Middle Tech Spotlight Series: Dave Knox of Blue North

Dave Knox of Blue North on Empowering Northern Kentucky Entrepreneurs

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Middle Tech
May 23, 2024

May 23th, 2024

In the Spotlight: Dave Knox

Hi friends đź‘‹ Evan here.

Hope everyone had a great weekend! For today’s episode, we’re joined by another past guest - except this one was last on 5 years ago. We originally featured Dave Knox on episode 50 back in 2019, just after he released his book - Predicting the Turn. Today, he joins us to discuss his work empowering entrepreneurs in Northern Kentucky as the Executive Director of Blue North.

For those unaware, Blue North is the KY Innovation hub serving the Northern Kentucky region, based in Covington, Kentucky. If you’re not familiar with the KY Innovations Hub Network, we spend some time breaking it down in this episode as well as all the amazing work that goes into building a healthy entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Key Takeaways

  1. The Importance of Creating Physical Density: Every highly innovative economy has a density of talented entrepreneurs working closely which creates an intoxicating energy and space for connections. Blue North has kicked off their Sparkhaus project which is an exciting co-working office in downtown Covington. This thoughtful project will bring a new dynamic to the ecosystem.

  2. Entrepreneurs Need Mental Health support: Being a founder is about as stressful as it can possibly get in the business world. As a result, founders often struggle with managing their mental health and it can lead to burnout and many other issues that can be detrimental to the entrepreneur and their business. Dave and his team have created the Resilience Accelerator to help educate and support founders on their mental health journey.

  3. Corridor of Commerce: Cincinnati is part of what Dave describes as the “Corridor of Commerce.” Our region contains a DHL hub, Amazon hub, UPS hub, and several of the busiest highways in the US. This supply chain heaven provides a platform for entrepreneurs focused on logistics, robotics, and ecommerce to build great businesses close to their customers.

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