Louisville Startup Awards
The ecosystem event of Louisville. An extremely local celebration of the founders, operators, and enablers who keep Louisville's startup scene moving.
Solyco Capital, 111 West Main Street, LOUIESville, KY
Voting for The Louies 2025 is open. Tell us who's out here building, operating, enabling, and generally doing the most for Louisville's startup ecosystem.
Once nominations close, we'll publish finalists and open up community voting for select categories.
These are the Louies. Some serious, some chaotic, all very Louisville.
Each award can be paired with a presenting sponsor. As partners confirm, you'll see "Presented by" filled in below.
| Award | Description | Presented By | Nominees |
|---|---|---|---|
| Louisville’s Favorite Founder | Louisville’s very own favorite Founder! The Founder who does it all and represents Louisville. | Duffy Baker of JPMorganChase |
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| Assistant to the Founder | Not Assistant Founder or Co-Founder, let’s be clear—just the cofounder doing 80% of the work with 20% of the credit. The Dwight Schrute of the startup world. | Garrett French of Citation Labs |
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| Hey Check This Out Award | Why stop at one company when you can start four? This award celebrates the founder who lives in permanent "New Venture Mode," generating ideas faster than the rest of us can buy domains. | Greg Langdon of the Louisville ecosystem community |
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| The Grow Relentlessly, Iterate Tirelessly (GRIT) Award | For the founder who is absolutely, definitely building the next decacorn — by force of sheer stubbornness, caffeine, and delusional confidence alone. | Louisville Bats |
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| Up all Night Award | For the founder who seems to operate on pure adrenaline, bad coffee, and zero hours of sleep. This award honors the unstoppable night owl who’s always online, always building, and somehow always responding to Slack at 3:14 AM. | Steve Huey of TYP64 |
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| Gift of Gab Award | For the founder who always has something to say—whether it's a pitch, a rant, a story, a tangent, or a motivational sidebar nobody asked for. This award honors the unstoppable conversationalist whose words fill every room… and occasionally the entire Slack channel. | Kevin Gibson of Founder45 |
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| Award | Description | Presented By | Nominees |
|---|---|---|---|
| Founder Therapist Award | For the ecosystem hero who has heard every meltdown, panic spiral, and existential startup crisis in Louisville. They provide therapy disguised as "founder office hours." | Rachel Edenfield of Swell / KYX |
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| Warm Intro Award | For the person who knows everyone and makes intros faster than LinkedIn can suggest them. The connector who keeps Louisville's startup scene glued together. | George Davis of LouCity & Racing Foundation |
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| Best Community Operator | For the person who does the invisible work that keeps the ecosystem alive: events, logistics, onboarding, DMs, spreadsheets, chaos control, and founder cat-herding. | Chelsea VanHook of Community Foundation Louisville |
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| Louisville's Favorite Angel Investor | For the investor who believes early, invests early, and relentlessly supports founders — with money, advice, memes, or all three. | Nate Royal of DueGooder |
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| Award | Description | Presented By | Nominees |
|---|---|---|---|
| Show me the Money Award | For the startup that did the impossible: raised meaningful money in Kentucky without selling a kidney, sacrificing a cofounder, or moving to SF. | Rron Thaci of Keyhorse Capital |
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| Highest Velocity Startup | For the team moving at Mach 10 — shipping fast, iterating faster, breaking things responsibly, and permanently living in "just one more sprint" mode. | Larry Horn of Amplify Louisville |
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| MVP Award | For the early-stage team that emphasized the "M" (minimum) in MVP (minimum viable product). Celebrating the team that executed in an hour rather than building perfection over a year. | Natalia Bishop of Story Louisville |
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| SPAM Award | For the startup whose growth strategy is "send it to everyone." Cold emails, DMs, outreach, guerrilla tactics — if there's a channel, they've hit it. | Jack Crowdis of PayFwds / KYX |
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| Award | Description | Presented By | Nominees |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exits in 2025 | A salute to the startups that actually made it out. Whether IPO, acquisition, acqui-hire, or "strategic liquidation," you still beat the odds. | Sara Blackmer of Solyco Capital |
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| RIP Award - Startups that died in 2025 | Honoring the fallen. They tried. They built. They learned. Fail fast and try again. | Dan Ross-Li of KYX | Nominations pending |
| Future Founders | For those born in 2025, honoring the next generation! You're the future we're building for! | Janna Gottbrath of Story Louisville |
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| Spouse of the Year Award | For the partners who tolerated the late nights, the stress rants, the pitch decks on the kitchen table, and the "one more meeting" that was actually three. | Zeeshan Bhatti of Solyco Capital / KYX |
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Voting for The Louies 2025 is open. Tell us who's out here building, operating, enabling, and generally doing the most for Louisville's startup ecosystem.
Once nominations close, we'll publish finalists and open up community voting for select categories.
