Amplify Louisville – Louisville Region

Amplify Louisville is a place for founders, investors and other entrepreneurial stakeholders to connect, collaborate and access meaningful resources.  These resources help them start, build and grow their businesses.

Key contact:  Larry Horn, executive director, larry@amplifylouisville.com

Awesome Inc – Lexington Region

The Awesome Center for Entrepreneurship exists to create and grow high tech startups. This happens through hosting community events, leading technology education courses, and offering a shared workspace environment, and ultimately making a significant impact on the lives of entrepreneurs in their community.

Key contact:  Keith McMunn, director of entrepreneurship, keith.mcmunn@awesomeinc.org

Blue North – Northern Kentucky Region

Blue North helps people with great ideas and grand visions navigate the hectic realities of the business world in a collaborative effort to create a region that’s obsessed with furthering the quality of life for everyone.  They serve as the “thread” for their Northern Kentucky business ecosystem by building a close-knit community that connects entrepreneurs to critical resources and reduces barriers to opportunity.  Their mission is to give founders’ ideas time to grow and prosper.

Key contact:  Dave Knox, executive director, dave@bluenorthky.com

CREATE – Central Kentucky Region

The mission of the Central Region Ecosystem for Arts, Technology, and Entrepreneurship (CREATE) is to foster an innovation environment that brings collaborators together across stakeholder groups to share their networks, design and test new ideas, commercialize proven solutions, and grow those solutions.  CREATE provides those collaborators with connections, concepts, commercialization support, and space to support the growth of innovative projects—all aimed at providing opportunities for talented people to achieve their potential, individually and collectively, in this region.

Key contact:  Buddy Steen, program director, buddy.steen@wku.edu

GroWest – Western Kentucky Region

Sprocket is a digital economic development organization serving as Western Kentucky’s regional hub for entrepreneurship.  Sprocket’s mission is to help entrepreneurs move their businesses forward by utilizing entrepreneurial support programs and facilitated connections that give small businesses the advantage needed to compete and grow in the digital economy.

Key contact:  Monica Bilak, executive director, monica@sprocketpaducah.com

SOAR – Eastern Kentucky Region

SOAR Innovation has many programs and tools to help entrepreneurs in Eastern Kentucky to help those just starting out on their entrepreneurship journey get the essentials set up with the least amount of time and money. SOAR Innovation’s mission is to help founders to be successful.

Key contact:  Sabrina McWhorter, director of business & innovation, sabrina@soar-ky.org