TIETAN awardee: Mitchel Laskey of DeepWork Capital

Part one of a series announcing the winners of TIECON Tampa Bay’s TIETAN awards. 

Mitchel Laskey has a long history of helping companies go public and backing now-flourishing startups, which is why he will earn the title of TIECON Tampa Bay’s Angel Investor of the Year as part of the TIETAN awards. 

Laskey is the co-founder and general managing partner of DeepWork Capital, a venture capital firm investing in early-stage companies in Florida.

“We are very active with a strong focus on Florida certainly, St. Pete and Tampa are key areas for innovation. There’s also Orlando, the whole Interstate 1-4 corridor, Gainesville, Jacksonville and the panhandle. Because our geographics are kind of siloed, if you take a step back, you will see how Pinellas and Hillsborough counties are really shining through,” Laskey said. 

“The landscape for funding has been changing over the last decades. Firms like DeepWork and Florida Funders didn’t exist then, and now do we not only exist, we are helping young companies receive funding and have successful exits, and that money gets redeployed into the economy and we are able to do larger financing,” he added. 

DeepWork has 30 companies in its portfolio, with the majority based in Florida. 

Last year, DeepWork invested in its first woman-led unicorn company Stax, formerly FattMerchant. DeepWork was the first investor of the Orlando-based firm. 

Another recent success story is DeepWork’s investment in Miramar-based HCW Biologistics. DeepWork was its first institutional investor and helped the company achieve an IPO (Initial Public Offering) of $56 million. 

As far as what’s currently in the hopper, Laskey said DeepWork is preparing to launch a new capital fund later this year. 

In addition to being a leader at DeepWork, Laskey is also on the Board of Directors for Cogent Bank, which focuses on providing flexible, innovative and forward-thinking services throughout its eight locations across Florida.

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Previously, on the entrepreneur side, Laskey said the highlight of his career was when he served as the CEO and founder of Orlando-based Dynamic Healthcare Technologies Inc. and had the opportunity to testify before Congress regarding Homeland Security issues. 

Laskey will receive the TIETAN award during the annual marquee event that spotlights entrepreneurs from all over the world. 

The TIECON Tampa Bay 2022 event will be held at Julian B Lane Park in downtown Tampa on Thursday, Sept. 8, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

At TIECON (formerly called TiECON), TIE Tampa Bay will also recognize and present the TIETAN awards for Startup of the Year, Super Entrepreneur of the Year, Social Entrepreneur of the Year and Community Champion of the Year.