The LA Grind: Week of August 25th

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

Author

Justin Gordon
August 25, 2025

👋 I’m Justin. I run The LA Grind, host the Just Go Grind podcast, 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.

This week, The LA Grind passed 4,000 subscribers in just 3 months! Thank you for being here and supporting the LA startup community!

A few quick updates:

  • Thank you Prospera Law, BX Studio, and Keen for sponsoring the Dawn Patrol event I co-hosted with Jason Yeh last week.

  • I’m looking for more founders to feature in this newsletter. Submit the Founder Q&A to have a chance.

  • My friend Lo’s grand opening for her new fitness studio, Los Angeles Sculpt, is September 1st at the Malibu Country Mart. Classes can be booked directly at losangelessculpt.com/classes and they’re also on Mindbody and ClassPass. Supporting local entrepreneurs is a fun perk of having this newsletter and if you’re interested in taking a Mat Pilates or Barre class, check it out!

Also, there are two upcoming events I'm hosting at amazing venues, and I'm looking for 1 or 2 more sponsors:

  • September 11th - Rooftop Sunset Soirée at a private residence in Venice. 100+ people. Attendees will include a curated group of mostly Seed/Series A Founders, CEOs, bootstrapped founders with meaningful traction, investors, and media.

  • October 14th (LA Tech Week) - Curated Founder and Investor dinner at a beautiful beachfront private residence in Santa Monica. 60 people. Prioritizing VC-backed founders, bootstrapped founders with meaningful traction, and venture investors for attendees.

What sponsors get:

  • Attendance for the event

  • Opportunity to speak at the event

  • Full guest list access

  • Inclusion in the event page, promotions, and this newsletter

Reply to this newsletter or fill out this form if interested!

Let’s get to it.

Today’s email is a long one, click the link below to read it all online.

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Upcoming Events

🎉 Featured Event 🎉 

Want your event featured here, with a link and longer description? Fill out this form if interested in including your event in this new sponsored section.

🌴 Upcoming Events I’m Hosting 🌴 

🗓️ August 26: Startup Community Mixer. 35+ people signed up so far! Thanks to our sponsors HPL Intellectual Property Law, Weinberger & Logan PC, and Keen!

🗓️ September 6: The LA Grind: Startup Community Basketball. 5 on 5, full court games at a great indoor gym.

🗓️ September 10: The LA Grind Dinner Club. I’m trying something new here, it should be fun! Get matched with 5 people in the startup community for dinner. Meet up after dinner at a second venue with other groups from The LA Grind Dinner Club.

🗓️ September 11: Rooftop Sunset Soirée. ​Join us for sunset drinks on a Venice rooftop with a curated group of founders, CEOs, investors, and media. Co-hosting with CapV, sponsored by Howdy.

🗓️ September 16: The LA Grind: Curated Founder & Investor Dinner. More details still being finalized. This is a special dinner experience with a private chef and curated group.

🗓️ September 24: Startup Community Mixer. Early-bird pricing is available. Thanks to our sponsors HPL Intellectual Property Law and A.J. Dorn.

🗓️ October 14: Curated Beachfront Dinner. Join us during LA Tech Week for an intimate evening connecting top founders and investors at a stunning private beachfront residence in Santa Monica. Thanks to Polsinelli and Relay Human Cloud for sponsoring!

This Week

🗓️ August 25: Bootstrapped Founders Meetup. Santa Monica. 6-8 pm.

🗓️ August 26: AI LA x Healthcare MeetUp. Venice. 6-8 pm.

🗓️ August 27: Let's talk GTM. Culver City. 10-11:30 am.

🗓️ August 28: Founders Beach Day. Santa Monica. 4-7:30 pm.

🗓️ August 28: Cars & Capital. Santa Monica. 7-11 pm.

🗓️ August 28: AI Cafe: AI and the Truth. Venice. 8:45-11 am.

🗓️ August 28: Happy Hour with Women In Bio. Lincoln Heights. 4-7 pm.

Coming Soon

🗓️ September 2-4: Glendale Tech Week. 22 events in 3 days.

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

Top 5 LA Startup & Investment Jobs

Director of Sales @ Parallel Systems

Executive Assistant @ March Capital

CTO Opportunity

LA Grind Club member, Phil Hong, co-founder of GuideAI, is looking for a CTO. GuideAI is compressing all customer interaction to voice that automates client onboarding in the finserv space. They have 2 clients and a pipeline of 10+ enterprise customers, MVP built. Seeking an AI-obsessed, scrappy CTO with experience building functionally complex to own the tech. They have VC funding committed once CTO role is filled. Here is their demo.

Please reach out to [email protected]

Volunteer Opportunity

Rae Lambert is looking for a few sharp, driven women to volunteer at the annual All-In Summit Women’s Brunch. This is a high-energy, high-profile event — a chance to connect, contribute, and be part of something special. If you’re interested, reach out to Rae in her X/Twitter DMs.

👋 Hiring? Message me about featuring your role in this newsletter.

💼 Looking for a job? Job board coming soon!

Investment Opportunities

Know a founder or investor in Los Angeles who is raising capital? Reply to this email with more details that I could share in this newsletter for 4,000+ founders, investors, and operators.

Your Webflow Design and Development Partner.

BX Studio is a Webflow Enterprise Partner with 250+ sites launched for brands like Headspace and Toyota.

They design, optimize, and scale world-class websites that are lightning fast, pixel perfect, and effortless to maintain.

Wellth, a digital health startup that uses behavioral economics to keep high‑risk patients on daily care plans, raised a $36M Series C led by Mercato Partners.

SpinLaunch, a Long Beach–based space tech company developing a kinetic launch system, raised $30M in funding led by ATW Partners.

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

Featured Restaurant

Felix Trattoria. I went here on a date last year and while the relationship didn’t last, the meal did. Exceptional pasta, easy recommend.

Fun Events

See you next week,

Justin

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