The leader of one of the most visible St. Louis organizations supporting startups is stepping down.
Arch Grants announced Monday morning that executive director Gabe Angieri will be leaving after a decade with the orgnaization. Angieri took over the top role in 2022 after Emily Lohse-Busch’s departure from the nonprofit that awards non-dilutive grants to early stage companies in the region or looking to relocate here.
Keep up with local business news and trends
Subscribe to the St. Louis Business newsletter to get the latest insights sent to your inbox every morning.
He says he’s ready for the next big thing after considering the current point of his career and what may still lie ahead.
“I reflected on the past 10 years—it’s been quite a journey—there’s just a point in time where you look around and say, ‘Where else can I drive impact?’ and ‘Do I still have the same energy that I brought to this work a few years ago?’” he explains. “While the gratification is there and the excitement for the future of Arch Grants is there, I’m just more interested in pursuing other opportunities.”
Angieri says he’s especially proud of the community that has flourished under his leadership, something he says goes beyond the individual grants awarded to companies.
“Some of our founders have met their significant others through our program. They’ve met major investors. They’ve become fast friends with each other. They’re doing joint ventures between their businesses,” he says. “It’s really hard to quantify that impact.”
Since Arch Grants’ inception, the $20 million it’s doled out has translated to over 4,000 new local jobs, nearly $300 million in regional wages and just shy of $1 billion in follow-on capital, according to the organization’s internal metrics.
During Angieri’s tenure, Arch Grants has grown from a startup competition that awards non-dilutive grants of $75,000 to local entrepreneurs and up to $100,000 to those looking to relocate to the area into an organization that, in addition to those things, supports entrepreneurial growth in the region more broadly.
Angieri plans to remain as the executive director for the next handful of months as the organization begins a national search for a first-ever chief executive officer. The new title is a reflection of Arch Grants’ success and how its programming scope has expanded, says board president Zundra Bryant. The organization also has a strategic evaluation currently underway, which Bryant says will likely lead to growing its programming offerings and staff.
“It’s definitely an indication of the success that we’ve achieved and the opportunity that’s ahead of us,” she says. “We’re moving to a different stage of maturity. Our impact has increased with the number of founders that we support that’re now in our ecosystem, and our credibility in this space has increased.”
Bryant is clear, though, that this transition is a positive one. “It is a celebration of Gabe and his contributions, the success of Arch Grants, and the opportunity for someone to take hold of a successful organization and drive it forward,” she says.
Born in New York but raised in the Twin Cities, Angieri spent more than a dozen years working in various roles for the private Saint Louis Club before a brief tenure with the regional business council and then coming to Arch Grants as its director of development and strategy.
“I entered the workforce in hospitality when I was 17, 18 years old. I have done everything from scrubbing toilets to serving banquet food to coordinating meetings and events for the regional business council to managing facilities at the Saint Louis Club,” he says. “I don’t have any firm fast lane in which I see opportunities. I have a bit of entrepreneurial spirit myself, although I’ve never had the risk profile to go out and launch something of my own, nor would I suggest I’m about to do that.”
He says one of his biggest achievements was setting up Arch Grants’ Fellows Program, a collection of fast-growing St. Louis-based startups generating strong revenue and follow-on investment capital.
“It is the next generation of business, civic, and philanthropic leaders that we hope has increasing influence and engagement in the St. Louis region,” he says. “I feel very proud of getting that off the ground. It is now standing strong. It represents this community that we’ve built at Arch Grants over the past decade that didn’t exist in St. Louis before.”
Bryant lauds Angieri for expanding the organization’s offerings while maintaining a commitment to the founders at the core of its mission.
“He’s a wonderful ambassador for the mission of Arch Grants and his commitment to St. Louis and supporting entrepreneurs, he cares deeply,” she says. “His passion and commitment comes through in everything that he does.”
Bryant also praised Angieri for the way he makes connections for Arch Grants founders and help them navigate issues, as well as his ability to both develop a strong team within the organization. To the latter point, Angieri notes that one of his goals was to attract the right staff so that he could “for lack of a better word, make myself obsolete.”
Angieri says he will remain in St. Louis “for the foreseeable future,” having raised his family in the region, and is excited for what will come next and isn’t limiting what that may be.
“This feels like the right time to open the aperture and consider opportunities that may look very different from what I’ve done over the past decade, and I’m excited to leverage what I’ve learned at Arch Grants and throughout my career into my next opportunity,” he says. “I know what I love to do: build strong teams, solve hard problems, bring people together, and help organizations grow.”
