Note: This is the abbreviated version of a 2015 recap letter that was sent out to the entire Awesome Inc community at the end of 2015. To see the complete letter click here.

For a quick recap of 2015 - see the infographic below -

“Before joining Awesome Inc, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I hadn’t done much programming before. I spent a lot of my time at Awesome Inc learning more about programming and found out that I really liked it. Now I’m going to get my masters degree in Computer Science from University of Illinois.”

That is a quote from one of our recent Team Alpha members, Michael Zhang.

As we reflect on the last year and usher in a new one I’d like to remind us all of the purpose for everything we’re working on.

Our Purpose (Why): Awesome Inc exists to help people pursue their definition of awesome.

A lot of times that includes helping people find their definition of awesome first. Most of the time people just need permission to try something. We live in a world where more and more rules are being created and where it’s more and more advised to play it safe. People constantly tell you that you shouldn’t do this or you can’t do that. I’m not just thinking of the obvious rules like, “Don’t go over the speed limit”, “Don’t take that on the plane”, or “Don’t enter through that door”. But subtle rules of society like, “If you don’t follow these steps you can’t be successful”.

There is a reason why the first rule in the list of Awesome Inc rules is: “All rules are meant to be bent or broken.”

When Luke and I set out to start Awesome Inc we wanted to create a place where people could challenge the status quo and be around other people that wanted more than just a “normal” life.

To quote a cartoon character from Kung Fu Panda, “If you only do what you think you can do you will never be more than you are now”. Awesome Inc is meant to be a place where people (not just ideas) grow. Growth can be uncomfortable. It can be scary, risky, and often involves lots of failure along the way. I recall Jon Weece, lead pastor at Southland Christian Church, saying, “We aren’t called to live a safe life.”

I believe that to my core. A safe life isn’t conducive to growth. Communities aren’t transformed by it’s people playing it safe or doing the “normal thing”.

If our purpose at Awesome Inc is to help people pursue their own definition of awesome, then we must create an environment where people are pushed out of their comfort zone to identify and go after their dreams. Success is praised, but failure needs to be an acceptable outcome. The only unacceptable behavior is not trying.

————- Our Core Values ————-

You can’t build a great organization on a weak foundation. The longevity of anything in this world is dependent upon being built on solid foundation. One of the reasons I am so confident in our longevity and future success is that everything we are doing is built upon the foundation of our core values. No matter what current or new initiative we choose to spend our time on, these four core values will be at the heart of it. Every decision we make, every action we take, every obstacle we overcome is centered around the four core values below.

This in and of itself is exciting. But even more exciting is the idea that we get to spread our core values throughout the community as we build our organization up. And by spreading these core values we make the community a better place to live and work within.

As our sphere of influence expands and our organization grows it becomes increasingly more important to not only have a solid foundation built upon these core values but also to reinforce that foundation regularly. We must consistently revisit these four words and trust that by following them in our work and living them out daily in our actions we are maximizing the potential of achieving our goals.

————— Our Team / Transitions ———–

The thing that I am by far the most proud of at Awesome Inc is our people. We’ve built an incredible team of high potential individuals that deserve all the credit for our success.

When you join the team at Awesome Inc you’re not just accepting a job. You’re adopting a lifestyle. Core Value #3 at Awesome Inc is “Be a Friend”. This means that we do more than just work together. We live our lives together. We have fun together. We hold each other accountable to our goals. We make each other better people.

Our team has experienced some growth and change over the past year.

My favorite part of my job is getting to work with and develop the outstanding people that come through the doors of Awesome Inc. This inevitably leads to the least favorite part of my job which is from time to time watching those people move onto pursue their dreams in a place other than Awesome Inc.

I don’t have kids, but I imagine the feeling of having your kids move away after landing their dream job or being accepted to their favorite college is a similar feeling. It’s a feeling of sadness, but at the same time an incredible sense of pride and happiness for that individual.

This year, we got to help several team members pursue their definition of awesome. Melo (formerly known as Melanie) was a team member of Awesome Inc for two years doing design work and then later served as an assistant director. Maggie was our designer for over a year at Awesome Inc. Both found great opportunities and are we’re very proud to have them representing the Awesome Inc alumni in their respective positions. Melanie and Maggie’s DNA is all all over the brand of Awesome Inc and it will forever be passed onto anything we pursue.

Garrett is another key member of the Awesome Inc team that has been with us off and on for 5 years. With the help of Awesome Inc he found his passion in construction. He is now killing it for a local construction and building company, Andover Construction. The work Garrett did for Awesome Inc will live on through the cultural impact he has had with Team Alpha and the physical impact he has had on our space.

There are many others that Awesome Inc has had to say goodbye to in 2015 and each of them played an important role in getting us to where we are today.

We also ushered in several new team members in 2015. We hired a new Director of Operations, Emily Andrews. Emily has been with us for 3 months now and is already playing a critical role in managing the co-working space, managing team alpha, and taking over events like 5 Across and the Kentucky Entrepreneur Hall of Fame. Brittany Durham joined our team in November as our designer. Her imprint was immediately made as she developed designs for the Kentucky Entrepreneur Hall of Fame, Awesome Fellowship, and several APAX projects. The APAX team added several new team members including Senior Developers Chris Allen and Wei-Keat Kong as well as Junior Developers Dustin Peerce and Ashir Amin. Team Alpha is strong in the “Calipari Era”, constantly reloading talent and high potential team members.

