Ajo Angels Weekly Pulse

You've done your homework. You've completed deep dive due diligence on a startup that caught your eye. Now you need to decide if it's an investment you want to make, and if it is, is the pricing of the deal right for you. 

This is decision time, and you need to be ok with some uncomfortable truths. Most early-stage investments still go to zero. You'll never have perfect information; which means you can't wait around for certainty that will never come.

Ask yourself these questions:

If it's not a hell yes, it's probably a no. Anything in between maybe you trying to avoid making a decision.

Deep dive DD tells you what the company is, but this step tells you what your money actually buys. Most angels lose money here even when they pick good companies, because they don't understand what they're actually getting for their investment.

Valuation Is About Ownership

Early-stage valuation is very subjective. Everyone's making up numbers based on comparables that don't really compare and traction that's too early to mean much. But ownership is rea,; it's the percentage of the company you own and that percentage determines whether you make life-changing money or just get your capital back via a modest return.

What you should care about:

If you’re under about 1%, don’t have pro rata rights and the next round is a ways out, there’s just not a lot of upside there even if things go right. In that case, either keep the check small or pass. Your money can work harder in deals with cleaner ownership and better economics.

SAFE Notes Are Where Angels Get Cooked

SAFEs are founder-friendly by design, and that's fine. What's not fine is angels not understanding what they signed. I've seen too many people write checks on SAFEs and then act shocked when they convert and realize they own way less than they thought they would.

You need to always check:

If you can’t clearly explain what percentage you’ll own after Series A, you’re not investing, you’re guessing.

A common red flag is hearing, “Don’t worry, everyone’s on the same SAFE.” That often means there are a lot of SAFEs, the cap is high, or heavy dilution is coming. Strong founders are clear about their cap table. When founders dodge questions about SAFE terms, it’s usually for a reason.

Cap Table Health Matters More Than Pitch Quality

A great pitch plus an ugly cap table equals a bad investment. If the cap table is broken, you're not making money.

You're looking for:

Black founders are often told "just take the money" and "terms don't matter at this stage." That's how talented founders end up trapped in bad structures that make it nearly impossible to raise a clean Series A later. As a Black angel, part of your value is not co-signing bad cap tables, even when you love the mission.

Pro Rata Rights: Real or Fake?

Everyone says "pro rata included," but is it actually real?

Questions to ask:

If you're writing a small check with no path to follow-on capital, your upside is capped early. That's fine sometimes, just be clear about it.

The Price vs Momentum Tradeoff

Sometimes you overpay on purpose, and that can be valid.

Valid reasons to “overpay”:

Bad reasons to overpay:

Before you wire the funds, ask yourself: At this price, with these terms, I am comfortable with the potential outcome even if it takes 10 years.

The bottom line: Deep DD finds good companies, but price and terms decide whether you make money.

No investment exists in isolation.

Great angels think also in in context of their  portfolios

Before you wire, write a Belief memo for yourself. What has to go right? What would kill this company? You already know this info, this exercise is to cross T’s and dot I’s and double check your belief in the company and deal.

This document protects you later when emotions kick in and you're tempted to make decisions based on fear or FOMO rather than facts.

Once you commit, wire promptly and professionally. Help if asked and stay close enough to be informed.

Your reputation as an investor starts building the moment your check clears. Founders talk to each other, and if you're helpful, responsive, and low-drama, you'll start getting access to better deals.

UMI is tackling a massive women’s health gap: 2.7B women face hormonal disorders that mainstream healthcare doesn’t fix. They offer a 3 month, clinically proven, personalized AI powered program that delivers real results, not generic wellness.

They’ve already got 435 paying customers, 45.6k followers, 4,600 email leads, and $555k in revenue.

The founder has a 100k audience and a track record of helping women heal naturally.

Early results: 83 percent success rate, including cycle normalization and fibroid reduction from 4.8cm to 1.4cm.

Ambient Intelligence uses sensors placed in a room to keep people safe, without cameras or wearables. These sensors watch movement and patterns to spot danger early, like falls or health changes. It is like a “smart home + health monitor” that works in the background to protect seniors and patients.

Summary: Ambient Intelligence helps families, caregivers, and healthcare providers watch over people without asking them to wear devices or be on camera. The system tracks movement and behavior in real time and sends alerts when something looks wrong. This helps prevent falls, lowers medical costs, and gives families peace of mind.

The Backstory: The company was inspired by the founder’s grandmother, who lived with Alzheimer’s and later passed away after complications from the disease. Falls are a huge problem in healthcare. In the U.S., over $50 billion is spent each year on fall related injuries, and one serious fall can cost over $200,000. The team saw that wearables and cameras were uncomfortable, easy to forget, or raised privacy concerns. They built a better option that works quietly in the room instead.

Key Innovation: Ambient Intelligence replaces wearables with ambient sensors that live in the environment. The system detects falls, tracks daily patterns, and sends alerts without recording video. It is private, always on, and designed for senior care, assisted living, and remote patient monitoring.

Funding: The company is building toward scale with pilots, healthcare partners, and early customers. Comparable companies in fall detection have reached valuations near $190 million. Ambient Intelligence is focused on growing customers, reaching over $1M in ARR, and expanding across healthcare systems, senior living groups, and home care networks as the remote patient monitoring market grows rapidly toward a projected $100B by 2028.

Mayvenn, a Black-founded beauty tech company in the US, reached $100 million in annual revenue by building a marketplace that pays stylists directly.

Cheers,

Abdul

Hey Hey… I’m Abdul I’m the chairman of Ajo Angels and Shujaa Capital and I’m on a mission to introduce angel investing to 25,000 black folks over the next five years. I’m doing this with the goal of narrowing the racial wealth gap as well as trying to close the billion dollar funding gap for black founders.