Thomas J Wooters

William "Will" Rosenzweig is an entrepreneur, venture investor, and educator best known as the founding CEO of The Republic of Tea, which he built from 1990 to 1996 and chronicled in the bestselling *The Republic of Tea: How an Idea Becomes a Business* (Doubleday, 1992) — later named one of the "100 Best Business Books of All Time." Earlier in his career he served as executive director of the TED Conferences (1988–1990) and held senior operating roles across a series of pioneering consumer and natural-products companies, including senior vice president at Odwalla (1995–1998) and leadership roles at LeapFrog, Nakamichi, and Hambrecht Vineyards & Wineries. He holds a BA from Cornell University.

In 2007 Rosenzweig co-founded Physic Ventures in San Francisco, described as the first venture capital firm dedicated to investing in keeping people healthy — funding early-stage, science- and technology-based health and sustainability companies. As managing partner he led the firm's venture origination and worked closely with portfolio companies on entrepreneurial leadership, business design, brand strategy, and consumer marketing. Physic drew corporate strategic capital (notably from Unilever and Nike) and built a portfolio spanning health, food, and sustainable-living businesses; the fund has since concluded new investing and manages its remaining holdings.

Rosenzweig has been on the faculty of UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business since 1999, where he designed and taught some of the school's first courses in social entrepreneurship — courses that seeded companies such as Revolution Foods, Indiegogo, GoodGuide, and World of Good. He served as founding dean and executive director of The Food Business School (2015–2018) and today is a continuing professional faculty member and faculty co-chair/steward of Berkeley Haas's Sustainable Food Initiative and its Center for Food Systems Innovation. He also created and leads Plant Futures, a plant-centered food-systems program that has grown to roughly 1,000 students and nearly 100 student chapters, with adaptations at schools including Harvard and UCLA.

He was awarded the Oslo Business for Peace Award in 2010 (selected by a committee including Nobel laureates Muhammad Yunus, Wangari Maathai, and Michael Spence) and has served on boards including Generation Investment Management, Creative Capital, and The Culinary Institute of America.

• Health as the organizing thesis: Physic Ventures was positioned as "the first venture capital fund focused on investing in keeping people healthy," backing science- and technology-based companies in health and sustainability.
• Stage: Early-stage led (seed to growth equity), consistent with the "Seed Round" tag in the stub — Physic specialized in company origination and early formation, often incubating ideas.
• Sectors: Health & wellness, food and food tech, consumer products/brands, sustainable materials, energy efficiency, and "quantified self"/connected-home themes.
• What makes him say yes: Mission-driven founders solving problems in food, health, and sustainability with a durable brand and consumer insight; Rosenzweig emphasizes "entrepreneurial leadership, business design, brand strategy and consumer marketing" as areas where he adds value.
• Values-led lens: His teaching and writing stress purpose, regeneration, and "positive-impact food systems" — he looks for businesses where doing good and building a scalable company reinforce each other.