The mark of a steep competition is the overall talent and depth of the field.
That was certainly the case for this year’s KY Inno Fire Awards.
In our second edition of the awards, we had many worthy nominations when it came to naming the startups and members of the local entrepreneurial ecosystems in Kentucky and Southern Indiana who have been, well, on fire when it comes to growing their companies and the community as a whole.
This year, instead of naming one “Blazer” winner out of five finalists for the five categories, we have decided to include profiles of all 25 honorees in the Dec. 8 edition of Louisville Business First, as well as the KY Inno website, of course.
On a side note, if you have not already done so, be sure to sign up for KY Inno’s weekly newsletter, The Beat, so you can stay on top of all of the startup and tech news happening throughout Kentucky and Southern Indiana.
Lastly, nominations are still open for our 2024 Startups to Watch awards until Dec. 3, so please get those in as well.
And now let’s get to the winners, spread across five categories.
The Ecosystem-Builders
The people working behind the scenes that are moving ecosystems forward and growing momentum for entrepreneurs.
- Larry Horn, CEO of Amplify Louisville
- Dave Knox, executive director of Blue North (Covington, Kentucky)
- Sabrina McWhorter, director of business and innovation, SOAR (Pikeville, Kentucky)
- Monique Quarterman, KY Innovation (Frankfort, Kentucky)
- Buddy Steen, CEO, Western Kentucky University Innovation Campus (Bowling Green, Kentucky)
The Investors
The people and firms that are funding companies in Kentucky and Southern Indiana.
- Awesome Inc (Lexington, Kentucky)
- Brook Smith, president, RSLP Ventures (Louisville)
- eGateway Capital (Covington)
- Keyhorse Capital (Frankfort)
- Phoebe Wood, principal, CompaniesWood (Louisville)
The CEOs
The leaders who are making a name for Kentucky on a larger scale.
- Buddy Bockweg, co-founder and CEO, Vsimple (New Albany, Indiana)
- Stevens Bonhomme, founder and CEO, Feedcoyote (Paducah, Kentucky)
- Stacy Griggs, president and CEO, El Toro (Louisville)
- Jeremy Jacobs, founder and CEO, Eyeconic.tv (Bowling Green)
- Alli Truttmann, founder and CEO, Wicked Technologies (Louisville)
On the Rise
The startups that have experienced a combination of client, revenue and funding growth.
- Better Blend (Florence, Kentucky)
- Forecastr (Louisville)
- GoodMaps (Louisville)
- RxLightning (New Albany)
- Xena Intelligence (Louisville)
The Disruptors
The companies that are leading the charge in new and evolving industries and/or technologies.
- Flamel.ai (Covington)
- HempWood (Murray, Kentucky)
- HopFlyt (Paducah)
- Melanated Healthcare (Louisville)
- New Frontier (Morehead, Kentucky)
Congratulations to all of our 2023 honorees and check back to our website and print edition Dec. 8 for more information on each of our honorees.
