The Russell Technology Business Incubator (RTBI) is the first business incubator for black entrepreneurs in West Louisville.   The incubator is under the umbrella of AMPED, the Academy of Music Production Education and Development, which is a free music program for kids in Louisville. The founder, Dave Christopher, said the idea for the business incubator came about in 2020 as black-owned businesses were struggling in the COVID-19 pandemic significantly more than their counterparts.

Mr. Christopher, an entrepreneur himself, has experienced challenges with having access to resources and programs that are equipped to assist and understand black entrepreneurs’ unique struggles.

Through RTBI, black business owners now have access to services and resources to help them get started, research their goals, create generational wealth, create jobs, give back to the community, and to continue to grow for years to come.

The incubator is a year-long program that challenges entrepreneurs to go on a learning journey that will expand their knowledge, increase confidence, and grow their businesses.  The program is specifically designed to reduce failure for black entrepreneurs by keeping their unique challenges in mind.  The program offers courses in business planning, business accounting, marketing, capital strategies, technology, business communication, and life balance.  In addition, each entrepreneur participating in the program is assigned a professional business coach for support and guidance on handling their business’ specific challenges.  RTBI gives so many resources that are designed to reduce the barriers that black-owned business experience and increases the success rate in the black communities of Louisville.

The incubator received a grant $500,000 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to get started and since has received more than $3 million in funding from other donations. Mr. Christopher and his staff, donors, and supporters are committed to reducing the racial wealth gap across the nation.  It is projected that RTBI to become a national model within three to five years.

About med10VC

• med10VC is a 10-week accelerator program for health innovation startups in the pre-seed and seed stage. At med10VC, we define health innovation as medical devices, diagnostics, and non-regulated Life Sciences technologies such as physician training tools, innovation for hospital system improvement, products for health, wellness, and rehabilitation, etc. Basically, this accelerator is open for all types of technology innovation startups in the Life Sciences space, with the exclusion of companies focused on pharmaceuticals and biotechnologies. med10VC is a subsidiary of Lasing Machine Ventures.

• med10VC is an accelerator set out to make a difference for entrepreneurs, through actionable and practical guidance and support that leads to commercial and long-term success. Our mission is to support underserved populations and encourage and support founders that face obstacles in achieving their dream of entrepreneurship. We favor and prioritize underserved founders to live up to our mission of increasing inclusion and diversity in the startup community.

• med10VC is a 10-week program that covers the key areas for bringing a health innovation idea from conception to commercial distribution. The curriculum is built to follow the general journey from early stage into Series-A and beyond. The 10-weeks consist of weekly lectures from med10VC staff and external experts within various key areas, followed by one-on-one mentorship to apply the weekly covered content individually. This approach leads to actionable outcomes that rapidly advances each company towards commercialization.
   
• The program provided by med10VC is the result of decades of experience with providing mentorship and with running various accelerator and innovation programs across the world. The methodology of, and importance with reaching actionable outcomes stems from both first-hand experience with growing startups and being on the receiving end of mentorship and acceleration programs, coupled with tracking measurable outcomes from mentorship and education to startups. The team behind med10VC are all startup founders and hands-on operators that later in the career have shifted into startup education and mentorship, and are now involved in leading entrepreneurship development globally on many levels including within the US Federal Government. 
   

About Lasting Machine Ventures

CEO^c's Aging2.0 is excited to announce OPTIMIZE which will be held in Louisville, KY for the first time this September 21-22, 2022 from historic Churchill Downs. We will convene industry-leading corporate and innovation experts to discuss the most timely and relevant topics in healthcare aging innovation. This year’s CEO^c/Aging2.0 OPTIMIZE conference focus is Interoperability and Workforce.

OPTIMIZE will dive deep into themes of importance for this evolving industry, combining the expertise of the CEO^C and Aging2.0 and their extensive networks from around the world. This is the gathering place for networking, ideas, and action, along with some horse races and perhaps a bit of bourbon and beer!

Our discussions and convening of the two-day conference will culminate with the CareTech Pitch competition. Selected from hundreds of applicants from around the globe, including participants chosen from Aging2.0’s Global Innovation Search, the CareTech Pitch competition will showcase the most exciting scalable solutions around the topic of interoperability. The finalists will highlight how solutions can change how data is exchanged and communicated to drive stronger health outcomes as part of the conference finale!

The Metals Innovation Initiative was born out of an idea, an idea that doesn’t have a ready-made playbook: How can we create an industry-led organization that collaborates with governmental, educational, and other stakeholders to solve the most pressing challenges and capture opportunities that our organizations cannot easily address on their own? There are numerous examples of collaboration between industry and education, government and industry, and government and education. MI2’s concept is to bring those collaborations under one roof to form an ecosystem, guide it, and empower it to drive innovation and shape the future of the metal industry.
 

The Prayer Warriors Monday Morning Community was founded by Roger Griggs and Steve Campbell.  The group has a call each Monday morning at 7:00 AM Eastern Time.  We dedicate our first efforts of the new week to encourage one another, please the Lord and make Satan angry.  Below is a prayer for you:

Father God, walk beside me as I endure the challenges of today. Give me the strength I need to challenge the week ahead. May I walk in faith and in Your strength. Send Your
angels to guard over me throughout this week, as You lead me into my divine purpose.Bless all that I lay my hands upon. In Jesus’ mighty name I pray,
Amen

A principled service provider delivering high quality, individualised care and support within a person-centred approach.

CareTech supports adults with complex needs and care for children and young people, offering carefully designed programmes in specialist services, many of which have schools and residential services attached.

Capital Connections at the Optimize 2022 conference is where investors and entrepreneurs have the opportunity to connect and meet.  As the world leading aging innovation discovery group, Aging2.0 is assembling world class investors and innovators in Louisville, KY during the Optimize 2022 conference.  Investors will have the opportunity to meet other investors who are helping to grow amazing companies that provide tremendous financial opportunities, but also have a major societal impact.  This will help promote the syndication of investments between these various investors.  Innovations are becoming more important every day as the aging population requires more and more resources.  Capital Connections will also connect investors with innovators who are directly addressing the challenges associated with our aging population.  

Founded in 2012 by Katy Fike and Stephen Johnston, Aging2.0 strives to accelerate innovation to address the biggest challenges and opportunities in aging. Aging2.0’s international, interdisciplinary and intergenerational community has grown to 40k+ innovators across 31 countries. Aging2.0 was acquired by CEOc (formerly Louisville Healthcare CEO Council) in 2022 moving the headquarters from San Francisco, CA to Louisville, KY. This acquisition is exciting as it broadens the resources, network, and engagement.

Our volunteer-run chapter network, which spans over 130 cities, has hosted more than 1,000+ events around the world. 

The University of Kentucky has a broad range of resources centered on a single campus in the heart of the Bluegrass. Our wide array of programs allows us to excel in multidisciplinary studies and fosters an environment of cooperative engagement across all colleges, programs, and research endeavors. Because of the lives we touch and teach, we remain anchored in our mission to Kentucky– to educate, innovate, heal, and serve. To be sure, our complex, multi-faceted mission looks different today in many ways than it did in 1865. However, our sense of responsibility to our communities on campus and across the region is resolute. The mission has evolved and grown. The vision of service to our Commonwealth and the world beyond remains the same. They remain our compass – the soul of the University of Kentucky.