Joshua Baer, 50, an entrepreneur well-known in Texas for being at the center of Austin’s technology evolution, died when a small jet crashed on a Texas highway. Baer founded Capital Factory, an Austin-based venture capital firm supporting technology startup companies.

Capital Factory and Austin’s Tech Scene

Baer’s LinkedIn page showed him wearing a black T-shirt and pointing at the message: “I help people quit jobs.” His email had a similar handle. Capital Factory’s downtown headquarters is among the offices of tech giants like Google.

Thom Singer, CEO of the Austin Technology Council, said of Baer’s death, “Whether you’re in technology or not, there’s a hole in the heart of Austin today.” Baer listed his life strategy as, “Plant lots of seeds. Water everyone’s. Repeat.” And people noticed: The Austin mayor in 2023 gave him a key to the city, a symbol of civic honor.

Legacy and Impact

Bryan Chambers, co-founder and president of Capital Factory, said his business partner was a “true super connector.” Baer was aboard a business jet that crashed Tuesday on a highway in Laredo, Texas, after the pilots reported mechanical problems and requested to make an emergency landing at an airport.

After graduating from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where he created an email marketing business, Baer moved to Austin in 1996 to work as a software developer at Trilogy Inc. He started Capital Factory in 2009 and regularly held business chats with people at a coffee shop.

Baer often spoke to high school students and had the title of “entrepreneur in residence” at the University of Texas. “He was passionate that technology could change the world and make people’s lives efficient and better,” Singer said.

Original reporting: KTSA News/Talk (San Antonio) — read the source article.