Our Story

2008 - 2015: From Conversation to Conference

What started as a conference slowly became something more. Professional connections deepened into a genuine network, and that network grew into a community — one where people knew each other beyond work, shaped by a shared, lived-out faith. Brian MacKay, serving as M1's Executive Director, was a key figure in that evolution, helping guide conversations and building relationships on a personal level. Lukas Naugle, leading operations within M1, brought the organizational energy that helped shape a dispersed network into a true community.

When Access Ventures, a Louisville, KY-based private operating foundation, came alongside LX in 2015, Bryce Butler stepped in to continue the work Brian had begun — carrying the vision forward and helping it find new footing. Together, they sharpened the mission and expanded its reach across marketplace, nonprofit, and entrepreneurial circles.

2019 - 2024: Taking Root

2015 - 2019: From Conference to Community

By 2019, a founding board of Brian MacKay, Bryce Butler, Michael Coors, and Kyle Brown had incorporated LX as a nonprofit — giving form and structure to what had always been at its heart: people, known and invested in.

What followed was a season of growth and deepening. Cohorts expanded. The annual gathering became the anchor of something larger — a community that didn't end when participants went home. Alumni stayed in touch, showed up for each other in crisis, referred trusted friends into the experience, and began to recognize that what they'd found was rare. Peer groups formed. Marriages were strengthened. Careers pivoted. The network quietly did what enduring networks do: it multiplied.

But growth also raised questions worth sitting with. Who is LX for? What does it ask of those who belong? And how does a community built on intentionality stay intentional as it scales?

Those questions didn't have easy answers, but they were the right ones to be asking. And they set the stage for what came next.

2025 - Present: A Community of Choice

In 2025, Access Ventures commissioned an independent study — The Power of Enduring Networks — to examine what LX had actually built over more than a decade. The findings were striking. Drawing on surveys of 142 alumni, focus groups, and in-depth interviews, the research confirmed what many in the community had long felt but never fully named: LX addresses a gap that few other communities even attempt to fill.

High-capacity leaders are often the loneliest people in the room. Surrounded by responsibility and expectation, they have few spaces to be known beyond their role. LX, the research found, changes that. Ninety percent of participants said the community met or exceeded their expectations. More than half credited it with meaningful impact on their professional lives. And perhaps most tellingly, alumni described becoming more present spouses, more empathetic parents, and more generous leaders — not because of content delivered, but because of relationships formed.

That research became more than affirmation. It became a call to clarity.

In response, LX introduced a formal membership model — a deliberate shift in language and intention. Not a program you attend, but a community you choose. Membership signals that belonging here requires something of you: presence, investment, and the willingness to be known. For those who say yes, the expectation is mutual. LX commits to holding space, stewarding relationships, and building the kind of enduring community the research so clearly shows the world needs more of.

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." — 2 Timothy 4:7