William Rosenzweig is co-founder and Managing Director at Physic Ventures. He focuses on creating and building early-stage opportunities that bring science to consumers in the areas of prevention, wellness and sustainable living. Will is currently on the board of directors of Attune Foods, EnergyHub, GoodGuide, and Pharmaca.
Will was previously co-founder and Managing Director of Great Spirit Ventures, a venture fund focused on the consumer-driven health sector and co-founder and CEO of Brand New Brands, a functional food accelerator fund.
Earlier in his career, Will actively participated in creating successful food and consumer-driven health companies as an investor or member of senior management. In 1990, Will co-founded and served as President, CEO, and Minister of Progress of The Republic of Tea, an award-winning specialty tea company that is often credited with creating the premium tea category in the United States. The company grew very rapidly and was acquired in 1994. In 1995, Will was named Senior Vice President of Odwalla (1994-1997), the nation's largest fresh juice company where he directed the brand and strategy of the company. His prior work experience includes roles as Vice President of Nakamichi (1985-1989); Partner and CEO of Hambrecht Vineyards and Wineries (1998-2001); Chairman of Winetasting.com (1998-2001); and Co-Founder of Venture Strategy Partners(1997-2000). He also worked on the founding team of LeapFrog, a leading education and toy company. In 2004, he founded Kingdom of Herbs, a purveyor of organic products for home and garden at the Ferry Building in San Francisco.
Will was on the faculty at the Center for Responsible Business at the Haas School of Business at University of California, Berkeley from 1999 to 2006, where he taught the MBA course in Social Entrepreneurship.
Will is the co-author of The Republic of Tea: How an Idea Becomes a Business (Doubleday 1992, 1994), a bestselling book that chronicles the start up of a new company and how an idea becomes a busines.
Will Rosenzweig's comments are from the panel discussion entitled Investing in the New Economy: The Changing Landscape and its Funding Models from Entrepreneurship at Cornell's Celebration event in April 2010.
Will Rosenzweig received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University.
If you are working in a market-based system you have got to have profit. And when I was at ... we claimed this phrase, this is back in 1995, no profit, no purpose. We had a culture that was really purpose driven. People wanted to save the world but they didn't necessarily have the discipline to d...(Full transcript available to logged in subscribers.).
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