👋 I’m Justin. I run The SF Grind, The LA Grind, and scout for Headline. I live in LA but spend a lot of time in San Francisco meeting founders, hosting gatherings, and enjoying the wonderful city. If I’m not writing this, I’m probably out on a run.
Happy Holidays! It’s a light week of events with the holidays. As we head into 2026, I’d love to get some feedback on what you’re looking for from The SF Grind in the new year.
What do you most want The SF Grind to help you with in 2026?
Let’s get to it.
National law firm trusted by founders and high-growth companies
Polsinelli has a strong technology and emerging growth practice supporting founders from formation through fundraising and scale. They work with startups across San Francisco, Los Angeles, and major innovation hubs nationwide.
I’ve personally worked with Ephraim Hintz from their team, and he’s excellent if you ever need a warm intro or trusted guidance on anything legal.
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🌁 Upcoming Events I’m Hosting 🌁
🗓️ January 22: The SF Grind: Curated Founder Dinner. San Francisco. 6 - 8 pm.
🗓️ January 23: The SF Grind: Startup Community Coffee Meetup. Cow Hollow. 8 - 10 am.
👋 This Week in SF 👋
🗓️ December 22-23: Devlabs Demo Day. Mid-Market. 8 am.
🗓️ December 22: ML from Scratch. Mid-Market. 6 - 8 pm.
🗓️ December 23: Blender Unity Workshop by Ray. Mid-Market. 7 - 9 pm.
🗓️ December 24: Free Coffee and Co-working. Chinatown. 10 am - 4 pm.
🗓️ December 25: Coffee & Connect - Open House W/ Regus. Chinatown. 10 am - 2 pm.
👀 Coming Soon 👀
🗓️ January 2: Vibe Coding: Unreal Engine 5 w/ Cline. Financial District. 7 - 10 pm.
🗓️ January 5: YC W26 Kick-off Party (hosted by Kernel & Mintlify). Dogpatch. 6 - 9 pm.
🗓️ January 9: JPM kickoff: deeptech x neurotech pregame. SoMa. 7 - 10 pm.
Reply to this email to submit an event for consideration in the next edition
Top 5 SF Startup & VC Firm Jobs
Senior AI/ML Engineer @ RentFlow
Field Marketing Manager @ Anthropic
Chief of Staff to the CRO @ OpenAI
Marketing Partner, Speedrun @ a16z
Chief of Staff @ Floodgate
👋 Hiring? Reply to this email to feature your job in this newsletter.
Other Opportunities
Know a founder or investor in SF who is raising capital or searching for a co-founder? Reply to this email with more details that I could share in this newsletter.
Katalist, a provider of an AI platform for professional video production, raised $1.5M in funding in a round led by South Central Ventures.
GravityLabs, an AI-powered healthcare startup, raised $17M in Series A funding. Backers included BVA, Goodwater Capital, Atinum Investment, NAVER, DSC Investment, and Bass Ventures.
Edison Scientific, an AI scientist startup, raised $70M in seed funding in a round led by Triatomic Capital.
Nirvana Insurance, an AI-native commercial insurer, raised $100M in Series D funding. The round was led by Valor Equity Partners, with previous lead investors Lightspeed Venture Partners and General Catalyst.
Transparency Analytics, a NYC and San Francisco-based financial risk analysis company which specializes in private credit, closed its second funding round led by Deciens Capital.
Arcads.ai, a provider of a go-to platform for creating marketing videos with AI, raised $16M in Seed funding in a round led by Eurazeo.
Wearlinq, a provider of wearable health monitoring and diagnosis solutions, raised $14M in Series A funding in a round led by AIX Ventures.
Clarity Pediatrics, a telehealth pediatric chronic care company, raised $14.5M in Series A funding in a round led by Jackson Square Ventures.
MoEngage, a San Francisco and Bengaluru, India-based provider of a customer engagement platform for consumer brands, received additional $180M in Series F funding in a round led by ChrysCapital and Dragon Funds.
Databricks, a Data and AI company, raised a >$4 billion Series L investment, valuing it at $134 billion. The round was led by Insight Partners, Fidelity Management & Research Company, and J.P. Morgan Asset Management.
Link Cell Therapies, an oncology cell therapy company, raised $60M in Series A funding in a round led by Johnson & Johnson.
Navier, a company building autonomous engineering teams for hardware design and development, raised $5.6M in Seed funding in a round led by GV (Google Ventures), HCVC, and Y Combinator.
Chai Discovery, an AI company that predicts and reprograms the interactions between biochemical molecules, raised $130M in Series B funding, in a round led by Oak HC/FT and General Catalyst.
Featured Location
Chapeau. A beloved Parisian-inspired bistro in the Inner Richmond neighborhood serving classic French favorites like escargots, coq au vin, and crème brûlée in a warm, inviting setting that feels like a neighborhood favorite with true French spirit.
Fun Events
See you next week,
Justin
P.S. Want to connect? Book a Call.