🌴 The LA Grind: Week of September 14th

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

Author

Justin Gordon
September 14, 2026

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

Happy Monday! The full Ambition Summit schedule is live: 8 sessions, September 24th, Santa Monica. 10 days out and the room is filling with an incredible group of venture-backed founders, bootstrapped founders, investors, and operators. Apply to join today.

Want to attend the Summit free? I need 10-15 volunteers on September 24th. Free ticket, lunch covered, done by 5:30 before the closing party. Past LA Grind event attendees get priority. Sign up here.

Let’s get to it.

A note from a fellow member: Shawn Gold, long-time LA Grind member, CMO of Relay Human Cloud, 25 years hiring for startups in LA.

I know the tradeoff: the hire you need versus the runway you have. Relay solves it. Dedicated, full-time team members from Asia and Latin America at roughly 75% below US rates, month to month. Not freelancers. Not outsourcing. 100% dedicated people, managed by you, in your standups, on your systems. Developers, accountants, marketing, ops, AI-capable talent. SOC-verified, Dallas-based.

Questions? Message me directly. [email protected]

Upcoming Events

🌴 Upcoming Events I’m Hosting 🌴  

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

🗓️ September 17: Pitch and Run (Weekly run club). Beverly Hills. 7 - 8:15 am.

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

🗓️ September 29: Members Coffee. Santa Monica. 8 - 9:30 am.

🗓️ September 30: Seed to Series A Founder & VC Dinner. Sponsored by Fidelity Private Shares. West Side. 6:30 - 8:30 pm. Room for another sponsor. Reply to this email if interested.

🗓️ October 12: Beachfront Founder and Investor Dinner for LA Tech Week. Santa Monica. Sponsored by Ardas. 6 - 9 pm. Limited capacity. Room for more sponsors. Reply if interested.

🗓️ October 27: Members Dinner. West Hollywood. 6:30 - 8:30 pm.

👋 This Week 👋  

👀 Events Coming Soon 👀 

🗓️ September 23: Startup Arena. Santa Monica. 5 - 9 pm.

The full Ambition Summit schedule is live. September 24th, Santa Monica. 8 sessions: Shivani Siroya (Tala), Dee Murthy (Ghost), Dara Ladjevardian (Delphi), Rick Smith (Crosscut), Mehul Nariyawala (Matic), Jessica Chang (Upwards), Jo Phillips (Payabli), Shamin Walsh (BAM Ventures). Doors open at 9, wraps at 5, closing party after.

150 people, curated, 10 days out. Crazy, I know.

Thanks to our Summit sponsors: DLA Piper, whose Emerging Growth and Venture Capital practice partners with founders and investors from formation through exit, plus Venice Inc., Bailey Glasser, Ardas, Tax Hack, and Agora.

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

Data Product Engineer @ Karat Financial

VP, Sales @ Pirros

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.

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.

ChipMango, an AI-native semiconductor technology company, raised a $1.9M round led by Atlantica Ventures.

Emberos, a provider of an operating system for AI Brand Management, raised a $5.5M Seed round backed by a private consortium of strategic angel investors.

Celero Communications, a provider of coherent DSP technology for AI infrastructure, raised a $275M Series C led by Atreides Management, Valor Equity Partners, and CapitalG.

Bluecore Energy, a maritime clean energy and small modular reactor (SMR) startup, raised a $50M Seed round led by Silverton Partners.

Mach Industries, a defense manufacturer developing advanced autonomous systems, raised a $600M Series C continuation led by Ribbit Capital, Infinite Capital and more.

Maven Robotics, a robotics company, raised a $100M Series A led by RoboStrategy, LocalGlobe, Vine Ventures, and XTX Markets Ventures.

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

Featured Location

Chi Spacca. Rustic, theatrical Italian dining centered around enormous cuts of meat and family-style dishes.

Fun Events

See you next week,

Justin

P.S. Want to connect?

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