🌴 The LA Grind: Week of October 12th

Upcoming events, venture deals, LA opportunities, and more in Los Angeles this week.

Author

Justin Gordon
October 12, 2026

👋 I’m Justin. I run The LA Grind and The SF Grind, host the Ambition Podcast and the Ambition Summit, and scout for Headline.

Happy Monday! LA Tech Week is upon us! I hope you enjoy the craziness of it all and find a way to make the most of it. I’ve had a few people ask me for suggested events and have included a few. My strategy is always to focus my attention on a select few, especially because I still feel like I’m recovering from the Ambition Summit!

Let’s get to it.

A note from a fellow member: Shawn Gold, long-time LA Grind member, CMO of Relay Human Cloud, 25 years hiring for startups in LA.

I know the tradeoff: the hire you need versus the runway you have. Relay solves it. Dedicated, full-time team members from Asia and Latin America at roughly 75% below US rates, month to month. Not freelancers. Not outsourcing. 100% dedicated people, managed by you, in your standups, on your systems. Developers, accountants, marketing, ops, AI-capable talent. SOC-verified, Dallas-based.

Questions? Message me directly. [email protected]

Upcoming Events

🌴 Upcoming Events I’m Hosting 🌴  

🗓️ October 15: Pitch and Run. Beverly Hills. 7 - 8:30 am.

🗓️ October 20: The LA Grind: Startup Community Mixer. Santa Monica. 6 - 8 pm.

🗓️ October 21: Member Coffee & Co-Working. Hollywood. 8 - 11 am.

🗓️ October 27: Members Dinner. West Hollywood. 6:30 - 8:30 pm.

🗓️ November 4: Game Night. West Hollywood. 6 - 10 pm.

🗓️ November 7: LA Startup Community Hike. Hollywood. 8 - 9:30 am.

🗓️ November 10: Member Coffee Meetup. Santa Monica. 8 - 9:30 am.

🗓️ September 23, 2027: Ambition Summit. Santa Monica. 9 am - 8 pm.

👋 This Week 👋  

👀 Events Coming Soon 👀 

🗓️ October 23: Originals Summit. Hollywood. 10 am - 6 pm.

LA Grind Club

Over the past 16 months, we’ve hosted ~100 events in Los Angeles to bring together the startup community.

Who were many of these events specifically for?

Members of The LA Grind Club.

The LA Grind Club is where the LA startup community comes to life. We’re a community of ~70 founders, investors, and operators in LA who gather multiple times per month through basketball runs, poker nights, coffee meetups, dinners, and other member-only events.

Marc Hankin of HPL Law advises inventors and high-growth teams on patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, and licensing. Before your next fundraise, launch, or M&A chat, know where you stand by talking with Marc, who you can reach at [email protected].

Marc can often be found at startup events in LA and has been one of the biggest supporters of The LA Grind since its inception!

Top 5 LA Startup & VC Jobs

Account Manager @ Athlete to Athlete

Associate Social Media Manager @ GT’s Living Foods

Creator Manager @ Spotlight Media

Hiring?

RJR Partners: Experts in helping startups scale their teams with high quality hires. Their team is comprised of tech industry veterans, allowing them to source and vet candidates directly through their personal networks. Their industry expertise also enables a deeper understanding of the needs of clients and candidates on a level unmatched by other firms.

Know a founder or investor in Los Angeles who is raising capital or searching for a co-founder? Reply to this email with more details that I could share in this newsletter for 11,000+ founders, investors, and operators.

The Ambition Podcast is a show about the world's most ambitious people from history, and the lessons you can take from their lives and use in your own work and life.

Each episode is deeply researched, built around the definitive biography of one person (or in some cases, two), with dozens of hours spent reading, synthesizing, and pulling out what actually matters.

The latest episode is on Kobe Bryant. Kobe started his workouts at 5 am to fit in an extra session a day, took up tap dancing to strengthen his ankles, and read the referees’ handbook to learn where the officials couldn’t see. That obsession carried him through 20 seasons with the Lakers and five championships. It’s a bit of a departure from the people we’ve covered so far and that’s intentional. I think it’s helpful to learn from people in different fields to take what we can apply in our own lives.

Available now on all podcasting platforms including: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, YouTube, and more.

Gardens Interactive, an independent game development studio and interactive entertainment infrastructure startup, raised a +$35M round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Oratomic, a provider of a fault-tolerant quantum computing platform, raised a $775M round led by ARCH Venture Partners, Spark Capital, Khosla Ventures, Index Ventures, General Catalyst, and Bezos Expeditions.

Fortastra, a developer of maneuverable spacecraft for on-orbit security and national defense, raised a $30M Series A led by First In.

Gallatin AI, a provider of an AI-native military logistics platform, raised a $50M Series A backed by 8VC, Silent Ventures, and others.

Parallel Systems, a provider of a battery-electric autonomous freight rail solution, raised a $100M Series C led by AVP.

Furientis, a provider of low-cost, mass-producible missile interceptors, raised a $25M Seed round led by Benchmark.

Outer Spaces, startup is developing outdoor furnishings with integrated solar panels and batteries, raised an $8M Pre-Seed round led by Upfront Ventures.

Hiyo, nonalcoholic beverage company, raised a $20.8M Series B led by Constellation Brands.

Send any fundraising news for LA-based companies or funds, including your own, to [email protected].

Featured Location

Fanny’s. Hollywood glamour meets contemporary dining, with sumptuous red booths, an elegant bar, and cinematic interiors.

Fun Events

See you next week,

Justin

P.S. Want to connect?

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