What partners give
- Workspace and desks for venture teams
- Mentors who have built and sold companies
- Free access to events students could not otherwise attend
- Funding, tools, or credits where it fits
Sponsors & partners
Back the founders.
The HIVE is where student founders at the University of Kentucky find their first real resources. Partnering with us puts your organization in front of them before anyone else does.
How the partnership works
We sit between students and the people who can help them.
The HIVE is not asking for a donation. It is a trade, and both sides get something they actually want.
What partners get
- First look at student founders, years before anyone else
- A pipeline into your programs, cohorts, and subscriptions
- Early investment access to student ventures
- Your name on the community these founders came up in
Students who commit to a venture team get the keys to what our partners provide. Partners get a filtered group of motivated founders who already know how to show up and do the work. Nobody is doing anybody a favor.
Why partner with us
What you get out of it.
Meet founders first
These students will start companies. Being the organization that helped at the beginning is worth more than reaching them after.
A real pipeline
Members who outgrow the club flow into partner programs, accelerators, and subscriptions. We are the front of that funnel.
Get in at the ground floor
The HIVE is new. Early partners help decide what it becomes, which is not on offer once an organization is established.
Shape what gets built
Set a challenge, mentor a team, or speak. Partners can put a real problem in front of students for a semester.
Where it goes
What support pays for.
Concrete things, not line items on a budget nobody reads.
Venture funding
The pool our venture teams compete for. This is the piece that turns a semester project into something that can actually launch.
Prototyping costs
Materials, components, software, and hosting. The unglamorous expenses that stop student projects more often than bad ideas do.
Events and speakers
Space, food, and bringing in founders worth hearing from. Food is not a frivolous line at a student club. It is what gets people in the room.
Current partners
Who already works with the HIVE.
Awesome Inc
Lexington’s startup hub. Our members get workspace, mentors, and free access to Awesome Inc events.
Lewis Honors College
The HIVE is powered by the Lewis Honors College at the University of Kentucky.
Let's talk
Start a conversation.
Tell us what you are hoping to get out of a partnership and we will find the version that works.