Founders

 Nathan Fort

Nathan co-founded Awesome Inc. in 2008 to create, improve, and expand the entrepreneur community in the Bluegrass. During his undergraduate studies, Nathan teamed up with co-founders Brian Raney and Luke Murray to expand the UK Bookexchange into a nationwide service, Bookexchange.com. He has a passion for business and an entrepreneur spirit to match. Nathan will graduate from the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law in Spring 2012, where he will focus on business planning, mergers and acquisitions, and securities regulations. During law school Nathan has worked extensively on patent research and intellectually property issues. He is a member of the University of Louisville Law Review, Moot Court Board Director/Competitor, and a trained mediator. He volunteers in his free time as a mediator for the Jefferson County Court. When Nathan is not reading or studying, he enjoys fiddling with technology, investment trading, and traveling.

   Luke Murray

Luke graduated from UK a year early summa cum laude with a BS in the Business Administration of Medicine in 2004 and started Bookexchange.com with Brian Raney that same year. He received his MBA from UK, in 2006, again graduating summa cum laude. He worked for UK hospital from 2006-2007 in process improvement, then the Southwestern Company in the summer of 2007, finishing in the top 2% of salespeople. He started Awesome Inc with Brian Raney in the Spring of 2009 with the goal of attracting and retaining the highest potential people in the areas of technology, creativity, and entrepreneurship. Luke completed Medical School at the University of Kentucky in 2013. He likes to play guitar and piano...and to talk too much sometimes.

 Brian Raney

After earning a Computer Science degree from the University of Kentucky, Brian completed his Master’s Degree in Economics. Brian founded his first software company, Sfenity, before graduating from college. After overseeing its merger with APAX Software, Brian served as the company’s CEO through its transition from a small web design firm to a top resource for mobile app development. Brian co-founded the Young Entrepreneurs of Lexington organization in 2008, before founding Awesome Inc, a startup accelerator and entrepreneur epicenter in 2009. He was honored as the Lexington Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2010. Brian also serves as the Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Kentucky. He coaches competitive soccer and is a phenomenal ping pong player.

    Nick Such

Nick helped launch Awesome Labs to better connect collegiate engineering students with entrepreneurial opportunities. An alumnus of the University of Kentucky's College of Engineering, Nick led the UK Solar Car Team to it's highest ever finish: 2nd place at FSGP 2009. Before Awesome Inc, he gained engineering and venture capital experience with GE, Toyota, and KSTC. For a few years, Nick thought that he wanted to get an MBA, but after gaining admission offers from Harvard and Stanford, he turned down both to continue pursuing BuildingLayer, a startup that evolved from out of the first class of the Awesome Labs program. Nick also enjoys riding all types of bicycles, "reading" audiobooks, and blogging, but seldom all three simultaneously.