A name well known by members in the local entrepreneurial ecosystem — particularly in Louisville — has received national recognition.
Recently, Larry Horn, CEO of Amplify Louisville, was announced as one of 18 people across the country to take part in the inaugural cohort of the Make Startups Executive Fellowship (MSEF) Program, according to a news release.
“I am thrilled beyond words to embark on this journey with the [program],” Horn said in the release. “It’s an honor to be part of a community that celebrates excellence in entrepreneurial leadership. I am committed to soaking up every opportunity, learning from the best, and contributing wholeheartedly to the vibrant ecosystem of innovation and growth that MSEF represents.”
The program, which is “aimed at elevating the impact potential and operational capacity of entrepreneurship support, ecosystem building, and economic development organizations," was borne out of a $50,000 grant that was received by the Ecosystem Builder Leadership Network (EBLN) Field Advancement Fund in November, the release said. The EBLN receives a large portion of its financial backing through the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.
“We are confident this initiative will equip leaders in our field with the tools and resources they need to make a lasting impact for entrepreneurs and their local ecosystems,” Make Startups Co-founder Grace Belangia said in the release. “We are truly excited to launch the Make Startups Executive Fellowship (MSEF) program this spring with plans to scale in the fall of 2024, and we are deeply grateful to both EBLN and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation for their generous support.”
The six-month program will begin on March 20. It will involve two in-person sessions (one in San Antonio in April and one in Richmond, Virginia, from late April to early May) as well as bi-weekly online training sessions, one-on-advancing, local field-building initiatives and peer coaching.
As part of the programming, members of the cohort will gain training on how to access funding provided by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), so that they can use those funds to offer technical assistance, support and training to founders in their ecosystems.
Cohort members will also be allowed access to a proprietary tech platform of Make Startups that will allow them to implement ways to implement measurement and evaluation plans into their programs as a way of showing what impact that entrepreneurial training is having on the local economy.
Following the program, cohort members will also have the knowledge needed for policy advocacy that support entrepreneurial matters at the local, state and national levels of government.
In December, Horn was named one of our 2023 KY Inno Fire Award recipients under the category of “Ecosystem Builders.”
Out of the 18 chosen, it should be noted that four of the selectees — who had to have a minimum of five years of entrepreneurship development experience — are from Indiana: Nikeshia Fomby (Fort Wayne), Rhonda Ladig (Fort Wayne), Jared Ell (Terre Haute) and Marty Mechtenberg (South Bend).
Amplify Louisville is one of six innovation hubs located throughout Kentucky that are part of the system of KY Innovation, the entrepreneurial arm of the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development. In late February, Amplify announced David Lopez as its next entrepreneur-in-residence (EIR).
The other five KY innovation hubs are: Awesome Inc (Lexington); Blue North (Covington); Central Region Ecosystem for Arts, Technology and Entrepreneurship (CREATE, Bowling Green), Sprocket, Inc. (Paducah) and the innovation sector of Shaping Our Appalachian Region (SOAR, Pikeville).
