AI-powered muscle rehab, fewer bets BUT bigger checks, and why corporate grants are actually a communication hack

Happy Thursday.

Know someone who would kill it running angel groups? Send them my way - I’m hiring a Strategic Angel Operations Director.

In today’s issue:

• Angel Deals of the Week

• Bookmarks I think you’ll enjoy

• The best nugget from my conversation with Kat Weaver, Founder of Power To Pitch

🔥 Angel Deals of the Week

🤝 Recent funding rounds from angel networks. I have not personally vetted these deals and am sharing for informational purposes only. Have one to announce? Reply to this email.

🤖 Deal summaries generated using dealmemo.ai.

🧾 Check out every deal we’ve tracked here.

Oro Muscles | AI-powered muscle rehab

Participating Group: VisionTech

Oro Muscles is developing AI-powered technology that provides real-time insights into muscle activity with live biofeedback and instant analysis for rehabilitation applications. The company serves more than 50% of Major League Baseball teams and 30% of Major League Soccer teams, alongside European soccer teams, Division 1 colleges, and rehabilitation clinics. The startup recently secured nearly $200,000 from VisionTech's network of 120-plus angel investors, with funds allocated toward product commercialization, AI enhancement, and healthcare market entry.

Tanya Colonna & Hobey Tam | Groveland, FL | May 2025 | Source

Advanced Optronics | Medical sensor tech

Participating Group: Country Roads Angel Network (CRAN)

Advanced Optronics develops flexible, biocompatible sensor systems for surgical applications. The company, which was co-founded by Carnegie Mellon University engineers, is developing technology that provides real-time feedback during cochlear implant surgery to reduce surgical trauma. Advanced Optronics has secured $925,000 in grants, including a $650,000 NSF award and $275,000 NIH SBIR Phase 1 grant, and completed the AlphaLab Health accelerator program. The company recently received investment from Country Roads Angel Network and plans to expand beyond cochlear procedures in the future.

Jay Reddy | Pittsburgh, PA | April 2025 | Source

RevelAi Health | Conversational AI care coordination platform

Participating Group: Sand Hill Angels

RevelAi Health is developing a conversational AI platform for musculoskeletal care coordination, targeting orthopedic practices and health systems. The platform functions as a virtual care navigator providing evidence-based triage, quality reporting, and automated clinical documentation, having already processed thousands of care conversations. The company secured an oversubscribed $3.1M seed round led by Ulu Ventures and Symphonic Capital, with participation from Orthopedic VC, Sand Hill Angels, and a network of orthopedic surgeons. Funds will deepen EHR integrations, expand AI-collected surveys, and accelerate healthcare collaborations as CMS moves toward mandatory value-based payment models by 2030.

Hadi Javeed and Christian Pean | $3.1M Seed Round | Durham, NC | June 2025 | Source

🔖 Bookmarks

1. 🪄 The History of EBITDA: CJ Gustafson on how John Malone's 1970s accounting wizardry became the AI industry's favorite metric.

2. 📈 “Compound interest isn’t a finance concept; it’s a life mechanic.” Great piece from 16z’s Robin Guo on vector decision-making.

3. 💸 Fewer Bets, Bigger Checks: Venture market stays hot at $90B but deal count hits lowest levels since 2016 according to the State of Venture Q2 ‘25 from CBInsights that dropped this week.

4. 🧑‍💻 BONUS: What it’s really like working at OpenAI: Reflections from an engineer who just exited the company after a year.

🥇 The Nugget: My Top Takeaway from a Conversation with Kat Weaver

Value-add question: “How many corporate grant applications have you submitted?” 📑

My favorite way to give advice is to ask leading questions.

This one leads thoughtful founders to two outcomes:

1. Better communication skills.

2. Nondilutive $$$ (maybe).

Why?

If the answer is 0 (likely), the founder we’re speaking with is now going “Oh, wow I guess I should look into that.”

By working through those grant applications, the founder is then forced to rethink how to concisely communicate the core elements of their business. (PSA: THIS IS VERY VERY HARD.) Whether they ultimately receive funding isn’t important, though it is a nice bonus.

Takeaway: In a meeting with a founder at <$100K ARR who you like but is struggling to explain their thing very well or isn’t ready to hit the pitch circuit? Throw this question at them.

Want more? Check out my full conversation with Kat👇

Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and more.

🧰 Toolkit

📍 AI Pitch Event in DFW: Attend the Texas AI Challenge Live Pitch on August 7th at SMU during Dallas Startup Week. Reserve your spot.*

🎙️ Live from Dallas: We're recording episodes for The Diligent Observer podcast live at DFW Startup Week's Future of Venture Forum on August 7. Register for free and come say hi!

🤖 Angel Group Game-Changer: Get deal memos tailor-built for angel networks in minutes, saving executive directors, analysts, and diligence teams hours of work. Join the waitlist.*

*A message from our sponsor.

Until Next Week 👋

Thanks for reading - have a great week.

-Andrew

P.S. If you enjoyed this post, could you do me a quick favor? Hit the "like" button or leave a comment with your thoughts. It may not seem like much, but it really helps me out a ton.

If you’re finding this newsletter valuable, share it with a friend, and consider subscribing if you haven’t already. You can also find me on LinkedIn and X.