As our organization continues to grow we will work to find a long term place for some of our team members and assist others in finding a place where their ambitions and passions take them.

And no matter where any Awesome Inc’er ends up, we will forever follow CV #3 with each other.

————— Updates on each of our primary initiatives ———–

We’ve had a very successful year at Awesome Inc. All of our initiatives have reached or exceeded the goals that we set at the beginning of 2015. Everyone on this team plays a critical part in the success of each of these initiatives and the success of each of these initiatives leads to us to furthering our purpose of being able to help more people in the community pursue their passion. The success of these initiatives also makes our community stronger and Lexington a better place to live and work. As I mentioned earlier, our team deserves all the credit for this success.

Here is a quick overview of the progress each of our primary initiatives have made in 2015.

APAX Software

Our oldest and most mature company, APAX Software, is a cornerstone for the impact that the Awesome Inc community is able to make.

The team members at APAX are the unsung heroes for the startup community in Kentucky. Year after year this team moves forward like a steady, consistent machine. MLB player Cal Ripken, Jr. (aka “The Iron Man”) played a record setting 2,632 games in a row…but he has nothing on the APAX team when it comes to consistency. APAX is the fuel that keeps the Awesome Inc community operating.

APAX set out to grow revenues 20% in 2015 and maintain a steady profit margin from 2016. The team crushed that goal and grew by more than 40% and profits margins also increased!

Congratulations to the APAX team for another great year! Expect even more exciting things from this team in 2016.

Awesome Inc U

We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn to code. And those that do will have an inherent advantage in the future economy.

Nick Such, founder of Awesome Inc and Director of Awesome Inc U, leads the efforts of our coding school which we launched 2.5 years ago. This year, the one metric that matters for Awesome Inc U was student-hours taught. We had a goal of 2,856. In 2015 we taught 2,880 student-hours. This initiative experienced a 20% increase in revenue and for the first year was profitable.

The future direction of Awesome Inc U will continue to include our offerings for K-12 students as well as an additional focus on teaching adults advanced programming. Awesome Inc U has plans to launch a 3 month intense bootcamp for adults interested in computer programming as a profession. The bootcamp will teach participants various programming languages and by the end of the 3 months find them a job as a junior developer with an employer partner. The below graphic is the inspiration for the launch of the Awesome Inc U bootcamp.

Congratulations to the Awesome Inc U team on a great year!

Awesome Fellowship

The Awesome Fellowship Program is another initiative at Awesome Inc that is thriving. The Awesome Fellowship Program is our flagship program for supporting entrepreneurs. A competitive application process on the front end and a rigorous year of mentorship, accountability, and training sessions create an experience of a lifetime for the participating startups. Coming off it’s second year, the portfolio of companies that the Fellowship Program supports is impressive. To date, 14 companies have participated in the program. Those companies have created over 40 jobs and raised over $2.5M of outside funding.

The program sets (and crushes) annual fundraising goals of it’s own as well. In 2015, the program was fully funded by the end of Q1. Going into the new year, the program is almost already fully funded for 2016.

Congratulations to the Awesome Fellowship team on another solid year!

Awesome Inc

The core Awesome Inc team supports all of the aforementioned initiatives as well as everything else that we do. This includes things like the co-working space, the events we host, our internship program (Team Alpha), and other community outreach programs. Basically, everything you see in this (hard to see) graphic below. Click here for larger view.

Here are a few key metrics for 2015 for a few of the initiatives:

Co-working space - 16 companies served 5 Across - 6, events, 30 pitches Entrepreneur Hall of Fame - 4 new inductees, 2 new emerging entrepreneurs, 250 attendees Startup Weekend - 45 participants, 7 teams formed Cherub Fund - 3 investments Joy Project - 2 projects completed

————— What’s next ———–

The future looks bright for Awesome Inc and its mission. Building a startup community is a 20 year journey and we’re just getting started. Awesome Inc turns 7 years old in 2016.

If you’re still reading this then you’re the exact kind of person we want to get involved in the startup community. It’s likely you believe deep down in what we are doing and are motivated to keep growing the high tech startup community in Kentucky. We will depend on you even more than ever as we embark into the next stage of our journey. With the help of people like you we’ve created something really special over the last several years and it is now time to take it to the next level.

Nothing incredible happens from the efforts of a single person. It takes a team working towards a common goal to accomplish greatness. Lastly, this means higher expectations both internally and externally. The community is going to expect more from us and we need to expect more from ourselves.

A few areas of focus that will get us to the next level:

• A culture of excellence - In 2016, we need to continue to focus on ways to raise the bar in everything we do. How do we attract more high potential team members? How do we increase our productivity on a daily basis? How do we make an even bigger impact? How do we stay hungry and passionate about what we’re doing? The answer to these questions leads to a culture of excellence and CV #2 demands nothing less of our organization.

• Fanatic Discipline - Discipline is the consistency of action. Jim Collins, author of Great By Choice, write about how the most successful companies have the “inner will to do whatever it takes to be great”. This type of discipline is self-discipline and it’s fanatic. It involves setting, measuring, and being relentless in achieving performance markers that are ambitious but also within your control to reach. These performance markers must be achieved with great consistency. Trying hard or having good intentions doesn’t count. Remember - whatever it takes to be great.

If this sounds like the type of journey that you want to be on then I look forward to sharing an exciting, adventurous, and rewarding 2016 with you.

Rule #4: Always do something awesome over something not awesome!

Best, Brian Raney Founder, Awesome Inc