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

Happy Thursday! Today we have our second Q&A edition in our new series highlighting founders and investors in Los Angeles. If you’re interested in being featured, fill out this form. We’ll be selecting successful founder and investors each week, sharing their story.

Community Partners. Big thanks to our Community Partners, HPL Intellectual Property Law and Talk Shop Media, for supporting The LA Grind. We have 3 more Community Partner spots available, which are all category-exclusive. If you’re interested in reaching our audience of 10,000+ founders, investors, and operators every week, reply to this email.

Let’s get to it.

Today we have a Q&A with Mike DeVerna, Founder & CEO of MACROFIT, which recently acquired Flexia Pilates. Previously, Mike was a co-founder and COO of Wag!

Mike also advises and consults with startups on growth, product development, strategy and hiring. Reach out at [email protected].

Tell me the story of how you got your first customer.

For Wag! our first customers came from showing up at dog parks and handing out flyers. Then we launched an app with no functionality other than it went to a book button which was a customer service team in our kitchen calling dog walkers to fill walks.

For MACROFIT, our app was driven by influencers following and took off with over 1M downloads during Covid. We put links in the app to various Amazon fitness products and discovered a need for an at-home calisthenics and bodyweight system. Our first orders from that came from our app users.

How has the growth strategy evolved since then? What was one thing that worked surprisingly well to help you grow?

For both companies, concierge-style text messages with a real human reaching out works incredibly well to activate customers

What's one important part of the business model or strategy that you've changed your mind on since starting?

As online channels and paid marketing have become saturated and more expensive & AI has lowered the cost to build anything, I'm big into IRL experiences and service-based revenue.

What was the last purchase of less than $1,000 that made a serious impact on your life?

Our second golden retriever.

What are the 2-3 AI tools you use the most? Why?

I'm somewhat of a late adopter, really just using ChatGPT but planning to use Claude more going forward.

What's one book that fundamentally formed your views on money, wealth, or investing, and why?

4 Hour Work Week.

What's a favorite under-the-radar spot in LA that you keep going back to?

Restaurant at Hotel Bel-Air.

What's one part of your life outside work that you're most proud of, and why?

Choosing not to drink has been a big one for me. It’s helped me stay focused and consistent, especially through some high-pressure periods. It’s not always the default choice socially, but it’s been a net positive across the board.

How'd you meet your spouse and in what ways have they contributed to your success over the years?

At a WeWork in West Hollywood. Tori’s just been someone I’ve always been able to rely on—super consistent, great taste, and a really strong eye for things, especially when it comes to real estate and anything Beverly Hills. She brings a certain level of style and instinct that’s hard to teach, and she’s always been down to jump in and help wherever needed.

Interested in joining The LA Grind Club?

The LA Grind Club is where the LA startup community comes to life. We’re a community of 75+ 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.

Here’s what Will, an investor in over 100 companies, had to say about the club:

“The LA Grind Club has some of the most genuine people in LA's startup ecosystem. Every event I've been to, from the holiday party to the basketball runs, I've walked away having met people I actually keep in touch with.“

Apply to join the LA Grind Club.

On Monday, I polled The LA Grind and The SF Grind newsletter audiences about their interest in attending a 300-500 person summit in Los Angeles in early 2027.

The results were very encouraging.

Dozens of people showed interest in attending a summit and multiple companies expressed interest in sponsoring.

Of course, responding to a poll and paying hundreds of dollars, if not a thousand dollars plus, for a ticket are two different things.

But for a summit where no one knows the speakers yet or any details, just an idea, this was enough for me to dig deeper.

I'm focused now on figuring out more of the details with this event that I'll hopefully be able to share in the next week or two.

For now, I’d love your feedback:

Talk Shop Media is an LA-based tech PR agency that helps brands at any stage break through the noise and earn the coverage that actually moves the needle. From emerging startups to established names, they build and execute media strategies that get you in front of the right people, press, influencers, and beyond. If you're ready to turn your story into momentum, let's talk: talkshopmedia.com 

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!

Interested in becoming a Community Partner? Reply to this email to learn more.

See you next week,

Justin

P.S. Want to connect?

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