All UTC students, faculty, staff and members of the Chattanooga business community are invited to join the Gary W. Rollins College of Business for the 2023 Entrepreneurship Breakfast from 7:30-9 a.m. on Wednesday (Nov. 1) in the University Center Tennessee Room. Breakfast will be available starting at 7:30 a.m. and the program will begin around 8 a.m.
The event is free, but registration is requested. Learn more and register here.
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TASIA MALAKASIS
CEO The Company Lab (CO.LAB)
AUTHOR OF TASIA’S TABLE, and SOUTHERN MADE FRESH
Tasia Malakasis is the newly minted CEO of The Company Lab (CO.LAB), a nonprofit dedicated to accelerating startups in Chattanooga, TN. Tasia was the former CEO of Belle Chevre, an internationally award-winning creamery, and author of two cookbooks: Tasia’s Table and Southern Made Fresh, published by Southern Living.
Tasia’s passion for entrepreneurship prevails throughout her illustrious career. She has helped to nurture several embryonic businesses to a lucrative exit for their founders. At the heart of it, the exhilaration she’s felt at the beginning of a venture and the satisfaction of spurring its initial growth characterizes her journey.
Tasia has spent close to 30 years working with startups – as a founder, operator and cultivator of executive-leadership teams. An Alabama native with an English literature degree (later given an Alumni of Distinction Award from the University of Alabama in Huntsville), Tasia landed her first job in the early 90’s with a technology startup focused on market data for the nascent internet revolution.
Tasia led national and international sales teams for one of the most celebrated digital marketing tech companies that later sold to Google for $3B. After a half dozen startups under her belt—the majority with very rapid and successful exits—she took a leap of faith and decided to shift her product mindset and deep marketing + sales acumen towards her passion for food.
She then traded her high-powered business suits for an apron and a whisk to purchase, cultivate, and eventually sell an Alabama-based goat cheese creamery, Belle Chevre. Tasia provided the strategic vision, leadership, and creativity required to ensure that the 25-year-old company continued to evolve as one of the country’s most acclaimed artisan creameries.
Tasia feels that the most invigorating moment in the life of a business is not the end, when its owners reap the benefits of a successful exit, but the moment of creation when courage, optimism and brilliance have combined to form a startup. This philosophy led her to join the CO.LAB team in July 2022. Now, Tasia couldn’t be more thrilled to bolster Chattanooga’s entrepreneurial community and lead the charge for startup support.
Tasia Malakasis, chief executive officer of The Company Lab (CO.LAB)