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

Today is a big day. Exactly one year ago, I sent out the first edition of The LA Grind newsletter to 52 subscribers. I thought that a local media company focused on the startup community in LA, combined with events to bring them together, would be, at the very least, a worthy experiment.

This experiment turned out to be one of the best professional decisions I’ve made. I had high expectations for what it could become, but it has far exceeded them at this point in the journey. That’s not to say it has been easy. It’s been all-consuming, yet the most fun I’ve ever had running a business.

A lot has happened since that first edition. I’ve hosted dozens of events, met so many amazing people, worked with incredible partners, launched The SF Grind, and today I’m going to pull back the curtain on the last year building this company.

Let’s get to it.

It’s always fun to look at the numbers, so let’s start there.

LA Subscribers: 10,520

SF Subscribers: 3,498

Overall open rate: 49%

Overall click through rate: 5%

Events hosted in LA: 77

Events hosted in SF: 10

Total event signups: 2,000+

LA Grind Club members: 75

Sponsors worked with: 33

Markets: 2 (LA and SF)

What a year. We’ve come a long way since those first 52 subscribers. The newsletter has been published every single week and, on average, an event has happened more than once a week. Let’s look at a few of my favorite events.

LA Tech Week Beachfront Party

Huge shout out to Andrew Segal of Relay Human Cloud. His amazing home was the perfect place to gather during LA Tech Week. I hosted a curated dinner with a private chef at his home on the beach in Santa Monica. A dream. Working with Ephraim Hintz at Polsinelli, who has been one of the biggest supporters of The LA Grind, and the teams at Talk Shop Media and AE Studio to pull this off was a lot of fun.

The Holiday Party

Festive and so much fun. Easily one of my favorite events of the year and, at the time, the largest event I had hosted for The LA Grind. Fidelity Private Shares and Bailey Glasser came in to support which was very much appreciated!

NBA All-Star Weekend

This is the biggest event we had in the last year and arguably the best. Co-hosted with Long Angle, we had 250+ people at my house in Hollywood. Curated art on the walls. Private chef. Open bar. Rooftop fireplace. Amazing people. It took a ton of work to put together, and I’m grateful that Justworks, AE Studio, and Citizens Private Bank came in to sponsor, which allowed us to make the event an amazing experience for everyone.

LA Rams Game

This was incredible. Big shout out to Weinberger and Logan for sponsoring. We brought together a bunch of founders for what was my first Rams game at SoFi Stadium. Rams won, was a great game to watch, and I definitely want to do it again this season. Any event that gets people out of their day-to-day environment helps to create a memorable experience and this one delivered.

Sunset Soirée

Last, but certainly not least, the sunset soirée I co-hosted with Jessica Schaefer the team at Capital V was the perfect LA event. The best vibes. Amazing food. Incredible views. Curated group of amazing attendees. What more could you ask for? Big thanks to Howdy for helping make it happen.

Of course, these weren’t the only events.

We played poker and basketball (two of my favorite ongoing events), had mixers and coffee meetups in Santa Monica almost every month, co-working days, dinners, breakfasts, and so much more. All in year one of The LA Grind.

A big thank you to all the attendees, LA Grind Club members, and of course the sponsors that made many of these events possible.

Special shoutouts to:

• Espree Devora: She was the very first sponsor, and she actually sponsored The LA Grind before I even launched it. She has always been a huge supporter of mine. I actually found one of my biggest sponsors through her tech talk. I'm forever grateful. Check out WeAreLATech to learn more about her work.

• Marc Hankin: One of my biggest sponsors and supporters! He sponsored the LA Grind Newsletter, the SF Grind Newsletter, multiple events, and he is just a joy to work with. He's a recurring Community Partner who you've seen in this newsletter, and I'm very grateful to know him. When it comes to intellectual property law, he’s the guy to know. Check out HPL to learn more about his work.

• Shawn Gold: He's been an LA Grind Club member from almost the beginning, offered up his home in the Hollywood Hills to host a poker tournament, which was also one of my favorite events, introduced me to Andrew Segal, who co-hosted multiple events with me at his home on the beach, and he’s attended many of my events. Shawn has been such a great supporter of what I've been building and I’m very grateful.

• Chef Kryssie: She’s been an amazing chef repeatedly for me and elevates many of the events I host.

• Irina Logra: Many of the moments you’ve seen at my larger events have been captured by Irina. I can’t recommend her enough.

• Sonja Kleven, Mina Bahrami, Erika Braza, and Waela Fellnert: From newsletter prep to event operations, they’ve helped me at various times and have been a big unlock in allowing me to better leverage my time to build this business.

What I Learned

David Perell wrote a great essay on serendipity. In the opening, he says:

I agree wholeheartedly and as I reflect on the last year, I’m realizing this entire business has been fueled by serendipity:

• I normally don’t go to many events, but I decided to go to Espree Devora's tech walk. I meet Marc Hankin. Marc becomes my biggest sponsor. Serendipity.

• I host a poker night before even launching The LA grind. Shawn Gold attends. He likes the event. I start The LA Grind and he comes to more events. He offers up his home in the Hollywood Hills for us to play poker, and he introduces me to his friend Andrew. We host multiple events at Andrew's house. Serendipity.

