🌴 The LA Grind: Week of February 9th

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

Author

Justin Gordon
February 09, 2026

👋 I’m Justin. I run The LA Grind and The SF Grind and scout for Headline.

Happy Monday! The LA Grind Club, now more than 60 members, with multiple members events happening every month and priority RSVPs to our public events, is going up in price from $59/mo to $79/mo and $590/year to $799/year at the end of February. Building or investing in startups? Apply to join here. 

Event w/ Long Angle. Our NBA All-Star Weekend dinner party still has Partner Tickets available for $1,500. Standard tickets are sold out. Details here. I’ve been blown away by the response and by how many amazing people we’ll have in attendance. Should be a fun time!

Let’s get to it.

​Hiring for your startup?

RJR Partners are experts in helping startups scale their teams with high quality hires and they’re the go-to U.S. recruiting partner for The SF Grind and The LA Grind.

They specialize in startup talent acquisition from entry-level to C-suite, with a 5% candidate fall-off rate and 5-to-1 submission-to-placement ratio.

Their team of tech industry veterans sources directly through personal networks, so you only interview candidates who are genuinely well-suited for your roles. Contingency and retained search options available.

Upcoming Events

⭐️ Featured Event ⭐️

Want your event featured here with a longer blurb? Sign up here.

🌴 Upcoming Events I’m Hosting 🌴  

🗓️ February 14: Startup Community Hike. Hollywood. 8 - 9:30 am.

🗓️ February 18: Members Coffee Meetup. Santa Monica. 8 - 9:30 am.

🗓️ 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 11: AI + CRE Happy Hour. Santa Monica. 5 - 7:30 pm.

👀 Coming Soon 👀 

🗓️ February 19: Beachfront Tech CMO Dinner. Venice. 6 - 8 pm.

Want to submit an event for consideration in the next edition? Fill out this form.

Top 5 LA Startup & VC Firm Jobs

Software Engineer (Medical Device) @ Illuminant Surgical

Sales & Growth Lead @ Olympian Motors

Investment Team Member @ Struck Capital

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!

Machina Labs, an advanced manufacturing and robotics company, raised a $124M Series C backed by Woven Capital, Lockheed Martin Ventures and more.

Evergreen Select (previously Omeat), a company which specializes in scalable cultivated meat production, raised a $6M round led by S2G Investments, BOLD Capital Partners and more.

Breezy, a provider of an AI operating system built for residential real estate professionals, raised a $10M Pre-Seed round led by Ribbit Capital.

Mitra EV, a provider of a commercial fleet electrification platform, raised $27M including equity and debt in a round led by Ultra Capital and S2G Investments.

Plug, a marketplace built for buying and selling electric vehicles, raised a $20M Series A led by Lightspeed.

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

LA Grind Club

Monthly members-only events, priority RSVPs, and discounted tickets are just a few of the perks of becoming an LA Grind Club member.

Join 60+ founders, operators, and investors gathering weekly to build real relationships in LA (And have a lot of fun doing it).

Featured Location

Telefèric Barcelona. Stylish Spanish restaurant with classic tapas (croquetas, patatas bravas, paella), Spanish wines, and a lively atmosphere that’s perfect for sharing with friends.

Fun Events

See you next week,

Justin

P.S. Want to connect?

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