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- 🌴 The LA Grind: Week of February 23rd
🌴 The LA Grind: Week of February 23rd
Upcoming events, venture deals, LA opportunities, and more in Los Angeles this week.
Justin Gordon
February 23, 2026
👋 I’m Justin. I run The LA Grind and The SF Grind and scout for Headline.
Happy Monday! I was in SF the past few days, hosting events for founders, but I’m back in LA this week and we have a lot of events coming up.
LA Grind Club Reminder: Pricing for The LA Grind Club is going up in March. Apply to become a member to get access to members-only events, priority RSVPs to events, and much more. Apply today.
Let’s get to it.
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⭐️ Featured Event ⭐️
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🌴 Upcoming Events I’m Hosting 🌴
🗓️ February 25: Members Coffee Meetup. San Marino. 8 - 9 am.
🗓️ February 27: LA Grind Club Members Poker Night. Hollywood. 6 - 11 pm.
🗓️ March 1: Startup Community Basketball. DTLA. 10:30 am - 12:30 pm.
🗓️ March 2: The LA Grind X SHIPAID: Curated E-Commerce Dinner. Hollywood. 6:30 - 9 pm. Looking for a sponsor for this event. Reply to this email if interested.
🗓️ March 3: Startup Community Mixer. Santa Monica. 6 - 8 pm.
🗓️ March 4: Startup Community Walk. Manhattan Beach. 4 - 5:30 pm
🗓️ March 6: Members Coffee Meetup. Santa Monica. 8 - 9:30 am.
🗓️ March 24: Pre-Seed to Series A Founder Dinner. Westside. 6 - 8:30 pm.
👋 This Week 👋
🗓️ February 23: Creator Run Club. Venice. 5 - 7 pm.
🗓️ February 25: Startup Cafe: Ruben Rojas Live Through Love | LA Art Week Edition. Venice. 8:45 - 10:30 am.
🗓️ February 25: Dante In 2026 | IP-Based Audio and Video Workflows. Burbank. 5:30 - 9 pm.
🗓️ February 25: Night Before Socom | Creator Exec Mixer. Santa Monica. 5:30 - 8 pm.
🗓️ February 25: From Moonshots to Earthshots. Pasadena. 6 - 8 pm.
🗓️ February 25: How to Start and Grow Your Biotech Company in LA. Torrance. 6 - 8 pm.
🗓️ February 25: 19th LA Hardware Meetup @ Beckhoff Automation. El Segundo. 6:30 - 9:30 pm.
🗓️ February 26: AI Cafe: Protagonist: How To Use AI To Achieve Your 2026 Goals. Venice. 8:45 - 11 am.
🗓️ February 26: Tech Networking Night: Media Industry Edition. Burbank. 5:30 - 7:30 pm.
🗓️ February 26: LA Feb Private Founders Dinner ft. Principal at Diversis Capital ($3B+ AUM). Santa Monica. 6 - 8 pm.
🗓️ February 26: Aerospace Meetup. El Segundo. 6 - 8 pm.
🗓️ February 26: Building a Production-Grade Cloud Advisor / Vector Database Benchmarking. Santa Monica. 6 - 9 pm.
🗓️ February 26: LA TA/HR Leaders Dinner. Brentwood Heights. 6 - 9 pm.
🗓️ February 27: Flowstate Fridays. Venice. 10:30 am - 12 pm.
🗓️ February 28: Lunar New Year Professional Networking Lunch. Monterey Park. 11 am - 12 pm.
🗓️ February 28: What's Next Career Summit. Santa Monica. 1 - 5 pm.
🗓️ February 28: Claude Meetup Orange County. Irvine. 4 - 6 pm.
🗓️ February 28: Game Audio LA Pre-GDC Meetup. Arts District. 2 - 6 pm.
🗓️ March 1: Richer & Prettier Manifestation Journal LA Launch Event. Marina del Rey. 11 am - 1 pm.
👀 Coming Soon 👀
🗓️ March 5: Polsinelli Los Angeles Risk and Innovation Summit. Beverly Hills. 2 - 4 pm.
Want to submit an event for consideration in the next edition? Fill out this form.
Top 5 LA Startup & VC Firm Jobs
Implementation Manager @ BlueCargo
Software Engineer (Medical Device) @ Illuminant Surgical
VC Scout @ Knockout Capital
Growth Engineer @ Olympian Motors
Investment Opportunity
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 9,000+ founders, investors, and operators.
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!
Mesh Optical Technologies, a startup focused on developing high-speed data transfer hardware for data centers, raised a $50M round led by Thrive Capital.
Send any fundraising news for LA-based companies or funds, including your own, to [email protected].
Monthly members-only events, priority RSVPs, and discounted tickets are just a few of the perks of becoming an LA Grind Club member.
Join 65+ founders, operators, and investors gathering weekly to build real relationships in LA (And have a lot of fun doing it).
Featured Location
Bianca. A refined restaurant and bakery in Culver City featuring Italian, French, and Argentine-inspired cuisine, with seasonal dishes, house-made pastas, and artisan breads.
Fun Events
See you next week,
Justin
P.S. Want to connect?
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