Finance & Marketing
- Hometown: Austin, Texas
Biography
My name is Sara Pacheco and I am a Finance and Marketing Major in the 2026 Heath Integrated Business and Engineering Program cohort. I was born and raised in Austin, Texas, where I developed my love for the lake, live music, and good food. Outside of academics, I love spending time wakesurfing, reading, working out, spending time outside, and cooking or trying new foods. I am incredibly passionate about my guiding value, growth. Whether it is expanding perspectives in light of a mistake made, or simply pushing myself to work just a little bit harder in a workout. I am constantly on the search for ways to grow and continue becoming a better version of myself in all aspects of my life. I do not balk in the face of hard tasks or unexpected obstacles, viewing every challenge as an opportunity to grow and learn.
Joining the Heath Integrated Business and Engineering Program has offered the perfect blend of both worlds, allowing me to merge my passion for innovation with my natural aptitude for business. Since joining, HIBEP has given me the confidence to communicate effectively with engineers in an academic and work environment. This has contributed to my success in my recent internships, where I gained experience working with engineers and leaders in a variety of technology startups. Interning at Techstars Industries of the Future during my sophomore year exposed me to the challenges and pitfalls of developing early-stage startups on a deep lever. Working with the founding teams of 10 deep-tech startups, HIBEP prepared me with the skill set to translate the founder's highly technical products into customer-facing marketing materials.
Additionally, I spent this past summer working for a medical tech startup called Windgap. Working directly with the Co-founder and executive team, I took their technical sales process and researched, tested, and implemented a customer relationship management system (CRM) to improve their sales pipeline efficiency. The ability to understand their products and comprehend their business processes allowed me to gather requirements and select a CRM that best enabled them. My HIBEP projects prepared me to lead this project from inception through implementation. I am grateful for these experiences and feel confident in taking on my next role.
I am passionate about entrepreneurship and driven to develop new ventures that positively impact society. My aptitude for problem-solving fuels my desire to create strategies that improve situations, enhance team dynamics, and address complex challenges. While I aspire to found my own company one day I would like to work with startups to help develop them into successful companies. Having seen startup development from both an internal role at Windgap and an external role at Techstars, a venture capital firm, I see opportunities to achieve my objectives through both perspectives. I am seeking experiences in either internal or external roles that are dedicated to the development of technology startups.
