Spencer Jackson is the Founder and CEO of Critical Energy, a Hawthorne, CA-based startup building factory-made, modular power plants that convert heat into electricity, starting with geothermal.

Spencer earned a B.S. from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and went on to serve as a Senior Propulsion Engineer and Thermal Hardware Engineer at SpaceX, contributing to Falcon Heavy, Starship, and the Raptor engine program.

Drawing on his rocket engineering background, Spencer applied turbomachinery principles from SpaceX to design modular ORC turbines purpose-built for geothermal power, aiming to radically lower barriers to entry and compress deployment timelines from years to weeks.

Prior to founding Critical Energy in 2024, Spencer served as Entrepreneur in Residence at NosTerra Ventures, where he sharpened his focus on clean energy commercialization before launching his own venture.

Critical Energy has raised $22M in seed funding co-led by Susa Ventures and Upfront Ventures, with a bold ambition to deploy 300 GW of geothermal capacity per year by 2045 and produce many gigawatts annually within five years.