Meet Lesa Seibert

I am the founder of JCLA Ventures, a Louisville business brokerage, and a lifelong Kentuckian who has spent more than 27 years building businesses and serving our region’s civic, government, and nonprofit communities.

I started my career in corporate accounting with Kroger and Columbia HCA, so I read a company’s financials the way a buyer, a lender, and an owner will. In 2000 I left to start my own companies, most notably Mightily, a Louisville branding and web agency that has worked with Old Forester, Brown-Forman, Kroger, Zappos, Seagate, and Metro United Way. I also built Xstreme Media, a website development and digital marketing company for small businesses. Along the way I co-founded Bourbon Barrel Foods, owned two restaurants, launched PickguardFX, a guitar accessories company that partnered with Fender Guitars, co-founded SimplerHOA, an HOA management company, and have built a practice as a licensed commercial and residential real estate professional with simpler.realestate and simplercommercial.com. I know firsthand what it takes to start, grow, and run a business, and how much of an owner’s life is tied up in it when it’s time to make a change.

For 12 years I served on the Louisville Regional Airport Authority Board and chaired its Finances, Facilities, and Operations Committee. I also served for 6 years on the Board of Directors of Airports Council International North America and its U.S. Policy Council. I was appointed by Governor Beshear to his transition team. By his appointment, I currently serve on the Team Kentucky Council on Small Business and Entrepreneurship and chair the Kentucky Commission on Small Business Innovation and Advocacy, where I have served for 6 years, including 4 years as chair.

I have served on the boards of GLI, the KFC Yum! Center, and River Heritage Conservancy. I’m a member of the International Women’s Forum, the Forbes Business Council, CCIM, KREE, OneLouisville, and NAWBO, where I served as National Secretary. I write published thought leadership for Forbes and the Business Journals, and I’ve been honored as Business First’s Enterprising Woman of the Year and GLI’s Small Business Leader of the Year.

Whether you’re selling the company you built or buying your next one, think of me as your strategic partner, advocate, and occasional voice of reason when emotions get involved.

For my clients, all of this means working with someone who has sat in the owner’s chair, understands the numbers behind a valuation, and has strong relationships with the region’s decision makers, lenders, and investors.