Brett Brohl is Managing Partner of Bread and Butter Ventures. He is the former Managing Director of the Techstars Farm to Fork Accelerator, partnered with Cargill and Ecolab. An experienced entrepreneur, investor and mentor, Brett is driven by making a difference in the world through helping entrepreneurs succeed.
Prior to the Techstars Farm to Fork Accelerator, Brett served as Director of the inaugural Techstars Startup Next Food & Ag in Partnership with Land O’Lakes and as the Entrepreneur in Residence at Techstars Retail Accelerator in Partnership with Target. Brett honed his start-up skills as the CEO of multiple companies including ScrubSquared and BoomBoom Prints. He led 3 of his teams to exit, but also went through a company failure, experiences he draws on when working with founders.
Passionately committed to growing the Minnesota startup ecosystem, Brett is a founding member of the Forge North coalition and sits on their leadership council as well as an initial member of the Launch MN advisory board. He earned his BA from Wake Forest, and his MBA from the University of Virginia, Darden School of Business. When he’s not engaging the world’s start-up scene Brett can be found hanging with his wife and kids, driving a lobster boat, or pretending to be a tennis pro. Brett’s bread and butter is building teams, identifying talent and diving for lobster.
Mary Grove is Managing Partner of Bread and Butter Ventures. She brings nearly two decades of leadership experience in technology, early stage investing, and startup ecosystem growth. She began her career working on the Google IPO, and went on to lead new business development partnerships, negotiating early stage product and technology deals worldwide. Mary then served as the founding director of Google for Startups, leading the company’s global efforts to support entrepreneurs in over 100 countries.
After her 15 year career at Google, Mary worked as an investment partner at Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund where she led dozens of investments in a range of sectors including healthcare, enterprise software, and fintech. She also built the fund’s portfolio support platform and built a network of over 150 mentors and partners to guide startup growth.
She is the Co-founder and Executive Director of Silicon North Stars, a nonprofit that she and her husband Steve founded in 2013 to help young Minnesotans from underserved communities pursue careers in tech. Mary serves on the boards of Vital Voices, the Minneapolis Foundation, and the Techstars Foundation. She earned her BA and MA from Stanford University. Mary and her family moved from Silicon Valley to Minneapolis in 2018 and she loves cooking, hiking, and getting to know Minnesota through the eyes of her seven-year-old twins. Mary's bread and butter is helping organizations build teams and infrastructure to operate at scale, building partnerships, and home cooked Thai recipes.
Stephanie Rich is Head of Platform at B&B where she works to add continuous value to portfolio companies and founders. She is the former Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Techstars Farm to Fork Accelerator in partnership with Cargill and Ecolab. Steph has worked with numerous early stage startups as a mentor and advisor, and has received the Techstars #givefirst award three separate times. She has hands-on expertise in bringing products and companies to market while building, cultivating and sustaining customer bases online and off.
Stephanie is the founder of Starting Up North, a publication focused on telling the stories and sharing the insights of Minnesota startups, innovators and their ecosystem, and Goby Partners, a marketing consultancy for startups and growing brands. Prior to Goby, Stephanie was employee #1 at Particle, the leading development platform for the Internet of Things. She established operational infrastructure and built the Particle brand in the marketplace by leading communications, social media, and product launches.
She received her BSJ at the Medill School of Journalism and her MBA at the University of Cambridge. Stephanie's bread and butter is connecting dots - whether that means facilitating unexpected collaborations, surfacing the right tools for solving a problem, or helping teams identify previously unknown strengths. She is also very good at logic puzzles and stopping to pet every dog she meets.
Brianna Sharp is the Executive Assistant at Bread & Butter Ventures. She brings strong operational and administrative experience within the Minnesota entrepreneurial and venture capital ecosystem. Prior to joining Bread & Butter Ventures, Brianna was the Investor Relations Intern at Groove Capital, an early-stage, Minnesota-based venture capital firm that’s focused on angel and pre-seed investments. She additionally worked as the Operations Manager at Twin Ignition, a Minneapolis coworking space for early-stage tech startups that also has a venture capital element.
Brianna’s first introduction to the startup scene was during the pandemic, when she and her younger brother started a business called “Yard Waste Pickup”. Starting this company gave her and her brother the opportunity to learn how to effectively start and manage a business. They’re proud to say that the venture still exists to this day!
At Bread & Butter Ventures, Brianna is responsible for overseeing a full scope of operational duties, including managing day-to-day operations, supporting the managing partners, coordinating with portfolio companies, and tracking and analyzing multiple data points.
Brianna holds a Bachelor’s degree in Entrepreneurial Management from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities’ Carlson School of Management. She also holds minors in Spanish and Marketing. In her free time, Brianna enjoys running, traveling, and spending quality time with family and friends. Her bread and butter is her ability to work with numbers, streamline processes, and build and maintain strong relationships.
