For more information see:
Dr. Sara T Brand is the founding general partner of True Wealth Ventures, a venture capital fund to scale women-led businesses in the high growth sustainable consumer and health markets where women are well-represented decision makers. Sara serves on UT Austin’s Cockrell School of Engineering’s External Advisory Board and the Texas Health Catalyst Advisory Panel for UT’s new Dell Medical School to foster health technology innovations across industry, academia and community.
Sara is also the owner and co-founder of (512) brewing company in Austin, Texas. Bootstrapped back in 2007 with her husband, they believe (512) brewery is now the largest draught only, self-distributing brewery in the country.
Sara has also cultivated a diverse portfolio of leadership experiences including:
- Managing $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 adding value to portfolio companies
- Working in large tech companies including Intel, Applied Materials and Advanced Micro Devices and directly with 3 Fortune 500 CEOs and their teams in strategic and operational capacities
- Resolving client issues across the semiconductor value chain with McKinsey & Co. in San Francisco
- Leading $0 to $100M business units
- Buying startups and integrating into large publicly-traded corporations, and leading company mergers and cross-functional dynamics
Sara holds a BSME with a material science emphasis from UT Austin and earned a Ph.D. and M.S. from UC Berkeley in ME/Mfg with a major in green design and manufacturing and a minor in Energy & Resources and Public Health, along with a Management of Technology Certification as an NSF Fellow. Sara has a passion for green technologies, innovative start-ups and the advantages of increased women in business leadership.