Business
Patrick Henshaw came to Louisville about 4 months ago to lead the Louisville Entrepreneurship Acceleration Partnership (LEAP) as CEO. If you're part of our entrepreneurial community, you've probably seen him speak at an event or two. You've probably heard some of his vision for the local startup world. However, he probably hasn't had time to talk too much about his background. It's become more and more clear with successful entrepreneurial communities around the country that startup communities are more successful when they are lead by entrepreneurs. Well, when you hear his story, you'll see that Patrick has real, in-the-trenches, entrepreneurial experience, including pitching many, many, many angels before getting his first investment. In this podcast, you'll learn about his entrepreneurial journey and more, including his real life combat experience, which earned him a Bronze Star. You'll also find out what Patrick has learned from 4 months on the job and his thoughts about the growth and success of our startup community. So enjoy the latest MetroStart podcast with Patrick Henshaw. Transcript (machine transcribed, so please forgive the typos) Alan: 00:02 Hey everybody, welcome to the MetroStart podcast. This is Alan Grosheider. And today I'm talking to Patrick Henshaw . He's the CEO that was just brought in about four months ago to run the label entrepreneurship acceleration, partnership or leap. And uh, we've met a number of times that I've seen him speak a number of times at events. And, uh, with this podcast we're going to kind of dig a little deeper into who Patrick is and how he's qualified to help us bring our startup community together and accelerate this startup community. So, Hey Patrick. Patrick: 00:37 Hey Alan. How are you? Alan: 00:39 I'm doing all right. We've, we've already had our discussion about the weather so we can, Patrick: 00:44 right. I'm more impressed not only at the weather but the fact that you knew the entirety of leaping its acronym of Louisville Entrepreneurship acceleration partnership. That's good. Alan: 00:54 Well that's the benefit of being able to sit on my computer while we're having the interview. Cause I'm looking at here at your linkedin profile right now. I love it. I can like bending. You're one of those guys like me that has your whole resume on there. And so now I can really just roll through it and pick, you know, try to find things to ask you about some Patrick: 01:14 that's right. Well, it's been quite the journey with, uh, I think we're up to 20 addresses in 20 years now. So literally and physically been all over the place. Alan: 01:23 I, you know, I was rolling through your resume out here and just thinking, man, um, you know, you're, for one thing, you're younger than me and you've in so many places and done so many different things on there. I don't even know how you were able to keep your head on straight while you're doing awesome. Patrick: 01:40 Supporting spouse Alan: 01:41 Yeah, and married to the same person the whole time. Patrick: 01:45 Yeah, exactly. Alan: 01:46 Yeah, that's, that's amazing itself. So once you kind of start with, um, where you grew up and I always like to try to figure out what things in your childhood made you more entrepreneurial than somebody else now what, where, where'd you grow up? What was your childhood like? And you know, we don't have to get into like anything really traumatic rating. Patrick: 02:10 We can, we can go there too. I'm a, I'm a transfer kind of guy. So I grew up in Houston, Texas, uh, born and raised, uh, moved once my entire life. Uh, one, one of the reasons was because of, uh, our neighbors. Uh, their backyard. Well, I'll fast forward the story because it was full of grass. Uh, I, he marijuana, uh, and that was not as kosher as it was as it is moving into today. So it was, it was not a great neighborhood shop of the day, old bread store, you know, uh,