Joshua Baer—the entrepreneur whose vision of a Texas “startup megalopolis” linked Dallas, Austin, Houston, and San Antonio into one ecosystem, and who founded and led Austin-based Capital Factory—died Tuesday night when a business jet he was traveling in crashed near Laredo, Texas. Baer was the only one killed.

According to an FAA post, Baer was one of six people on board a Cessna 680A business jet operated by NetJets on a flight from San José del Cabo, Mexico, to Austin. The jet crashed south of Laredo on Loop 20 around 10 p.m. local time.

The jet’s pilot radioed air traffic control about mechanical issues just before the crash, according to multiple news reports. The jet crashed roughly 2.5 miles short of Laredo International Airport as the pilot attempted to land, and a dog aboard was rescued, according to 24/7 Laredo. 

The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash.

‘Texas and the tech community lost a titan’

Joshua Baer

Bryan Chambers, Capital Factory’s co-founder and president, said in a LinkedIn post that “Texas and the tech community lost a titan.” 

“I’m shocked and heartbroken,” Chambers wrote. “Late Tuesday night, I lost a best friend, my greatest mentor, and my business partner in an unimaginable accident.”

Baer “helped people quit their jobs and become entrepreneurs. He was a true super connector. The ripple effect of Josh’s impact will be immeasurable,” Chambers added, calling the number of lives Baer impacted in Austin, across Texas, and throughout the technology community “impossible to measure.”

‘Josh built Capital Factory into something Texas had never seen’

“Today I’m heartbroken,” wrote Trey Bowles—a multi-exited Dallas-Fort Worth entrepreneur who co-founded 1845 Ventures, founded the Park Cities Angel Network, and serves as fund manager for the SMU Impact Lab—in a LinkedIn tribute to Baer.

“Since 2009, Josh built Capital Factory into something Texas had never seen—a true engine for entrepreneurship that gave founders across the state their first investors, customers, and believers,” Bowles wrote on LinkedIn.

“I’ll always be grateful for the partnership we built when Capital Factory came to Dallas and launched the The DEC Network location at The Centrum,” Bowles added. “That moment connected our two cities in a way that changed what was possible for Texas founders.”

Baer’s Texas Startup Manifesto

Bowles praised Baer’s Texas Startup Manifesto, saying it “captured exactly who he was—the idea that Texas should operate like one big city for entrepreneurs, where a founder in Dallas could tap Austin’s network and an Austin founder could find their next customer in Dallas. That’s the kind of leadership that doesn’t just build a company—it builds an ecosystem.”

In the 2017 manifesto, published on the platform Medium, Baer wrote that “by connecting Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and the rest of the state into a Texas Startup Megatropolis, we can unlock billions of dollars in capital and unleash thousands of diverse entrepreneurs.”

Four years later, in his Texas Startup Manifesto 2.0, Baer wrote that “Texas is the most promising technology market in the United States. Now the 9th largest economy in the world, it‘s clear that the rest of the world is waking up to the potential in Texas. Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio form a massive startup Megalopolis that is attracting top talent, impact-focused investors, and the most innovative companies in the world.”

“Startups and investors should treat Texas like one big city,” Baer added.

Capital Factory is a ‘center of gravity’ in Texas

Often called the “center of gravity for entrepreneurs in Texas,” Capital Factory connects early-stage founders with investors, mentors, and customers. 

Capital Factory backs early-stage Texas companies building everything from humanoid robots and autonomous ships to neural interfaces and lunar rockets, connecting founders with funding, customers, and one of the state’s deepest startup networks. The firm has backed more than 800 companies, according to its website.

In Dallas-Fort Worth, among the companies the VC firm has backed is Colossal Biosciences, a Dallas-based biotech firm now valued at over $10 billion that’s working to “de-extinct” numerous long-extinct species.

Companies Capital Factory has backed “all the way to the exit” include Voyager Space, Wonder Dynamics (Aether), WP Engine, Bazaarvoice, Intuitive Machines, Storable, and Firefly Aerospace.

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