It’s that time of year: We're announcing the honorees of KY Inno’s Startups to Watch in 2023 feature.
Below is a list of this year's 20 early stage companies to keep an eye on in Kentucky and Southern Indiana. They will be recognized at our Startups to Watch event from 4 to 6 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 31, at Noble Funk Brewing Company, 922 S. Second St. in Louisville. Tickets can be purchased here.
Last year was a great time, and we expect more of the same this time around — and good beer!
Our honorees also will be featured in the Louisville Business First print edition Jan. 27 and online at KY Inno with Q&As with each founder.
This is the second time we took nominations for the program. We were looking for companies that have raised less than $25 million in capital and were about five years old or less. Nominations were judged by Louisville Business First’s publisher and editors.
On a personal note, since I joined the staff here at Louisville Business First in October and taken over the startup/tech beat, I have been able to speak one-on-one with some of the founders from the companies listed below. Others I have not yet had the pleasure to meet.
I will say, thus far, I have been most impressed with how willing everyone within this entrepreneurial ecosystem is willing to help someone else out — especially someone new to the state/area.
As a transplant who arrived to Louisville a little more than two years ago, I can certainly appreciate how welcoming and inviting not only the startup/tech community is to newcomers, but the region as a whole.
There is a connectivity that I’m not sure exists in larger markets. No one can live and work in a silo, and this ecosystem not only understands that, but embraces it. We love when a founder reads one of our stories, and then reaches out to us for the contact information of the founder featured in the article.
I look forward to seeing what the startups listed below have to offer in the new year — but I will also be keeping my eye on a whole other list of companies that could possibly be honorees in 2024.
To keep up with all of the startups in our area, be sure to subscribe to our free weekly newsletter, The Beat — in addition to visiting the KY Inno website. You can sign up for the newsletter here.
And the envelope, please, for our 2023 Startups to Watch …
