Meteoric rise of Cincinnati’s start-up scene underscores why Kentucky excels at being 48th

By Terry Boyd | Published: October 4, 2012

We love a party as much as anyone.

But when we go to Nibletz.com today, the first thing we see on the national start-up site is a post about The Brandery’s big graduation yesterday. Which felt like Cincinnati dancing on our grave.

Not to put too fine a point on it, Louisville is getting killed by Cincinnati. And it’s only going to get worse.

As we reported yesterday, Hunter Hammonds and Austin Cameron have moved Impulcity, their social-media/sharing app, to Cincinnati after getting funded while at the 14-week The Brandery seed-stage start-up accelerator.

This is from the Nibletz post today:

Boy time flies when you’re in an accelerator, or so says Louisville startup Impulcity CEO Hunter Hammonds. Hammonds leads one of the startups selected for the 2012 class at The Brandery accelerator in Cincinnati. His startup, along with CrowdHall from Salt Lake City UT, are two startups we’ve been tracking their entire way through the program. Today, at Great American Ball Park, the home of the Cincinnati Reds, wasn’t about just Impulcity and CrowdHall though. The Brandery graduated 11 startups in all and all of them had great pitches. They pitched to a crowd of at least 300 that was standing room only at the Champions Club over looking the field.

The Brandery has now graduated three classes.

The program has launched 15 start-ups, which have collectively raised about $11 million in total funding, according to the Brandery website.

And we still don’t have a start-up accelerator.

We know former Chrysalis Ventures managing partner Bob Saunders is still trying to put together a business accelerator for health-related software firms. Kentucky’s Economic Development Finance Authority approved a grant of $150,000 … for three years. The money strikes us as almost irrelevant. And does anyone even design software anymore?

Here’s the deal … there’s already a health care-focused accelerator. It’s called “the University of Louisville,” and that’s the one thing they do well.

On the consumer side, which is where the money is, we have bupkus.

This is at the same time Cincinnati business leaders are creating Cintrifuse, with the goal of turning the city into a start-up magnet. The Cintrifuse vision is a network of incubators, with backing from local corporations such as Procter & Gamble.

From TechCrunch:

One of the organization’s biggest contributions will be its newly created fund of funds that will provide startups with early-stage capital, backed by local and national companies and VCs. To wit, the organization has already raised $50 million of its planned $100 million target.

Meanwhile, Kentucky leadership is focused on … coal.

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About the author

Terry Boyd
Terry Boyd has seven years experience as a business/finance journalist, and eight years a military reporter with European Stars and Stripes. As a banking and finance reporter at Business First, Boyd dealt directly with the most influential executives and financiers in Louisville. Click here to read other articles by Terry Boyd.
  • http://www.facebook.com/matthew.kuhl1 Matthew Kuhl

    Don’t worry – according the the Mayor’s FB page, he’s facilitating free training to those folks who want to become Moving Van Drivers. At least we’ll have the talent available to move all of these start up folks to Cincinnati.
    Allow me to beat a dead horse: Why are we about to spend billions on an unneeded bridge, when we should be putting a mere fraction of that to supporting these types of ventures.
    Cincinnati, while not getting rid of it’s riverfront interstate, has at least recognized it for the mistake in planning that it was, and has spent massively to reduce it’s size as it passes through downtown. Oh yeah, they’re putting in a light-rail line too – I’m sure at a fraction of what it’s going to cost Louisville to build a new bridge and highway interchange,

  • RyderCup1

    Seems like the writers for InsiderLouisville are a bit of the “Sky is Falling” ilk. Cincinnati’s Brandery is a direct result of one of the most famous and successful (and controlling) marketing/brand creating companies on the planet being founded and headquartered there. Namely, Proctor & Gamble, aka P&G, Proctor & God. I would say that any company that wants a 14 week submersion in consumer brand nirvana should consider The Brandery. However, it does not mean that the start-up needs to or even should stay in Cincinnati. P&G has lots of money and if they see an idea they like…they will buy it or copy it. End of story/end of start-up.

