Dr. Sara Brand is the Founding General Partner of True Wealth Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund investing in women-led companies in the sustainable consumer and consumer health markets where women are making the vast majority of purchase decisions. She is also the owner of (512) Brewing Company, the largest draught only, self-distributing microbrewery in the U.S., after co-founding it with her husband with the mission to be a green and clean brewery (e.g., organic grains, reusable packaging.)

 

Sara is an active member of the entrepreneurial ecosystem to support gender diversity (e.g., founding investor in the Rising Tide Portfolia Fund, advisor to DivInc, steering committee member of Women@Austin) within the consumer health and sustainable consumer sectors (e.g., board member of the Austin Healthcare Council, Advisory Panel Member of Texas Health Catalyst at UT’s Dell Medical School, mentor for the Cleantech Open.) She is a frequent startup competition judge and accelerator mentor, as well as an active speaker on topics such as the financial outperformance of women-led companies, the unique advantages women entrepreneurs have in improving environmental and human health, and the critical impact women have as investors from everyday purchases to managing multiple generations of family wealth. She is also a board director for UnaliWear and Dermala, two of True Wealth Ventures’ portfolio companies, in addition to Pollack & Weitzner.

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Dr. Brand has a unique combination of capabilities as a strategic thinker integrated with a proven success record for delivering results over a wide-ranging career where she has cultivated a diverse set of leadership experiences including:

• Managing a $150M venture fund with four other investment professionals at Fremont Ventures in San Francisco, named as one of the top 10 venture capital firms for the quality of portfolio company support

• Working in large tech companies including Intel, Applied Materials and Advanced Micro Devices and directly for 3 Fortune 500 CEOs in both strategic and operational capacities

• Leading business units from $0 to $100M in revenue

• Acquiring startups and leading the integration into large publicly-traded corporations with the associated cross-functional dynamics

• Consulting across the semiconductor industry with McKinsey & Co. out of the San Francisco office

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Sara is an engineer by training, holding a Ph.D. and M.S. in Green Design and Manufacturing, with minors in both Public Health and Energy & Resources and a Management of Technology Certification from UC Berkeley, where she currently serves on the Mechanical Engineering Department’s External Advisory Board. Dr. Brand also holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from UT Austin where she now serves on the Cockrell School of Engineering’s External Advisory Board and is in the Academy of Distinguished Alumni for the Department of Mechanical Engineering. After holding the position of Senior Advisor for Health IoT when UT’s Dell Medical School was just getting established, Sara continues to enjoy fostering environmental and human health technology innovations across industry, academia and community.