ALSO| Austin tech leader Josh Baer honored for legacy of innovation, national security<\/a><\/p>\nBelieving in Austin before it was obvious<\/p>\n
Baer often shared a simple motto: \u201cPlant lots of seeds. Water everyone\u2019s. Repeat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jason Ballard, co-founder and CEO of Austin-based homebuilding company ICON, said Baer lived that idea by believing in founders and in Austin long before the city\u2019s tech boom was a sure thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor myself and for so many people, Josh Baer was the first person who believed in us as individuals, in our businesses, and maybe the first who believed in Austin as an idea,\u201d Ballard said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFifteen years ago and 500,000 people ago, before it was obvious,\u201d he added, Baer saw what Austin could become. \u201cYou call it visionary then; now it feels more like a prophecy.\u201d<\/p>\n
KEYE<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Baer\u2019s support extended across the local startup community. Jeff Cardenas, co-founder and CEO of Austin robotics company Apptronik, remembered Baer as a champion of the people building new things.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think of Josh as kind of the godfather of the Austin startup scene,\u201d Cardenas said. \u201cHe hosted the party. He hosted the place where everything was happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
A celebration worthy of the host<\/p>\n
For Sam Decker, another Capital Factory co-founder, Baer\u2019s legacy is rooted in the way he brought people together and in the hands-on, unpretentious spirit he brought to the work.<\/p>\n
Decker said Baer would have wanted the gathering to feel like a celebration. He could picture him telling people to take off their jackets because he\u2019d be wearing a T-shirt.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat mattered\u201d to Baer, Decker said, was \u201cgetting your hands dirty and making things happen and creating things and building things and connecting with people.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the Moody Theater, those seeds of belief were visible in the people who came to remember him. They say they\u2019ll honor Baer by continuing to build, make introductions, and show up for one another, carrying his influence forward across Austin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 The ACL Moody Theater was filled with friends, family, and gratitude as hundreds of people…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-479067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}