Kelly Reeser, Panama City Beach

Managing Director, TechFarms Capital

Throughout her house, 17 jigsaw puzzles in various states of completion made up what Kelly Reeser and her family called Reeser Puzzlepalooza 2023.

“I can get lost in a puzzle for hours,” Reeser said, “and I have come to the realization that putting pieces together as part of a bigger picture is what I do every day. I love creatively solving problems by bringing different pieces and parts to the table.”

In her role at TechFarms Capital (TFC), Reeser is fundamentally a dealmaker, a role she first aspired to when she worked with Scott Luth as the director of entrepreneurial development at the Greater Pensacola Chamber and then the FloridaWest Economic Development Alliance.

Subsequently, she became the director at a business incubator, CO:LAB Pensacola.

Entrepreneurial development is a small club, and inevitably, the paths of Reeser and Steve Millaway crossed. They talked about successes as well as obstacles in the way of greater achievement. Each recognized that a dearth of capital in Northwest Florida was a problem, one that they resolved to help solve.

Reeser is pleased that in the five years since she joined TechFarms Capital, the capital and resources available to business founders in the region have “grown tremendously.”

Reeser, Millaway and CPA Mort O’Sullivan are the general partners who head up TFC. She values both men for respecting her perspective and “leading me to believe in myself in a way that I had not before.” She credits Kathy Anthony, a coach and meeting facilitator with the CEO network Vistage Florida, for demonstrating the impactfulness of taking a genuine interest in others. And she is grateful to Luth for schooling her in the art of the deal.

“Of course, your parents are your first mentors, and I remember so well the sound my mother’s high heels made on our tile kitchen floor when I was a girl,” Reeser said. “It was inspirational somehow. It made me want to stand a little taller.”

Reeser graduated from Tate High School in Pensacola, earned a bachelor’s degree in Latin American studies at Southern Methodist University while minoring in chemistry and studied in Buenos Aires at the Universidad Nacional de San Martin on her way to a master’s degree in development management and policy awarded by Georgetown University.

Today, her outlook on entrepreneurship is mature, the product of dealings with scores of founders.

“Entrepreneurship isn’t to be taken lightly nor should it be feared,” Reeser said. “So many people get stuck in coming up with the next big idea, but it’s really about identifying a problem you’re uniquely qualified to solve and being audacious enough to take action.”

Reeser has goals that she has not gotten around to meeting. She would like to practice medicine, learn to play the violin and become an aviator. Audacious? Certainly. Achievable? Maybe.

It’s just a matter of putting the pieces together.

Kelly Reeser was nominated for the 2024 Pinnacle Award by Steve Millaway, Managing Director, TechFarms Capital.

Videography by The Workmans