The Lexington region is focused on a give-first model that is entrepreneur-led and dedicated to creating a bustling startup community that will allow more people to be able to pursue their dreams right here in Kentucky. Lexington's key partners are Awesome Inc, UK Innovate (Launch Blue), and BaseHere.
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Awesome Inc is a family of companies, all of which are dedicated to helping people pursue their definition of Awesome. They achieve this goal by growing the tech and startup community through their four main companies/programs: Awesome Fellowship, Awesome Inc U coding program, Innovation Incubated corporate innovation consulting, and the Awesome Space co-working space. With a growing network of mentors and startup founders, The Awesome Fellowship Program serves its startups with a powerful community and resources to help them scale.
Launch Blue, based in the University of Kentucky’s UK Innovate department, nurtures the most promising Kentucky founders with scalable technology-based startups through intensive accelerator and incubator programs. They offer four program elements: Pre-Seed Accelerator, UAccel, Incubator, and Labs. Successful Launch Blue startups are positioned to apply for competitive national seed-stage accelerators and are future candidates for risk-based investment capital to grow and scale their business.
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BaseHere is a collection of work, meeting and event spaces in the heart of downtown Lexington. They bring together creatives, people in tech and entrepreneurs through community, resources, and programming. BaseHere has expanded to include multiple locations, grown its community, and now is a key contributor to Kentucky’s innovation and entrepreneur ecosystem.
The Lexington's hub has a vast network of other partners which include Governor’s School of Entrepreneurship, SBDC, Commerce Lexington, KY Chamber of Commerce, Airwing Ventures, Bluegrass Angels, Kinetic by Windstream, Dinsmore and Schohl, KSTC, Chase Bank, KYPTAC, and LFUCG.
