Joshua Baer, founder of Capital Factory and one of Austin’s most prominent technology leaders, has been identified as the person killed in a business jet crash Tuesday night along a highway in Laredo, Texas.
Authorities said the aircraft, a Cessna Citation Latitude twin jet, was carrying six people when it went down on Loop 20 shortly after 10 p.m. Jose Baeza, an investigator with the Laredo Police Department, confirmed the timing of the crash. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the jet had departed earlier that evening from the Mexican resort city of San José del Cabo and was headed to Austin.
Baer was widely known in Texas startup circles for building Capital Factory into a major software accelerator and investment firm. In a statement to the Austin American-Statesman, Capital Factory president Bryan Chambers remembered him as “a fearless leader, a brilliant partner, and a dear friend to so many of us.”
Chambers said the company would continue the work Baer championed despite the loss. “While we are devastated by this unimaginable loss, Josh built an incredibly resilient organization and team,” he said, adding, “Capital Factory remains fully operational, and we are completely committed to continuing his mission of backing unstoppable founders.”
The cause of the crash was not immediately known. Federal investigators from the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are now looking into what led to the jet going down.
