Investor Spotlight: Verséa Holdings
September 30, 2022
Verséa is a diversified global healthcare company engaged in scientific discovery, development and commercialization of innovative products and services intended to diagnose, manage, and treat debilitating diseases. Verséa is committed to transforming scientific discoveries into applicable healthcare & wellness solutions that are critical to improving patients’ lives. Research & education remain as the foundation of Verséa’s seven core divisions: Verséa Diagnostics, Verséa Ophthalmics, Verséa Biologics, Verséa Discovery, Verséa Health, Verséa Wellness and Verséa AgroTech.
Sean Fetcho, Co-Founder and CEO
Sean has been involved with early stage and start-up companies for the last 15 years. He has been a co-founder in multiple companies, including a revolutionary packaging technology that sustains the life of produce and flowers while in transit all while killing off food-borne pathogens. Sean has worked alongside major politicians and leading sustainability organizations around the world to develop strategies around fighting global hunger.
In the healthcare industry, Sean successfully created, launched and oversaw a highly profitable set of print and digital publications, targeting oncology, pain management and cardiology professionals. From this experience within the analgesics and co-morbidities in pain space, he quickly realized the opioid epidemic is rapidly growing and that the world is seeking change. He believed Alternative Therapy treatments will be the future and farm bill compliant hemp can be one of these groundbreaking solutions. Verséa was then conceptualized between the founders.
What role do you see Verséa playing in helping to grow Tampa’s life sciences and healthcare industry?
We foresee our company playing a huge role in this. The Company is committed to transforming scientific discoveries into applicable health and wellness solutions that are critical to improving patients’ lives. In achieving this, the company will need to find top talent in the local Tampa market to continue to operate and execute on our now 7 divisions of the Company. We also want to start recruiting heavily out of both USF and UT and to let the younger generation know that there is a healthcare industry thriving right here in their backyard without having to relocate to other regions of the country.
Why do you feel it’s important to support local economic development efforts?
Verséa decided to build its roots here in Tampa for multiple reasons. The city is primed for more and more success over the next few decades and there is so much potential for development of jobs, culture, and the need for higher paying employment opportunities. Verséa wants to continue to assist in spreading and sharing the positive message about all that Tampa Bay has to offer for businesses and for the network we continue to build worldwide. We have already moved and relocated staff here that are finding their new home a great place to live! We will continue to do so over the next 5 years.
What is the number one thing that you believe will impact Tampa Bay’s competitiveness in the coming decade?
The 365-degree approach to the amazing lifestyle here. This area provides more waterfront than any other city in the U.S., we have amazing weather year round, we have an extremely friendly culture and environment where the melting pot of people have poured in from all over the U.S. as well as internationally, we have more and more culture coming in (arts, music, sports, food, etc.), and the ability to work remotely in an everchanging work landscape has allowed for continued growth that won’t stop anytime soon.
You’re a newcomer to the Tampa Bay area. Has anything surprised you? When talking to colleagues from outside the market, what do you tell them about Tampa?
I am a born and bred New Yorker who has a strong opinion about all places and has lived all over the world. When coming down to visit over the past 10 years, I saw such extreme change each time I would come back into town. My friends and colleagues call me Tampa Bay’s best marketer! I have a strong passion about the places I choose to live and I drive several points home that tend to work well: People are great, the weather is great, the lifestyle is great and the positive momentum of growth, winning sports with “Champa Bay,” as well as the work life balance to be able to do so many things in one metro area. Each weekend you could spend in a different pocket of this area and never get bored (Safety Harbor, Dunedin, Sarasota, St Pete, St Pete Beach, Clearwater, Tarpon Springs, etc.). It has more check boxes than 99% of other cities I have been to, which is 50 states and over 90 countries to date!
