Sara T. Brand
Sara T. Brand | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Education | University of Texas at Austin University of California at Berkeley |
| Occupation | Businesswoman |
| Organization(s) | True Wealth Ventures (512) Brewing Company |
| Spouse | Kevin Brand |
Sara Thurwachter Brand is an American business executive.[1] She is the founder of True Wealth Ventures and co-founder of (512) Brewing Company.[1][2]
Early life and education
Brand grew up in Wisconsin and Arizona.[2] She earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 1996.[3] Later, she enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley and completed a master's degree in mechanical engineering and a Management of Technology certificate from the Haas School of Business in 1998. She earned a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from UC Berkeley in 2000.[3][4]
Career
Before entering venture capital, Brand worked as a semiconductor researcher in several companies including Intel and Applied Materials, and as a strategic management consultant at McKinsey & Company.[3] She later worked at Fremont Ventures in San Francisco before joining AMD, where she remained more than a decade until 2015. At AMD, she led the integration of the company's acquisition of ATI Technologies in 2006 and reported to three of the company's four CEOs during her tenure.[3]
In 2008, she and her husband, Kevin Brand, co-founded (512) Brewing Company.[5][6]
In 2015, Brand founded True Wealth Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on women-led companies improving human and environmental health, and serves as its founding general partner.[3][7] The firm's investment focus is explicitly on women-led companies improving human and environmental health.[8] In January 2018, the firm closed its first fund at $19.1 million, making True Wealth Ventures Fund I the largest traditional venture capital fund at the time with an explicit gender-diversity investment strategy; approximately 80 percent of its investors were women.[9][10] In June 2022, the firm announced the closing of their oversubscribed $35M Fund II, again backed by 80 percent women limited partners.[11][12]
References
- 1 2 "Women behind Texas' True Wealth Ventures discuss closing startup gender gap, female founder advice". The Dallas Morning News. December 19, 2016.
- 1 2 Barr, Greg. "Meet Sara Brand, founder, True Wealth Ventures". Retrieved 2022-04-07.
- 1 2 3 4 5 "Profiles in Power: Sara Brand, True Wealth Ventures, a pioneer among women in tech". Austin Business Journal. Retrieved 2022-04-07.
- ↑ "Sara T. Brand".
- ↑ "Brewery Business Hopping Despite Tanking Economy". NPR.
- ↑ "Mechanical Engineering Wit Behind Austin Craft Brewery". 25 June 2015.
- ↑ "We rise". HBS.
- ↑ "People poised to make an impact in the New Year".
- ↑ Zakrzewski, Cat (February 13, 2018). "True Wealth Ventures On Mission to Back Women". Wall Street Journal.
- ↑ Smith, Rebecca French (18 April 2023). "More Than 2 Percent".
- ↑ "Austin-based True Wealth Ventures raises second fund to back women-led startups". TechCrunch. 27 June 2022.
- ↑ "True Wealth Ventures closes $35M fund to back women entrepreneurs".