🌴 The LA Grind: Week of July 20th

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

Author

Justin Gordon
July 20, 2026

👋 I’m Justin. I run The LA Grind and The SF Grind, host the Ambition Podcast, and scout for Headline.

Happy Monday! Every couple of weeks I post the numbers behind my newsletters on LinkedIn to attract sponsors. Today I figured I'd share them in each newsletter.

The LA Grind: 10,981 subscribers, 49.4% open rate. 58% are founders and 7% are investors.

The SF Grind: 4,203 subscribers, 47.4% open rate. 45% are founders and 8% are investors.

We also have multiple events happening every month in each city.

Want to sponsor? Reply to this email with who you're trying to reach, what you're promoting, and your rough budget. I'll get back to you with options.

Let’s get to it.

What happens when you put 150 ambitious founders, investors, and operators in one room for a full day?

We're about to find out.

On September 24th, Ambition 2026 takes over a private venue in Santa Monica. One day, one room, no filler panels. Speakers include Mehul Nariyawala (Matic), Dee Murthy (Ghost), and Jessica Chang (Upwards), with more announcements coming very soon (Been working on these for weeks and we’re very close).

This isn't a massive conference you wander through with a lanyard. It's curated, it's capped at 150, and attendees have already signed up from across the US and as far as Australia.

VIP tickets include an intimate dinner the night before, featuring Tyler Denk, CEO of beehiiv, and as many great people as I can talk into showing up.

Help Bring Dialog Home

After a major water main rupture flooded their West Hollywood café, they were forced to close indefinitely.

Your support will help care for their team, begin rebuilding Dialog, and explore a temporary nearby location while they work to bring Dialog home.

Upcoming Events

🌴 Upcoming Events I’m Hosting 🌴  

🗓️ July 21: K1 Race Night. Culver City. 6 - 7:30 pm.

🗓️ July 29: Coffee Meetup. Santa Monica. 8 - 9:30 am.

🗓️ August 7: The LA Grind: Game Night. Hollywood. 7 - 11 pm.

🗓️ August 21: The LA Grind: Poker Night. Hollywood. 6 - 11 pm.

👋 This Week 👋  

🗓️ July 24: Flowstate Fridays. Venice. 10:30 am - 12 pm.

👀 Events Coming Soon 👀

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

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.

I started the Ambition Podcast a few weeks ago, spending 100+ hours on the project already. It’s a show about the world's most ambitious people from history, and the lessons you can take from their lives and use in your own work and life.

Each episode is deeply researched, built around the definitive biography of one person (or in some cases, two), with dozens of hours spent reading, synthesizing, and pulling out what actually matters.

First episodes of Ambition:

Available now on all podcasting platforms including:

Singularity, a defense tech company, raised a $80M Series A led by Khosla Ventures and Felicis.

Linker Finance, a provider of a modular platform purpose-built for community banks, raised a $5M Seed round backed by Chingona Ventures, Ten One Ten Ventures and more.

Corner Health, a healthcare technology company empowering Nurse Practitioners (NPs) to start and scale their own local primary care practices, raised a $32.5M Seed and Series A led by Oak HC/FT.

Fave, an organic drink mix brand, raised a $1M Seed round led by Supernatural Ventures.

Senra Systems, an aerospace and defense manufacturer, raised a $65M Series B co-led by Lowercarbon Capital and Interlagos.

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

Featured Location

The Prince. A historic Korean restaurant and cocktail bar, known for its vintage décor, stained-glass windows, red leather booths, and old Hollywood atmosphere.

Fun Events

See you next week,

Justin

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