2026 Kentucky Entrepreneur Hall of Fame inductee and V-Soft founder Purva Veer started climbing mountains to challenge himself.
Veer has summited several famous peaks throughout his nascent climbing career, including Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount Whitney, and Mount Everest Base Camp. As a lifelong entrepreneur, he admitted that climbing taught him a lesson business could not – the ability to stop and appreciate how far he has come.
“The mountains taught me something the office did not,” he said. “When you reach the top, you stop. You turn around. You look back down the ridge you came up, and you let yourself feel it. The view has not changed. You have.”
Veer was among four entrepreneurs inducted into the Kentucky Entrepreneur Hall of Fame during a ceremony Nov. 4 at the Central Bank Center in Lexington. Employees, family members and friends participated in the ceremony, sharing personal stories and memories of the inductees.
In addition to Veer, the inductees were John Neace, founder of Neace Lukens; Roger Griggs, founder of Richwood Pharmaceuticals; and the late Ervin Houchens, founder of Houchens Industries. The group joined a storied group of over 60 other inductees, each of whom was deemed to have made significant contributions to the state’s economy and business community.
Read more about each 2026 inductee's career here.
Each inductee had the opportunity to reflect on their entrepreneurial journey before an audience of their contemporaries. Their words were marked by gratitude, with a recurring emphasis on giving back to Kentucky, a state each credited in different ways with contributing to their success.
“The next time you're driving through this fabulous state of ours and you see a beautiful oak tree, just take one second and remember that giant oak tree started from one crazy little nut that said, 'I'm not moving. I'm staying here, and I'm accomplishing this," Veer said.
Business success was the common binding agent that brought the inductees together. People often measure that success by revenue or company scale. Each speaker, however, defined their legacies through the positive impact their careers had on their employees, families and communities.
Getting there, though, requires personal sacrifice and tenacity, as entrepreneurship demands perseverance through inherent hardships.
“The key learning is that if you're in a storm, don't assume that you're on the wrong path. You might be exactly where you're supposed to be,” said Jake Griggs, the son of inductee Roger Griggs.
Neace illustrated the importance of perseverance in entrepreneurship with a story about his ancestor, Roger Turner, who served in the Revolutionary War. After falling ill, Turner returned home to recover, but later rejoined the fighting, determined to see the war through.
“When we get knocked down, we get back up, and when we lose, we still go back,” Neace said. “We learn to laugh about our losses as well as our wins. And if you think about the great Americans like Roger Turner, he didn't have to go back, but he cared enough that he went back. I think that exemplifies the way I hope I try to live my life.”
The Kentucky Entrepreneur Hall of Fame was founded in 2010 by Lexington-based entrepreneurial hub Awesome Inc. and Sustainable Business Ventures Corporation. The organization recognizes business leaders whose contributions have helped shape Kentucky’s economy and preserves their stories to inspire future generations of entrepreneurs.
