🌴 The LA Grind: Week of June 15th

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

Author

Justin Gordon
June 15, 2026

The LA Grind Club

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

Happy Monday! You have less than 10 days left to sign up for early bird tickets for the Ambition Summit which is September 24th! There’s a lot happening behind-the-scenes which I’ll share more about very soon.

Sponsorships. I currently have sponsorship opportunities available in this newsletter (10,000+ subscribers), for Ambition (Curated 150-person summit), and for upcoming events. I'm prioritizing ongoing partnerships over one-offs, as this is more aligned for both parties. If interested, reply to this email and I'll share more.

Let’s get to it.

At our largest event in the last year, with 250+ attendees, a private chef, open bar, and curated artwork, who got guaranteed access?

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.

Upcoming Events

⭐️ Highlighted Event ⭐️

The LA Grind Dinner Club. Take a quiz, book your seat, get matched with 5 people in the LA startup community for dinner. We have upcoming dinners in Pasadena (June 24th), and Sherman Oaks (June 25th). It's a great time. Try it out!

🌴 Upcoming Events I’m Hosting 🌴  

🗓️ June 16: K1 Race Night. Culver City. 6 - 7:30 pm.

🗓️ July 10: The LA Grind: Poker Night. Hollywood. 6 - 11 pm.

👋 This Week 👋  

🗓️ June 16: Health2Tech Los Angeles. Marina del Rey. 5:30 - 8:30 pm.

🗓️ June 17: LA Health Tech Hang. Santa Monica. 6 - 9 pm.

👀 Events Coming Soon 👀 

🗓️ June 23: S’HAMPAGNE Conversations with Meta World Peace. Beverly Hills. 6:30 - 8:30 pm.

🗓️ June 25: LA Tech Summer Soiree. Santa Monica. 6 - 8 pm.

🗓️ July 1: AI Policy July Meetup. Mission Junction. 6 - 8 pm.

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

Product Engineer @ Karat Financial

Growth Engineer @ Olympian Motors

Founders Associate @ Zen Educate

Hiring?

Feature your job in The LA Grind newsletter or reach out to our partners:

  • 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.

  • Relay Human Cloud: Deploy dedicated global teammates. Fully supported, ready fast, no long-term commitment. Relay handles everything behind your teammates so you just manage their work. Every seat comes fully provisioned; your teammates show up ready, supported, and embedded in your workflows from day one.

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.

SWARM Engineering, a decision intelligence company for agrifood and manufacturing, raised a $10M Series A led by S2G Investments and AgRogue Growth Partners.

ThruFlo Endovascular, Inc., a neuro-endovascular medical device company, raised an undisclosed amount in a Seed round led by Atlas MedInnovation.

Evotrex, a company developing power-generating RVs, raised a $30M Series A backed by GSR United Capital, Forebright Concerto Capital.

Orbital, a space infrastructure company building AI data centers in Low Earth Orbit, raised a $5M Pre-Seed round led by a16z speedrun.

KaufmanIT, a managed IT, cybersecurity, and cloud services provider, received an undisclosed amount strategic investment from Abry Partners.

Remedy Science, a dermatologist-developed, education-first skincare brand, raised a $19M Series A led by L Catterton.

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

Featured Location

Ardor. A stylish, plant-filled restaurant with a lush indoor-garden feel, creative California cuisine, and a chic, upscale crowd. It's known as much for its beautiful design as for its food.

Fun Events

See you next week,

Justin

P.S. Want to connect?

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