique to your team, supporting your startup for up to one year.
- Endeavor Scale Up — A bespoke growth accelerator that fosters entrepreneur-to-entrepreneur connections, and connects founders with the right resources to reach the next level of scale.
Co-Working:
Job Boards:
Community Wins:
- Handle adds 80 jobs and 7.8M in investment — https://handleglobal.blog/2020/11/10/handle-global-expansion-adding-80-jobs-and-7-8m-local-investment/
- Pet First acquired by Met Life — https://www.bizjournals.com/louisville/news/2019/12/05/petfirst-to-be-acquired-by-fortune-500-company.html
- EdjSports — https://www.bizjournals.com/louisville/news/2021/08/16/edjanalytics-edjsports-transition.html
- Cuddle Clones Acquired — https://www.bizjournals.com/louisville/inno/stories/news/2022/01/19/cuddle-clones-acquired-dianthus.html
Networking:
- Network N’ Chill — Authentically connects founders, funders, and anyone in the entrepreneurial ecosystem through storytelling and education in a fun and inclusive environment.
- Story Mornings — Story mornings are the perfect opportunity for the Louisville startup community to come together and be inspired by our very own founders. Come to hear their stories, build relationships, and enjoy some of Louisville’s best coffee.
- Startup Grind — We are the world’s largest startup community.
Entrepreneurial Support Organizations:
- Amplify — Amplify Louisville is a place for tech-enabled startups and founders to explore ideas, build solutions, launch products, and grow businesses.
- Endeavor — Endeavor is leading the high-impact entrepreneurship movement around the world.
Communications:
- Flyover Future
- KyInno
- MiddleTech Podcast
- BuildInSE is an organization with a mission to increase the number of startup success stories in the Southeast by leveraging a cross-regional collaborative network.
About your Guides:
Hi there, we are Chris Redd and Ellie Puckett. Long time ecosystem builders, entrepreneurs, and all around startup enthusiasts. Chris Redd is the founder of Network n Chill and recipient of the Mac Venture Scholarship for VC Unlocked: Silicon Valley Online, and is a member of Louisville Business First’s 2021 Forty Under 40 class for Louisville. Ellie Puckett has been a founder or early employee in 3 startups, led the Vogt Awards Accelerator, and served as Deputy Executive Director for the Commonwealth’s Office of Entrepreneurship.
Thank you for checking out this guide to the Louisville tech and startup ecosystem. If you’re interested in being a part of the ever-growing success story that is entrepreneurship in the Southeast, check out the BuildInSE website, or learn more via our publications on Medium.
If you know of any resources that should be added to this guide, or if you simply want to get in touch, please reach out to me at chris.redd1@gmail.com!
