The LA Grind: Week of May 26th

Upcoming events, founder spotlight, venture deals, investment opportunities, and more.

Author

Justin Gordon
May 26, 2025

Curated events and standout stories for LA’s most ambitious founders, builders, and investors.

👋 I’m Justin. I run The LA Grind and Newsletter Founder, host the Just Go Grind podcast with 350+ founder and investor interviews, and scout for Headline. I’ve lived in LA since 2018, earned my MBA from USC (✌️), and I’m probably out running when I’m not writing this.

Want to connect?

What I’ve got for you this week:

  • 📅 Upcoming events

  • 💡 Founder spotlight on Bridgit Mendler

  • 💰 Recent LA startup funding announcements

  • 👋 LA career & investment opportunities

  • ☕️ A laid-back café and bar I want to try

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Let’s get to it.

Upcoming Events

This Week

🗓️ May 27: Lock In @ Rivian. ​A focused day of deep work at the inspiring Rivian headquarters in Venice with other builders.

🗓️ May 27: WeAreLATech: LA Tech Community Beach Walk. ​A relaxed beach walk and sunset social hour to connect with LA’s tech and startup community.

🗓️ May 28-30: AI on the Lot 2025. ​The biggest AI and film event, bringing 1,000+ creatives, execs, and founders together in LA.

🗓️ May 28: Innovating in Mental Health: A Founder's Journey to Re-imagining Care. ​A fireside chat with Two Chairs founder Alex Katz on building a personalized, tech-enabled mental health care platform.

🗓️ May 29: Women in Tech LA 2025. An evening gathering at LouLou Santa Monica celebrating women in technology, featuring networking opportunities and discussions on innovation and leadership

🗓️ May 29: THE BR-DGE Industry Mixer. A networking event that brings together professionals to connect and collaborate within the global space economy.

🗓️ May 29: Pitch & Run LA: Run Club for Founders, Investors, and Tech. A founder-friendly Thursday morning run (with coffee after) I personally recommend and attend most weeks.

🗓️ May 30: Automate Your SEO Using AI: ChatGPT & Google Gemini. A workshop led by Brandon Leibowitz teaching attendees how to leverage AI tools like ChatGPT and Google Gemini to enhance and automate SEO strategies.

🗓️ May 30: Run Tech Club 5Y x Heartbreak LA: All Clubs Meet. Celebrate five years of Run Tech Club with an evening of community, storytelling, and inspiration, featuring Olympian Marielle Hall sharing insights on building with purpose beyond performance.

Coming Soon

🗓️ June 2: HubSpot x LA: Tech & Dev Meetup (POST/CON 25). A meetup for developers to explore HubSpot's technical solutions and network with peers.

🗓️ June 3: The Information's The Future of Influence. Top execs from tech, media, and entertainment explore how influencers are reshaping business.

🗓️ June 4: Startup Cafe: You Are the Strategy: From Self-Doubt to Entrepreneurial Power. A coffee meetup that brings together founders and leadership experts to explore how self-awareness and mindset shape entrepreneurial success.

🗓️ June 4: Founders Mesh #11: LA x EU Edition | Startup & Investor Networking. Candid conversations, natural wine, and opportunities for founders to pitch their ventures, focusing on international growth and transatlantic collaboration.

🗓️ June 2-5: LA Summit 2025. A private event bringing together top CEOs, investors, and founders for panels, company showcases, and high-level networking at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

Want to submit an event for consideration in the next edition? Fill out this form.

Ready to actually know the LA tech community, beyond LinkedIn profiles and Zoom calls?

Join the WeAreLATech ‘Experience’ Club, where every month brings 4 unique, in-person adventures—surf lessons, beer tastings, rooftop dinners, horseback rides and more.

Each experience is curated to connect 8–15 like-minded people who live and breathe tech right here in Los Angeles.

This isn’t another networking event. It’s a club for real connection.

No fluff. No selling. Just good people, good vibes, and real community.

Spots are limited. Membership is quarterly.

To see photos and apply go to wearelatech.club

Bridgit Mendler is the co-founder and CEO of Northwood Space, the startup that’s leading the charge to modernize satellite communication by building a next-generation ground infrastructure platform.

Her mission is to turn what she calls the "rickety one-lane road" of space connectivity into a scalable and reliable global data highway, capable of supporting the growing volume of satellite traffic.

Before getting into tech, Bridgit was known for her work as a singer and actress, especially during her time with Disney. But her journey took a sharp turn when she dove into academia, earning a JD from Harvard Law School and a PhD from MIT, where she focused on research related to machine learning and data systems. This unique blend of media, law, and tech gave her the perspective to tackle space infrastructure from both a technical and regulatory standpoint.

At Northwood, Bridgit leads a team that includes her husband, CTO Griffin Cleverly, and Head of Software Shaurya Luthra, formerly of Google. Together, they’re building high-performance ground stations that can be manufactured and deployed quickly, aiming to make satellite data transfer as seamless as streaming a video on Earth.

The startup has already raised a $30 million Series A to fuel its ambitious vision, led by Alpine Space Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz. Additional funding came from Also Capital, Founders Fund, Box Group, Balerion, Banter Capital and Humba Ventures.

