Joseph Angotti

Joseph Angotti is a Principal at Grouse Ridge Capital, a Pittsburgh-area single family office that operates as both an investment vehicle and a buy-side M&A advisor. At the firm he manages the early-stage venture investment strategy — primarily pre-seed and seed-stage companies pursued with a generalist mandate — while also leading M&A efforts focused on asset-intensive industries such as heavy construction, manufacturing, fabrication, and logistics. The firm balances this industrial operating portfolio of more than a dozen companies with a technology-focused venture book spanning AI, FinTech, and business software.

Before joining Grouse Ridge Capital, Angotti worked at Ernst & Young (EY), where he served as a transfer pricing consultant applying analytical methods to complex cross-border financial and tax structures, and earlier spent time at pharmaceutical company Mylan. That blend of corporate finance, tax, and operating exposure underpins the firm's emphasis on disciplined capital deployment and on industrial businesses with real assets and cash flows.

On the education side, Angotti holds an MBA and an MS in Finance from West Virginia University and a BS in Chemistry from Fairmont State University — a science-plus-finance combination that fits a firm investing across both deep-tech/hard-industry and software. He is also active in the regional startup ecosystem, appearing as a speaker/judge at Innovation Works' IW Venture Expo and participating in Pittsburgh-area dealmaker and venture community events.

• Invests primarily at pre-seed and seed stage, taking a generalist approach rather than a single-vertical thesis.
• Strongest pattern-matching in AI, FinTech, and business/enterprise software, complemented by the family office's industrial DNA in construction, manufacturing, fabrication, and logistics — making asset-heavy and "real economy" tech a natural fit.
• Backs companies as a single family office, so capital is patient and not bound to a traditional fund clock; the firm describes itself as focused on "disciplined capital deployment."
• Beyond venture checks, the firm runs buy-side M&A advisory for asset-intensive businesses, so Angotti's interest extends to acquisitions, roll-ups, and turnaround/expansion situations.
• Participates in larger rounds when conviction is high — e.g., the firm was associated with a $5.5M round for Subtl Beauty — indicating flexibility above a typical seed check.