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🌴 The LA Grind: Week of April 6th

🌴 The LA Grind: Week of April 6th

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

Justin Gordon
April 06, 2026

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

Happy Monday! We crossed 10,000 subscribers last week! Only took ~10 months to get to this milestone. Big thanks to every subscriber and supporter who helped us get here!

The LA Grind Summit. I teased the idea of hosting a big summit for The LA Grind in early 2027. It’ll likely happen. My vision would be 300-500 people, amazing speakers (Successful founders & investors), and a unique experience people remember, not only for the event itself, but for the connections they make there. There’s a lot to figure out, but I think it’d be worthwhile. Next steps: Figuring out the theme, locking down initial sponsors and speakers, and getting early-bird tickets live. I’ll keep you updated, but would love your feedback below:

Would you attend The LA Grind Summit in early 2027?

Founder Q&A. We’re building towards ongoing founder features in this newsletter. We’ll start by featuring founders with real traction, who have either raised $1M+ or crossed $500K in annual revenue. Fill out this form to apply.

Enjoy pilates? The LA-based owner of Flexia, a studio-grade Smart Reformer, is offering $1,000 off for subscribers of The LA Grind. Use code lagrind at checkout.

Dinner Club. The LA Grind Dinner Club is back! Get matched with 5 people in the LA startup community for dinner. Meetup with all dinner groups after. People loved the first one we did so we’re running it back.

Let’s get to it.

Monthly members-only events, priority RSVPs, and discounted tickets are just a few of the perks of becoming an LA Grind Club member. We host events like basketball, poker nights, coffee meetups, and more every month.

Join 75+ founders, operators, and investors gathering weekly to build real relationships in LA (And have a lot of fun doing it).

⭐️ Featured Event ⭐️

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

🌴 Upcoming Events I’m Hosting 🌴

🗓️ April 7: The LA Grind: Founder Co-Working & Free Lunch w/ Polsinelli. Century City. 10 am - 3 pm.

🗓️ April 10: LA Grind Club Members Coffee Meetup. Santa Monica. 8 - 9:30 am.

🗓️ April 15: The LA Grind: Members-Led Learning Session. Hollywood. 8:30 - 10 am.

🗓️ April 21: The LA Grind: Q&A with TJ Taylor, General Partner at Hobart Ventures. Santa Monica. 8 - 10 am.

🗓️ April 25: Members Potluck Dinner. Hollywood. 6 - 10 pm.

🗓️ May 6: The LA Grind Dinner Club. Santa Monica. 7 pm.

🗓️ May 8: Members Poker Night. Hollywood. 6 - 11 pm.

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

🗓️ May 9: The LA Grind: Founder Topgolf. El Segundo. 1 - 3:30 pm. Sponsored by Polsinelli.

🗓️ May 29: The LA Grind One-Year Party. Hollywood. 6 - 11:30 pm. Looking for a sponsor for this event. Reply to this email if interested!

👋 This Week 👋

🗓️ April 8: Startup Cafe: Breakfast With Eric Salwan (Co-Founder of Firefly, $6B IPO). Venice. 8:45 - 10:30 am.

🗓️ April 8: Earth Summit 2026. Venice. 2:30 - 8 pm.

🗓️ April 8: LA UXR Meetup: Spring Happy Hour. Culver City. 6 - 8 pm

🗓️ April 8: Scaling Your AI. Santa Monica. 6 - 9:30 pm.

🗓️ April 9: Circular Impact in Action: Homeboy Recycling Tour + Mixer. South Gate. 3 - 5 pm.

🗓️ April 9: Leading with Confidence: Leadership Styles & Navigating Self Doubt. Venice. 5 - 7:30 pm.

🗓️ April 10: Plug and Play Coffee Connect: CPG Founders. 9 - 10:30 am. Santa Monica.

🗓️ April 10: Sustainable Fashion Solutions: A Networking Salon for Today’s Changemakers. Venice. 7:30 - 9:30 pm.

🗓️ April 11: LA Green Jobs Pavilion. Hollywood. 10 am - 7 pm.

👀 Events Coming Soon 👀

🗓️ April 13: Pasadena Innovation Showcase. Pasadena. 6 - 9 pm.

🗓️ April 14: Pilot Mixer. Marina del Rey. 5 - 7 pm.

🗓️ April 14: The Climate Cost of AI. Pasadena. 6 - 7 pm.

🗓️ April 15: BioTech Crawl. Pasadena. 4:30 - 7:30 pm.

🗓️ April 22: DEMO26 Entrepreneurship Conference. USC. 11 am - 7 pm. Apply as a startup here.

🗓️ April 22: SoCal Digital Health Summit. Mid-City. 6 - 9 pm.

Talk Shop Media is an LA-based tech PR agency that helps brands at any stage break through the noise and earn the coverage that actually moves the needle. From emerging startups to established names, they build and execute media strategies that get you in front of the right people, press, influencers, and beyond. If you're ready to turn your story into momentum, let's talk: talkshopmedia.com

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 Jobs

VP of People @ Plug

Inside Sales Professional @ Tobor Robot Corporation

Customer Growth Team Manager @ Zen Educate

Accounting Operations Lead (Controller Track) @ Pure

Gigwell Sales Fellowship @ Gigwell

👋 Hiring? Feature your job in The LA Grind newsletter.

Additional Opportunities

Ross Epstein is looking for cofounders for a couple of early stage companies they are building at NQB8. Please reach out to [email protected] if interested.

A friend of mine is raising a $500K strategic round for their logistics intelligence platform for ecommerce brands. $500K ARR, 4x YoY growth. If you invest in ecommerce or logistics infrastructure, reply to this email, and I'll send more details.

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 10,000 founders, investors, and operators.