Meet the 34 businesses selected for Russell Tech Business Incubator's 2022 cohort

The AMPED Russell Technology Business Incubator has named the 35 companies and founders selected for its 2022 cohort.

It's the second year for the program, which was developed to support and scale Black- and LatinX-owned businesses. The first cohort, which included 30 businesses, will graduate from the year-long program on Thursday, Feb. 24.

Emory Williamson, development and marketing manager for AMPED, told me there was massive interest in the Russell Technology Business Incubator (RTBI) this year. Initially, the program was only planning to accept 20 businesses, but after interviewing 100 applicants, it opted to increase that threshold to 34 businesses.

"We partnered with other organizations in Louisville to make sure that if the applicants didn't get into RTBI, we could connect them to another program that better aligns with what they need," Williamson said, naming Louisville Urban League and the Small Business Development Corp. among RTBI's partners. "There is such a strong demand here. There's a lack of businesses owned by Black and LatinX individuals here in Louisville, but there is definitely a need and there's definitely a desire to build up these businesses. People have ideas and they want to move forward with them."

AMPED is hiring an RTBI program manager to oversee the program this year and its staff of seven is also supporting the nonprofit's family learning technology program and music academy. It also utilizes a support staff, which includes legal, financial and marketing professionals.

The incubator pairs its participants with business coaches: Jocari Beattie, founder of JoBe Products; Natalia Bishop founder of Story, Level Up and director of innovation and entrepreneurship at University of Louisville; Kela Ivonye, founder of Protégé; Chris Redd, corporate IT manager at Baptist Health System; Jose Gaztambide, CEO of GoodMaps; Raechele Gray Smalls, manager of entrepreneur selection and growth at Endeavor; Mo Sloan, co-founder and CEO of EZ-Chow; Monica Stewart, director of operations at AMPED and founder of Transitions Caregiver Solutions; Jermaine Watkins, co-founder and CTO of WeatherCheck; and Kwane Watson, founder and CEO of Kare Mobile.

The 2022 RTBI cohort includes:

AMPED will honor RTBI's first graduating class at 6 p.m. Feb. 24 at the Norton Healthcare Sports & Learning Center, 3029 W. Muhammad Ali Boulevard.