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

I’m writing to you this morning from one of my favorite coffee shops in SF.

During this trip to SF, I’m hosting 4 events, fresh off our first mixer at a brewing company in the Mission District last night which was a lot of fun and a place we’ll be hosting at again soon.

And yet, right now, I’m thinking about LA.

Over the last 13 months, we’ve hosted ~80 events in LA, many of those for members of The LA Grind Club, which launched last summer. Moving forward, more and more events will only be for club members, which include a mix of founders, operators, and investors.

What I’ve found from hosting so many events in the last year is that the best opportunity for people to build meaningful relationships comes when you have chances to see the same people repeatedly. I’m building The LA Grind Club as the place to do just that and, candidly, people value what they pay for way more. The club is no exception.

For the ~70 of you who are already club members, thank you! It truly means the world to me and I’m so grateful. We have a lot of events coming up and I wanted to highlight a few of them below for everyone.

Upcoming Club Events

🗓️ 6/26 - Potluck Dinner

Our 2nd potluck dinner is coming up in about a week! We had our first one a couple of months ago, the format was a hit, so we’re running it back. When I polled members of The LA Grind Club recently, one of the top event formats people liked was dinners, so I’m finding more ways to host them.

🗓️ 7/1 - Coffee Meetup (Santa Monica)

Coffee meetups have been a pillar of The LA Grind since the beginning. They’re such an easy, casual way to meet people and get conversations flowing. We typically have 1-2 of these every month.

🗓️ 7/7 - Startup Community Mixer

Members of The LA Grind Club get free access to our startup community mixer at one of my favorite spots in Santa Monica. We’ve done 8 or 9 of these mixers in the last year and it’s another favorite of members.

🗓️ 7/10 - Poker Night

Our monthly poker night is my favorite event format. I love the competition, the banter, and just how fun of an event it is every month. It’s selectively open to non-members if we have available spots. We always have a professional dealer, food, and drinks. It takes place at my house in Hollywood each month.

We’re back to our normal Monday newsletter next week, filled with events, venture deals, job opportunities, and more.

Now, I have to get back to planning Ambition (Early bird pricing ends next week), and working on the release of something new, hopefully in the next few days 👀 

See you next week!

Justin