Two New Managing Directors Mentor Fellows and Nurture Ecosystems
Activate recently welcomed Jeremy Pitts, the first-ever managing director (MD) of the Activate Houston Community, and Andrés Ochoa C., the new managing director of the Activate Anywhere Community.
Jeremy Pitts, Managing Director, Activate Houston
Andrés Ochoa C., Managing Director, Activate Anywhere
Jeremy and Andrés join Activate at an exciting time of growth. Just launched, Activate Houston will nurture innovators in the budding energy transition capital of the world. Activate Anywhere, a virtual community now in its second year, nurtures science entrepreneurs across the United States, acknowledging that talent exists everywhere.
As managing directors, Jeremy and Andrés will serve as hands-on mentors, connectors, and community builders. They each bring ample science and business experience to their multifaceted roles—Jeremy is the co-founder of Greentown Labs and a veteran of multiple energy-related startups, and Andrés comes from Meta (previously known as Facebook), with multiple prior experiences as a founder.
Most importantly, like all of Activate’s MDs, they each have been in the fellows’ shoes.
“I think a big part of my journey that will come into play in the MD role is just the fact that I’ve been through the trenches in the startup world,” said Jeremy. “I’ve seen a lot of things go wrong. I hope to be able to utilize all the learnings I’ve had along the way to keep others from repeating those same mistakes.”
“I was drawn to Activate because of my own origin story,” said Andrés. “When I co-founded my own companies as a scientist and entrepreneur, I did not have the kind of support that Activate offers.”
Meet Jeremy Pitts
Jeremy’s role leading Activate Houston feels like a natural fit after spending nearly 20 years in energy and sustainability. Just a year out of undergrad, he worked at a solar startup, where he designed a single-axis solar tracker that was later sold as one of the earliest exits in the solar industry.
He then co-founded Greentown Labs in Boston, originally a grassroots effort to provide coworking space for early-stage startups to build prototypes and test their technologies. It quickly became the epicenter of the Boston climate-tech scene and eventually became a major player nationally. A key ingredient in Greentown’s growth was a passionate community of people, he said—something he sees in Activate as well.
Most recently, Jeremy gained over a decade of experience interfacing with oil and gas producers as CTO at a startup, where he developed technology that could eliminate wellhead methane emissions from legacy oil and gas assets.
Additionally, Jeremy holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Caltech, as well as an M.S. in mechanical engineering from MIT and an M.B.A. from the MIT Sloan School of Management.
“One of the things I’m really excited about with my role at Activate is the opportunity to level up the potential impact I can have.”
“I think that experience having one foot in traditional energy and one foot in climate tech should serve me well in building the Activate community in Houston. Our fellows will almost surely need to leverage the resources of traditional energy companies to be successful in leading the energy transition,” he said.
Jeremy is especially eager to multiply his influence in the climate-tech space as an MD.
“One of the things I’m really excited about with my role at Activate is the opportunity to level up the potential impact I can have,” Jeremy emphasized. "When I was working on a startup, it felt like I had one shot to succeed or fail at making world-changing technology. Now, by supporting fellows, I'll have multiple shots at helping unlock technologies that could make the world a better place."
Meet Andrés Ochoa C.
Andrés began his career as an academic scientist, earning a bachelor’s degree in microbiology and virology from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Colombia—where he’s originally from—and a Ph.D. in biotechnology and DNA data/genomics from Universidade de São Paulo in Brazil. His research focused on genomics/evolution and synthetic biology applied to bacteria and plants in Brazil and Germany.
“I was drawn to Activate because of my own origin story. When I co-founded my own companies as a scientist and entrepreneur, I did not have the kind of support that Activate offers.”
Despite having some amazing research experiences, including spending three months doing fieldwork in Antarctica, Andrés knew that academia wasn’t the right fit for him.
“I have a strong inclination to move fast, and the traditional academic pace didn't resonate with my personality,” he said.
From Brazil, Andrés moved to San Francisco, where he co-founded two companies, gaining many of the insights he brings to his current role supporting Activate Fellows. He was co-founder and chief scientist officer of Arcturus Biocloud, a virtual bio-foundry for rapid prototyping of microorganisms using genetic engineering. He was also co-founder and CTO of OneSkin, a company using genomics to develop antiaging solutions.
He then worked at WhatsApp and most recently at Product Data Operations, both part of Meta. He said working for these tech giants “allowed him to grasp what it takes to truly scale a business and foster a thriving culture.”
Through these diverse experiences, he said, “I gained a wealth of knowledge about best practices related to cap tables, contracts, intellectual property, and building a strong organizational culture.” He’s excited to share this know-how with Activate Fellows.
People-First Leaders and Mentors
Both Jeremy and Andrés have a mentor mindset and are committed to putting fellows first.
“My mantra is to prioritize people and to move fast,” said Andrés, who draws on multiple mentorship roles he’s held over the past decade. “As a mentor, I focus on understanding the goals and passions of the individuals I am working with. I use these insights to catalyze personal growth and to instill a sense of urgency when it's necessary to reach those goals.”
With this mindset, Andrés has helped technical people who did not want to do public speaking, for example, become exceptional at it. With the right support, he found they were capable of presenting their technologies and their value to society in clear and compelling ways.
Similarly, Jeremy prioritizes tailoring support to serve the individual based on who they are and what they’re personally trying to achieve.
“I’ve always been a big proponent of servant-based leadership, essentially putting my team first and putting their needs as people ahead of the business needs,” said Jeremy. “I’m very excited to get to know all of the fellows as people first and as founders second and to help find ways to make them successful.”
“Activate’s MDs give their all to the role, and the role gives back to them.”
Growing Innovation Communities
Jeremy is excited about the future of Houston and Activate’s role in shaping it.
“Houston is a city that has a culture of solving hard problems. This is the city that put a man on the moon after all, so it’s capable of solving the moonshot-type problems that Activate is tackling,” said Jeremy.
He envisions Houston becoming a destination for hard-tech and energy founders who know that Houston is the place to be if they want to access a diverse pool of talent and build the things they need to solve hard problems.
“I want to see the Activate Houston Community take a leading role in making that happen,” Jeremy said.
Andrés has his sights set on strengthening the national ecosystem and supporting as many entrepreneurs as possible. As a community that serves entrepreneurs from different regions of the United States, he wants to see Activate Anywhere assist local ecosystems that are outside the go-to entrepreneurial hubs in maturing and adopting the many best practices that have already proven successful.
“The faster we can mature these ecosystems,” Andrés said, “The quicker we can leverage these best practices to cultivate a decentralized ecosystem.”
Aimee Rose, Executive Managing Director
"At Activate, our MDs build their networks and knowledge across a wide range of industries while bolstering fellows' success. MDs give their all to the role, and the role gives back to them,” said Aimee Rose, Activate’s executive managing director. “Jeremy and Andrés are terrific additions to our team of MDs, and we can’t wait to see their expertise and influence enhance innovation in Houston and across the country."