Ernestine Fu

Bio

Dr. Ernestine Fu is Co-Director of Stanford Frontier Technology Lab. She has taught interdisciplinary courses across engineering and medicine: MED/CEE 214 Frontier Technology: Understanding and Preparing for Technology in the Next Economy, CEE 144 Design and Innovation for the Circular Economy, CEE 326 Autonomous Vehicles Studio, MS&E 476 Entrepreneurship Through the Lens of Venture Capital, and MS&E 477 Silicon Valley and the U.S. Government.

Ernestine is General Partner at Brave Capital. Over the past decade, she has worked across the startup ecosystem, from negotiating mergers and acquisitions, to organizing SPVs for later-stage companies, to angel investing in and advising companies that have since been acquired, to advising banks on venture debt. Alongside her role at Brave Capital, she is also a Venture Partner at ALP, where she started her career and has guided founders as they navigate the journey to product-market fit and scale their businesses and teams.

Ernestine is a strong advocate for active citizen participation in our democracy. After starting a nonprofit to serve the community through music and art, she co-authored “Civic Work, Civic Lessons” with former Stanford Law School Dean Thomas Ehrlich to encourage civic engagement. She also co-authored “Renewed Energy” with IPCC major contributor John Weyant to guide government policy and investment strategies for a sustainable future. She has served as a board director and advisor to nonprofits such as Ad Council, California 100, and Presidio Institute.

She completed her B.S., M.S., MBA, Ph.D. and postdoc at Stanford University. Graduating with Tau Beta Pi and Phi Beta Kappa honors, she was awarded the Kennedy Prize for the top undergraduate thesis in engineering and the Terman Award as one of the top thirty graduating seniors in engineering. Her doctoral thesis focused on human operator and autonomous vehicle interactions with system bias and transitions of control. She is an inventor on numerous granted or in-process technology patents.

She is a proud part of a military family.