Sam Ford

Just finished recapping a busy second half of 2025 in my latest newsletter update. Link in comments. Give me a holler if it connects to something you’re working on! Hope everyone has a great holiday season. open.substack.com/pub/samfordky/…

Last night, InnoEngine was proud to be honored by @BFLouisville as a Startup to Watch in 2026. Great to see so many friends/collaborators from across Kentucky’s innovation ecosystem and for our team to join founders from three other startups to represent our HQ city @CityofBGKY!

Thanks to the team @HarvardAsh for including our civic imagination work in Bowling Green on @bg2050project and our What Could BG Be? initiative conducted with the @Google @Jigsaw team in this review of deliberative public input technologies. ash.harvard.edu/resources/the-…

Final reminder: tomorrow is our Startup Garden with CREATE Programs Director Buddy Steen and @WarrenCountyGov Judge Executive @DougGorman1, moderated by CREATE Innovation Fellow @Sam_Ford. RSVP here: eventbrite.com/e/startupgarde…

Enjoyed talking our BG 2050 work at InnoEngine & applying civic imagination to Massively Multistakeholder Ongoing Regional Placemaking Groups & to wide-scale public deliberation alongside @sangitacivics recently for the Getting Smart podcast. gettingsmart.com/2026/02/19/wha…

It’s been a pleasure working on a Massively Multistakeholder Ongoing Regional Placemaking Group project (yes, MMORPG) harnessing civic imagination methods to imagine and build the future place we want to see with @bg2050project. We will discuss that and lots more!

Our region just north of Nashville is growing fast. And we know that tech-enabled and innovation-led talent and companies will play a significant role in the next 25 years. Come join us! RSVP: eventbrite.com/e/startupgarde…

Honored to be profiled by the great team at The Onion! Thanks for calling attention to my work. theonion.com/guys-entire-jo…

We have coined my favorite acronym in a long time now at InnoEngine, and you can’t stop us! Massively Multistakeholder Ongoing Regional Placemaking Groups (MMORPGs) bizjournals.com/louisville/c/s…

“We started InnoEngine to support people who want to do this kind of work, but need help. They might not have the internal support, vocabulary, or structure to do it alone. So we create the space.”

Thanks to Peter Spear for inviting me on his latest That Business of Meaning podcast! “We realized we were chasing the same questions—and we had independently developed similar approaches…” open.substack.com/pub/thatbusine…

Had a great time talking our founding of InnoEngine with Harry Thornberry for his 1760 Sessions podcast across the pond in the UK recently. youtube.com/watch?v=HG5mUF…

Today’s @BFLouisville profiles our company, InnoEngine, as one of the KY Inno Startups to Watch in 2026. Thanks, y’all! bizjournals.com/louisville/c/s…

Next Tuesday, if you’re in our home Commonwealth of Kentucky or the surrounding area—come join our InnoEngine team at @BFLouisville’s Startups to Watch! We are proud to be honored alongside 21 other tech-enabled and innovation-led companies. bizjournals.com/louisville/inn…

Entrepreneurs: You won’t want to miss this one! RSVP: eventbrite.com/e/startupgarde… Next week, CREATE’s Buddy Steen joins @WarrenCountyGov’s @DougGorman1 to talk about the BG 2050 initiative and priorities for the economy of the region over the next 25 years, moderated by @Sam_Ford.

You never know…

During the holidays, I published a look back at what I’ve been up to in the second half of 2025 at InnoEngine and otherwise. If you see any points of connection with what you’re working on, please be in touch! open.substack.com/pub/samfordky/…

.@Sam_Ford: Placemaking will become a priority (again) for local/regional media niemanlab.org/2025/12/placem…

Thanks to all our clients, our collaborators, and all of you who have supported us on the first year of our journey. We appreciate you so very much.

Wow. Amanda Havard, Vijay Kamineni, and I started 2025 with the official launch of our company InnoEngine. We are wrapping the year with news that we've been named one of the 22 young companies to watch here in Kentucky by @BFLouisville. bizjournals.com/louisville/new…