How Louisville leads the charge in the Rise of the Rest?!

Wow, way to go Louisville! 

A couple weeks ago, we posted a message from Tommy Wallace from PNC Bank requesting everyone in the city to go to the Rise of the Rest website and vote for Louisville in the Bring Back the Bus contest.  I also saw many posts, emails, and tweets from our entire startup community promoting the vote.  Aaaaannndddd…..     Louisville won!!!!

This is pretty amazing, and it’s a great example of what Louisville can do with our vibrant startup ecosystem and strong city pride.

For those who don’t know, Steve Case and his Revolution VC firm are running an ongoing bus tour and campaign called Rise of the Rest.  The goal of the organization is to find the cities in the midwest that have the potential to be fantastic startup communities.  Rise of the Rest promotes Steve’s belief that other cities (besides Silicon Valley, New York, and Boston) are going to become fantastic hubs of startup activity.

Well, winning this contest shows that Louisville really CAN and WILL be a Rise of the Rest City.  As a matter of fact, we can do it with or without anyone’s help, as long as we continue to show such amazing interest in our startup community and such incredible effort by our whole city.

We all should be extremely grateful for the efforts of Chuck Denny and Tommy Wallace of PNC Bank for their tireless efforts.  It’s my understanding that they really and truly went to incredible lengths to get Steve Case here in the first place and then put forth significant efforts for Louisville to be even considered for the Bring Back the Bus vote.

Let’s not lose our momentum.  The next step with Steve Case is that he’ll be here next year to lead another cheerleading session and invest $100,000 in a local startup.  In the meantime:

Let’s continue to accelerate our existing, amazing startup community!

Let’s support all the new efforts that are going on like 1804!

Let’s become a Rise of the Rest City by cultivating support from the ENTIRE COMMUNITY!

Next week, Metro Startup Launcher will be announcing our first 2 companies that are launching crowdfunding campaigns.  They both have fully developed products, experienced teams, and the potential for HUGE growth.

Help us continue to grow our entrepreneurial ecosystem by encouraging more people to subscribe to Metro Startup Launcher and invest in local startups!