Mitch Jacobson got a lot of ribbing earlier this year when he took home a prize at the Austin Under 40 Awards. For one thing, he’s 58. “People kept joking about why I had so much gray hair,” says Jacobson, who was honored for being best mentor. For the past seven years, he’s been a strong proponent of clean-energy startups at the Austin Technology Incubator, a nonprofit connected to the University of Texas at Austin. The extremely selective program promises to get young companies funded, and it does. At a celebration for 19 recent graduates, it was announced that together they raised $300 million of capital. Two of the graduates went public, and three were acquired by larger companies.
Jacobson worked for “some pretty big companies”—Dell and Adobe, to name a few—prior to “getting out on my own.” He invested in startups, including some that had gone through the incubator. Then he was approached about leading the incubator’s new clean-energy division. “Lo and behold, they offered me that job,” says Jacobson. “It was a chance for me to learn a whole new industry.” Jacobson says working with these future leaders in the energy sector has been incredibly rewarding. But the best perk? “Being a mentor,” say the WeWork University Park member. “It’s a big part of what I do.”