Jordan and Scott Arogeti know how to grow a successful startup — but neither have founding experience.
The husband-and-wife duo was on the infant teams of some of Atlanta’s biggest startup success stories, including Rubicon Technologies LLC, Salesloft Inc. and Stord Inc.
They saw what moves accelerated growth. They felt which decisions employees didn’t like.
They wanted to do something with what they learned, so they started Arogeti Endeavors, an angel investment and startup advisory practice.
“It’s an interesting perspective that a founder can have — the voice of the employee, not just the voice of leadership,” Scott Arogeti said.
The pandemic created an opening for that change. The Arogetis had their second child in March 2020, sparking an even more hectic year. After their parental leaves, the couple didn’t want to both return to full-time roles. At the time, Scott was head of sales at marketing tech startup Voxie Inc., and Jordan was a senior enterprise account executive at sale engagement platform Salesloft.
As a six-year Salesloft veteran and top-performing seller, Jordan kept her role, while Scott left Voxie in favor of their new venture.
Now a year in, the two have invested in six companies, including food recovery startup Goodr and procurement software startup Procoto, both based in Atlanta.
Their investments come with advice for startups still building their foundations.
“We’re not just helping scale these companies for revenue growth but also to create healthy companies,” Jordan said.
Salesloft co-founder and President Rob Forman spoke to Atlanta Inno about the importance of building an open and collaborative workplace culture. Forman attributes Salesloft’s explosive growth — it surpassed a $1 billion valuation earlier this year — to its emphasis on team culture.
Jordan said Salesloft supports her and her husband's venture. How is the mom of two juggling her sales and investor roles? She laughed.
"Life is full," she said. "Full of things I love to do."
In the year since starting Arogeti Endeavors, the couple has mostly helped startups with hiring, especially in sales and engineering, as well as introductions to their network and new customers.
“Everyone has this enthusiasm and passion,” Jordan Arogeti said. “When you get in early, everyone is so excited about the future. We want to tap into that but also ground them.”
Arogeti Endeavors adds to Atlanta’s prolific angel investor scene. The city has seen a growing number of angel investors as more local entrepreneurs see success and want to give back to their communities. Angel investor networks like the Atlanta chapter of the Keiretsu Forum, Atlanta Technology Angels and 100 Black Angels & Allies also facilitate deals.
