🌴 The LA Grind: Week of August 31st

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

Author

Justin Gordon
August 31, 2026

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

Happy Monday! We’re only a few weeks away from the Ambition Summit and I can’t wait to bring everyone together! This has been in the works for months and now it’s a sprint to the finish line as I finalize everything. I hope you’ll join us!

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:

  • Shivani Siroya (Tala)

  • Mehul Nariyawala (Matic)

  • Dee Murthy (Ghost)

  • Jessica Chang (Upwards)

  • Shamin Walsh (BAM Ventures)

  • Jo Phillips (Payabli)

  • Dara Ladjevardian (Delphi)

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 with some of the speakers and as many great people as I can talk into showing up.

Upcoming Events

🌴 Upcoming Events I’m Hosting 🌴  

🗓️ September 2: Members Coffee Meetup. Santa Monica. 8 - 9:30 am.

🗓️ September 8: The LA Grind: LA Startup Community Walk. Manhattan Beach. 4 - 5:30 pm.

🗓️ September 15: Members Dinner. Culver City. 6:15 - 8:15 pm.

🗓️ September 18: The LA Grind: Poker Night. Hollywood. 6 - 11 pm.

👋 This Week 👋  

🗓️ September 2: AI Agent Tech Talks. El Segundo. 4:30 - 6:30 pm.

🗓️ September 3: LA Tech Happy Hour. Marina del Rey. 6 - 8 pm.

👀 Events Coming Soon 👀 

🗓️ September 23: Startup Arena. Santa Monica. 5 - 9 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 & VC Jobs

Avionics Manufacturing Engineer II @ Airport Aeronautics

Engine Responsible Engineer @ Orbital Operations

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 11,000+ founders, investors, and operators.

The Ambition Podcast is 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: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, YouTube, and more.

Maglut Heavy Industries, a rare earths and critical minerals processing startup, raised a $3.1M round backed by Wave Function, Nova Threshold, and Julian Capital.

Stability AI, a provider of AI products for professional creatives across music, gaming, and entertainment, raised a $76M Series B backed by Electronic Arts, Sony Music Group and more.

MobileX, a provider of a customizable wireless service, received an undisclosed amount as strategic investment from CONX Corporation.

Quintessent, a provider of AI datacenter optical interconnect products, raised a $40M Series A led by Cycle Capital.

Dolce Glow, a sunless tanning and skincare brand, raised an $11M Series A led by CAVU Consumer Partners.

Atorie, an AI-powered fashion startup that connects consumers directly with luxury manufacturers, raised a $9.5M Seed round led by a16z speedrun, Night Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners’ Jeremy Liew.

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

Featured Location

The Little Door. A romantic French-Mediterranean restaurant hidden behind an unassuming enrance, with candlelit courtyards, lush greenery, fountains, and an intimate, magical atmosphere.

Fun Events

See you next week,

Justin

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