• I co-host an event with Jessica Schaefer at her home in Venice, a beautiful rooftop. I meet Chef Kryssie through that event. Now we’ve worked together for multiple events, elevating the experience with her amazing food. Serendipity.

• Hell, even before launching The LA Grind, in February of 2025, I attended a newsletter conference in Austin, Texas. I decided to go to a side event being hosted by Steph Smith. At the time, I had heard about local newsletters but hadn't pulled the trigger on writing one. At Steph’s event, I meet TJ Larkin. We jam on local newsletters. I'm very intrigued. The LA Grind launches a few months later. That conversation highly impacted the decision. The LA Grind become the best business I’ve started. Serendipity.

In building The LA Grind and now The SF Grind, in many ways, I'm creating a serendipity engine for other people.

My hope is that through the newsletters, the events, the LA Grind Club, people will find co-founders, investors, employees, new friends, and build meaningful relationships that make their life better.

This business, like any business, is a helluva lot of work, I often get more inbound messages than I can handle, but I like creating things that are impactful. I love the mixture of working on media that scales, can eventually reach millions of people, and the intimacy of events and experiences that are the essence of life itself.

I've had to be very scrappy running this business. I've experimented a lot along the way and have learned what are not only the revenue drivers of the business, but the profit centers of the business.

From the start, I knew if I could make this thing sustainable, I could keep building it. Then it could continue compounding over time, which would allow me to continue to help people, to build this community, to be a home for the ambitious.

A quote from Randall Stross’s book, The Wizard of Menlo Park, about Thomas Edison sticks in my head in this regard:

There is a long way to go towards the vision I have for what this company could become, but I feel like there is a solid foundation that's been built in year one.

What’s Next

In many ways, what’s next is much of the same: publishing newsletters and hosting events. But that’s not all…

Here’s what’s definitely coming up next, and some ideas on my mind that I might turn into reality in year two:

The One-Year Party. I’m hosting an intimate gathering to celebrate one year of The LA Grind which will include a private chef, open bar, and a few of you lovely readers. The perfect way to celebrate this meaningful milestone.

Ambition. The 150-person summit I'm hosting in Santa Monica on September 24th is a critical piece of the vision I have for this company in the future. This is actually the culmination of years of thought and effort and I’m excited to make it happen.

The LA Grind Club. I didn't actually expect to launch a membership in year one. It kind of happened on a whim, but I’m glad it did. The club provides opportunities for founders, investors, and operators to build relationships at a variety of events every month. It’s grown to ~75 members and in year two I want to take it 200+ while continuing to experiment with event formats, like our recent member-led learning session.

Delegation. I'll admit I'm a bit bogged down on the operations side of the business. Some of that is undoubtedly necessary, especially in the early days when you're scraping by with no money. In year two, I'll be relying on my small team of contractors much more to free up my time to focus on some bigger initiatives. Speaking of…

LA Clubhouse. I still can't shake the idea of a physical space, a clubhouse for The LA grind. In year two, it might happen. The reality is, and I believe this with most everything when it come to business, it'll happen if I make it happen. It’s just not a priority yet. How this might go down is actually not super complicated: Find a space that fits my vision, show that space to potential members, pre-sell year-long memberships to cover costs, sign a lease, and build it out.

SF Summit. Before I even announced that I’m hosting Ambition in Santa Monica, the idea of hosting a summit in LA and SF was on my mind. I just think it’d be fun to host a summit in each city every year. It also makes a ton of business sense.

Newsletter improvements. If you have ideas for how to improve the newsletter, I'm all ears. I know for sure that I want to feature more amazing people in each city, tweak the design, and send more than one edition per week in each city. I've hinted at including startup news weekly in each city, but obviously haven't committed to that idea yet. If enough people think it's valuable, I think we might do it.

Podcasts. As I think about building local media companies in LA and SF, podcasting comes to mind… but I don’t think I would create local podcasts for each market. I’d likely revive the Just Go Grind podcast, change the name, and the interviewees would become future speakers at summits, attend events, etc. A flywheel created. There is also another podcast idea I can’t shake, which is more deep-dive, heavily researched, like Acquired or Founders. I love those shows and think that style is the best.

Fundraise. I have toyed with this idea multiple times before. I'm content bootstrapping for now (maybe forever!), but there's a world where raising a few hundred thousands dollars from very aligned angel investors who understand the vision for this company would make sense. I’m sharing that here to, once more, allow for serendipity to do its thing.

A Few Asks

This business takes a ton of work to manage. It’s still early. I’m still fighting daily to grow this thing and to serve more of you lovely people. I could use your help. Here’s how you can support:

• Join the club

• Attend the One-Year Party

• Come to Ambition

• Sponsor events, newsletters, or both!

Closing Note

I quit my job at a venture capital firm almost exactly three years ago. The first two years after were spent trying to figure out how to grow Just Go Grind, a newsletter where I was writing deep dives about world-class founders. I hosted a few events and was podcasting during that time as well.

Then, late last year, I sold Just Go Grind to Unicorner to focus completely on The LA Grind and The SF Grind. It was clear that was I was doing with this new venture was working. There is still much, much more work to do though.

I think this work is highly impactful, and I'm very grateful to each and every one of you for being here. It's honestly a fucking dream, and I hope to do this for a long time in some capacity. Thank you. We’re just getting started.

Best,

Justin