Connect with Bridgit on X and tell her The LA Grind sent you.

Know a founder worth spotlighting? Submit yourself or a friend here.

LA Startups

Axle Health raised $10M in Series A funding led by F-Prime, with participation from Y Combinator, Pear VC, and Lightbank.

VUZ raised $12 million in pre-Series C funding round, led by the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

Promise has secured a strategic investment from Google's AI Futures Fund, alongside Michael Ovitz’s Crossbeam Venture Partners, Kivu Ventures and Saga Ventures.

Altruist raised $152M Series F led by GIC to accelerate innovation for growth-oriented RIAs.

NEXT Life Sciences received $200K in funding from the Male Contraceptive Initiative to advance its non-hormonal male contraceptive, Plan A.

Parallel Systems raised $38M in Series B funding round led by Anthos Capital, joined by Collaborative Fund, as well as Congruent Ventures, Riot Ventures and others.

Final Boss Sour announced $4 million in Seed 2 funding from investors including GFR Fund and Uncommon Denominator.

LA Venture Funds

LA Venture fund B Capital co-led Data Sutram's $9M Series A funding round.

Upfront Ventures led fintech startup Clair's $23.2M Series B funding round.

Rebel Fund invested in Toronto-based fintech Keep's recent C$108M funding round.

Matter Venture Partners invested in Houston-based startup Biostate AI's $12M Series A funding round.

Prototype Capital invested in German robotics startup' Sensmore's €6.5M funding round.

Please send any fundraising news for LA-based companies or funds to [email protected].

Career Opportunities

Research Associate @ Upfront Ventures

Automation Engineer @ Relativity Space

LA Startup Investment Opportunity #1

Offside is the solution to content-market fit for media teams, automating pre-production by turning audience data and internet trends into real-time insights, actionable content suggestions, and production materials.

The team’s proof-of-concept generated 200M views, added $39k MRR from ads, and grew the podcast by 330% in 3 months.

Revan Lazarus, CEO, is a media operator with 500M+ views working with creators totaling 1B+ followers like Mr Beast and Dude Perfect; Peri Pascal, COO, is a product manager with over $30M in product revenue growth, and Michael Mathieu, Head of Eng is a former Uber senior staff engineer who spent the last 3 years leading AI consumer features at a computer vision company.

Their media arm, part R&D, part distribution engine, is on pace for $1.8M ARR in 2025, powering revenue and product validation. Quietly raising an angel round.

Email me at [email protected] if you want to know more.

LA Startup Investment Opportunity #2 

An LA-based founder friend of mine raised a $1M pre-seed for her startup a year ago, a platform transforming the way Gen Z shops online, and is now raising a seed round.

Organically grew the app to 100k+ downloads in <2 months and a highly engaged user base

  • 40% D30 retention

  • 30% CTR (Instagram and TikTok have 1-3%)

  • Grew their brand IG to 110k+ followers in <6 months

Co-founders are Stanford graduates (CS AI + Economics), have scaled previous consumer fashion products, and are fashion creators (500k+ followers).

Email me at [email protected] if you want to know more.

2 LA Investors Are Raising Their First Fund

One is raising an $8M fund, has a ton of experience working for fast-growing early-stage startups, and has been scouting for another venture firm recently.

The other investor is leaving their current fund to launch their own.

Are you hiring? Looking for a co-founder? Raising capital? We’d love to help you. Fill out this form to get started.

The Semi-Tropic. A laid-back café and bar in Echo Park, The Semi-Tropic offers a cozy atmosphere perfect for casual meetings or solo work sessions during the day, and transforms into a lively spot for networking in the evenings.

BLANKSPACES Santa Monica. A co-working space that fosters a collaborative environment for entrepreneurs and startups. It's also the venue for events like the Los Angeles 2025 Venture Capital World Summit.

Downtown Women's Center. Dedicated to serving women experiencing homelessness and formerly homeless women. They accept donations of goods to support their residents and programs.

LA Venture Podcast. Okay, not a physical spot, but definitely one of the best spaces for founders to tap into the minds of top LA VCs and hear thoughtful conversations about local startups.

May 26-June 2: Rooftop Cinema Club Arts District. This week they're showing a pretty cool mix of films.

May 31: Elevate: A Mental Health & Movement Experience Powered by Pvolve. A wellness retreat in West Hollywood combining fitness, clean beauty, and mental health practices.

May 31: You Are Enough 5K Run/Walk. A community event focused on mental health awareness and self-worth, bringing people together to feel worthy, seen, and supported.

Is there a cool place or fun event we should know about? Email me at [email protected] 

What’s the #1 thing you need help with right now?

Reply to this email and I’ll see how I can help!

Thank you so much for reading 🙏 I really want to help connect ambitious people in LA and provide them with opportunities. I want this to be the best place for founders, builders, and investors to get plugged in.

Reach out by email ([email protected]) if there’s anything we can do for you or you have ideas for how we could better support the LA startup ecosystem.

Please share The LA Grind to help more people!

See you next week,

-Justin

P.S. Want to partner? Send me an email 😊 

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