🌴 The LA Grind: Week of May 4th

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

Author

Justin Gordon
May 04, 2026

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

Happy Monday! I was in SF last week, attending Startup Grind Global and Stripe Sessions, and hosting a couple of my own events for The SF Grind. Much more coming up in the next few months there as well as LA, stay tuned! If you want to partner in LA or SF, let me know.

Ambition: My first summit, Ambition, is on September 24th, 2026 in Santa Monica! We’ll have 150 people, a curated room, and one main day with a VIP dinner the night before. I’m really happy about the response so far, have locked down a venue and a couple of great speakers already, and I’m excited to make it into something special, hopefully hosting it annually. Apply to join. 

ZeroClick Grand Opening: I met Michael from ZeroClick at my SF coffee meetup and they’re opening an LA HQ, with a special Grand Opening Party this week on Cinco De Mayo.

a16z Speedrun reminder: Applications are open for the next cohort (SR007), with an investment up to $1M in your startup and $5M+ in perks. Deadline to apply is the end of day May 17, 2026. Apply now.

Let’s get to it.

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Upcoming Events

🌴 Upcoming Events I’m Hosting 🌴  

🗓️ May 6: The LA Grind Dinner Club. Santa Monica. 7 pm. This is a special event where you’ll be matched with 5 others in the LA startup community for dinner. Then, we’ll all come together after at a location nearby.

🗓️ May 8: Members Poker Night. Hollywood. 6 - 11 pm. Reply to this email if interested in sponsoring.

🗓️ 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 13: The LA Grind: Curated Seed+ Founder Dinner. Westside. 6:30 - 9 pm. Reply to this email if interested in sponsoring.

🗓️ May 19: The LA Grind: Q&A with David Waxman, Partner at TenOneTen Ventures. Santa Monica. 8 - 10 am. Reply to this email if interested in sponsoring.

🗓️ May 27: The LA Grind: Members-Led Learning Session. Hollywood. 10:30 - 12 pm.

🗓️ 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 in sponsoring.

👋 This Week 👋  

🗓️ May 6: AI Policy May Meetup. Mission Junction. 6 - 8 pm.

🗓️ May 7: API Silicon Beach 2026. Marina Del Rey. 5 - 8 pm.

🗓️ May 8: OGC LA Coffee Hour. Hollywood. 3 - 5 pm.

👀 Events Coming Soon 👀 

🗓️ May 14: Demo Day LA. Venice. 4:30 - 9 pm.

🗓️ May 15: Long Beach Pycon Party. Long Beach. 5:30 - 8 pm.

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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

Additional Opportunities

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.

Crazy Mountain, a new non-alcoholic beer brand, raised a $15M Seed round led by CAVU Consumer Partners.

LighthouseAI, a company which specializes in compliance solutions for the pharmaceutical supply chain, raised a $8M Series A led by Boxcars Ventures.

Chance Studios, a provider of a solution that empower trading card game (TCG) collectors to collect, connect, and share their collections, raised a $3.2M round led by Makers Fund and Hashed.

Illuminant Surgical, a precision access and visualization company supporting doctors see and navigate the human body, raised a $8.4M Seed round led by Wing 2 Wing Ventures.

Counterpart, an insurance company, raised a $50M Series C led by Valor Equity Partners.

Jupid, an AI-native small business accounting platform provider, raised a $840k pre-seed round led by Pre-Seed to Succeed.

OpenLight, a company which specializes in custom photonic application-specific integrated circuit (PASIC) design, raised a $50M Series A led by Matter Venture Partners.

Nervonik, a clinical-stage medical device company, raised a $52.5M Series B led by Amzak Health.

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

Featured Location

Dama. A stylish Latin American restaurant with a tropical Art Deco design and lush indoor-outdoor space. Known for creative, shareable dishes and a strong cocktail program inspired by Latin and Caribbean flavors.

Fun Events

See you next week,

Justin

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