    The Impulcity guys needed lots of $$$…fast…they got it in Cinci…maybe as a result of The Brandery. I wish them well and hope they consider relocating back to Louisville once the glare of the P&G klieg lites wear off and they figure out the talent and the capital they need is virtually available.

  • http://www.facebook.com/ga.bo.7186 Ga Bo

    LOL…Seriously guy? I guess Silicon Valley didn’t get your memo. Earth to Silicon Valley: There’s no reason for you guys to be clustering there.

  • RyderCup1

    The point of the article was that Cinci is ‘killing Louisville’ because it had 300 people from all over the USA attend The Brandery Graduation for 11 start-ups (who are also from all over the USA). Silicon Valley is what it is because of the Universities in the area #1 and #2 because of the legacy of companies founded there like HP, Oracle and more recently eBay, Yahoo and Google.

    If Cinci is gaining a cluster of consumer focused start-ups….it is because of P&G and its brethren. Louisville needs to stick with what it is doing and expand on it…not copy The Brandery…because it does not have the P&G thing.

    I am sure that Impulcity would have returned to Louisville if they found no $$$$ in Cinci and/or they found that $$$$ in Louisville. The talent excuse is just that…an excuse.

  • jcornel

    Hardly an excuse when every major college in Kentucky is teaching outdated computer languages.

  • http://twitter.com/startuptechguy Startup Tech Guy

    First off I always appreciate the track backs to nibletz from any site, so thank you.

    On to the issue at hand though.

    - Yes Louisville definitely needs an accelerator. Coming from our HQ in Memphis we have to drive through or past Louisville to get to accelerators and events in Cincy, Columbus, Indy etc. It would be nice if someone could put together a full on tech based cohort accelerator

    - There seem to be pockets for a Louisville startup ecosystem. In fact I met one of the girls with StartupKY at the Startup America Regions summit in Chicago earlier this week

    - The Brandery is a top 15 accelerator because of its focus on Branding, they’re kings at it and influenced by their deep roots in P&G, one of the co-founders fathers is the sitting CEO at P&G right now, the GM is a former brand manager at P&G, another co-founder is a principal at Rockfish its all about the branding which is why its so attractive.

    - Most accelerators take startups from across the country and around the world. We were accepted to a bunch throughout the country when we were scouting accelerators ourselves.

    - There are some good Louisville based startups like Beam, WhyWait, Also even though Impulcity accelerated at Brandery and they are staying in Cincinnati for the immediate future, Hunter and Austin are adamant about being “A Louisville startup” as opposed to other teams which consider themselves “Cincinnati Startups”

    - You guys have had some good events too like Startup Palooza and this thing you’re doing for social pitches

    If you guys have read or are reading Brad Feld’s Startup Communities book, you’ve got at least 2 of his 4 foundation pieces down. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us if you have an event or even want to do a couple days worth of showing your startups off. We’ll make the trek to Louisville. One of our co-founders is a big Louisville fan, even named his kid after Hunter S Thompson.

    I can be reached at kyle(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)nibletz.com or @startuptechguy on Twitter. Also our main phone # should be on the about page at the site.

    As for you guys at Insider, keep up the good work

  • BathtubGin

    Cincinnati is also building a thoroughly unnecessary bridge “replacement” for the Brent Spence Bridge which carries interstates 75 and 71 over the Ohio.

    I guess, more accurately, KY is building it, since most of the river is in KY. But the project is being lumped together with widening of 75 through Cincy and northern suburbs. All of it is projected to cost over $3bil.

    Imagine how much lightrail Cincinnati could have for $3bil!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Nate-Wessel/100002013606145 Nate Wessel

    This is accurate. Also, the streetcar is not a great transportation option, perhaps more of a somewhat small and over-hyped economic development project. Not that great things aren’t happening! Just that those aren’t them.

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