Hundreds of founders, investors and aspiring entrepreneurs gathered at Union Hall in Cincinnati for StartupCincy Week 2026, looking to make connections, exchange ideas and learn from others who have experience building businesses.

As a writer who’s next professional task will be growing a newsletter on entrepreneurship, I, too, needed to gain some wisdom. 

Over four days of programming, I heard from founders about the challenges of running a business, the lessons they’ve learned, and their perspectives on the region’s startup ecosystem.

Here are a few of my biggest takeaways from StartupCincy Week 2026.

One of the major takeaways from StartupCincy Week 2026, specifically regarding Kentucky, was the noticeable growth of the region’s startup ecosystem infrastructure. Whether it was Blue North, LifeSciKY, Aviatra Accelerators or Northern Kentucky University, regional stakeholders have taken a hands-on approach to developing networks and organizations that support entrepreneurship in the region.

I was a sophomore in college when StartupCincy Week began in 2016, but I imagine, that, at the time, much of the organizational infrastructure surrounding Northern Kentucky’s startup ecosystem either didn’t exist, was dormant or was still in its infancy.

Take LifeSciKY, for example. As I wrote on Thursday, the organization was established in 2022 as a deliberate attempt to capitalize on Covington’s success as a hub for startups in the life sciences and biotechnology industries. At the time, Covington was home to companies such as Gravity Diagnostics, Bexion Pharmaceuticals, CTI and others that helped the city of 40,000 people establish a recognizable reputation within those industries.

The state of Kentucky’s investment in the organization, through a budgetary allocation, was championed by lawmakers as a purposeful investment in the startup ecosystem that could help grow the industry as a whole.

Today, that investment is visible through the existence of LifeSciKY and the role it plays in the region’s and state’s broader entrepreneurial ecosystems. If state and local stakeholders across Kentucky continue to invest their time and money, we can reasonably expect these investments to bear more fruit.

Furthermore, with this organizational infrastructure in place, aspiring entrepreneurs may find it easier to enter the startup ecosystem. Established networks, funding opportunities and resources are now at founders’ disposal, potentially increasing their likelihood of success.

In many ways, StartupCincy Week’s inclusion of Kentucky-based speakers and founders felt like a recognition of the investments made in the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem over the past decade. With much of the infrastructure now in place, the coming decade will offer a clearer picture of how those investments translate into new founders, growing companies and success stories.

Failure is baked into the cake of running a startup. Even with past successes, there’s always the possibility that a business could eventually fail.

That’s why I found it interesting when Jake Rouse, co-founder and CEO of Covington-based Braxton Brewing, said he was currently experiencing the most challenging period of his career.

“I would argue that right now is probably the hardest part of my career,” he said on Oct. 6. “Culturally, there's a challenge. Financially, there's a challenge. The biggest advice that I can give everybody that's doing this is you have to find the will to continually show up, even when it's impossible.”

The beer market is facing headwinds as changing drinking habits, particularly among Gen Z consumers, reshape the industry. Braxton, whose primary focus is craft beer, has had to diversify its beverage offerings to keep up with shifting market demands. There’s no guarantee that every pivot will be successful.

By nearly any measure, Braxton is one of the most successful craft breweries in the region. The company sold its Garage Beer brand to famous NFL stars/podcast hosts Jason and Travis Kelce, who have since helped turn it into a nationally recognized brand. Braxton has also expanded to five brick-and-mortar locations across Greater Cincinnati, while its beers have become staples at bars and restaurants throughout the region. And yet, despite all that success, Rouse acknowledges that running the business still comes with its fair share of setbacks and failures on a daily basis.

I don’t know if anyone else feels this way, but I find stories about the challenges businesses face just as interesting as their successes. Whether a company ultimately succeeds or fails, there’s usually a compelling story behind the outcome. Sometimes it’s one of perseverance and overcoming obstacles. Other times, it’s a founder reflecting on the decisions they made, what went wrong and the lessons they learned along the way.

80 Acres co-founder Mike Zelkind shared a story of reflection during his talk on Wednesday, Oct. 7. To learn more about his talk, click here. For Zelkind, a combination of market forces, internal decisions and dwindling access to capital contributed to the collapse of 80 Acres. The company announced its closure in August.

If you’ve bought produce from Kroger over the past five years, you may be familiar with 80 Acres’ prepackaged lettuce. The company specialized in vertical farming and experienced rapid growth throughout the 2020s.

Eventually, the company bit off more than it could chew, expanding rapidly through acquisitions before investors decided to pull the plug on additional funding.

What I appreciated most about Zelkind’s reflections was that he still believes in the mission of the vertical farming industry as a whole. As someone who spent more than a decade investing his time and energy into building the company, I’d imagine it would be pretty devastating to see it all disappear so suddenly. From what I gathered, he seemed relatively positive, sharing anecdotes about the challenges the company navigated along the way.

Another aspect I found interesting was his perspective on the company’s legacy within the broader vertical farming industry. He made a telling observation about how he never expected his company to fail. Instead, he envisioned himself as the CEO who would overcome the industry's the prevailing forces and lead 80 Acres to the top of the indoor farming mountain.

Now, Zelkind sees his company as an important predecessor to those that will follow, believing 80 Acres helped push the industry forward and laid the groundwork for future innovation.

I like that framing.

This takeaway is more general, but I think it’s important to write about. The overall vibe I got from StartupCincy Week was one of grit and determination.

When you read that sentence, you’re probably thinking, “Wow, Kenton, that was the corniest thing you’ve ever written.”

I’ve written far cornier things, but the reason I wrote it is because it’s true.

Right now, among the broader public, there seems to be a sense of confusion, apprehension and, at times, outright negativity surrounding tech startups. That’s partly because tech startups have become increasingly associated with artificial intelligence. Public sentiment toward AI has grown more cautious, with several prominent industry leaders routinely warning about the potential dangers of a technology that has become a major driver of investment in the U.S. economy.

Whether you're the founder of an AI startup or working in another industry, StartupCincy Week demonstrated that the prevailing attitude among Greater Cincinnati's entrepreneurs was that they must continue to build. Essentially, the show must go on.

From college students to mid-career professionals, people at different stages of their lives and careers all had a seat at the table. With the expansion of the entrepreneurial ecosystem that I mentioned earlier, people from all walks of life are taking chances on themselves and their ideas.

Cincinnati and Kentucky have sometimes had a reputation for lacking the gumption to take bold risks. Maybe that perception is outdated. What I can say is that, from what I saw this week, there appears to be a growing appetite among founders, investors and other industry players to challenge that perception.