👋 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 Monday. As we head into 2026, I’m curious where your head is at and would love your quick feedback.
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.
Reply to this email if you want to sponsor this newsletter.
🌁 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 30: Simulation Labs- Private Lab Hack by Ari. SoMa. 8 - 11 pm.
🗓️ January 2: Vibe Coding: Unreal Engine 5 w/ Cline. Financial District. 7 - 10 pm.
🗓️ January 4: The intersection of art & technology #14. Civic Center. 2 - 3 pm.
👀 Coming Soon 👀
🗓️ January 5: YC W26 Kick-off Party (hosted by Kernel & Mintlify). Dogpatch. 6 - 9 pm.
🗓️ January 6: 2026 SVB Crypto Market Insights. Financial District. 5 - 8 pm.
🗓️ January 6: Conversation Café. Mid-Market. 6:30 - 8 pm.
🗓️ January 7: SF AI Engineers: January w/ Databricks, Robinhood, and Suki Presenting. Design District. 6 - 8 pm.
🗓️ January 8: Batter Up x H-On Dream SF! Mission District. 6 - 9 pm.
🗓️ January 8 : Leopard.FYI SF Talent & People Leaders. SoMa. 6 - 8 pm.
🗓️ January 8: Voice AI Builders Meetup with Modal & Phonic. Mission District. 6 - 8 pm.
🗓️ January 9: JPM kickoff: deeptech x neurotech pregame. SoMa. 7 - 10 pm.
🗓️ January 10: NFX Bio Pre-JPM Networking Run. Financial District. 10 - 11:30 am.
🗓️ January 10: Burner Phone 101: Build Your Own Travel Burner (Hands-On Workshop). Mid-Market. 10:30 am - 6:30 pm.
🗓️ January 11: Bay Area Life Science Hikers. Main Post. 9:30 am - 12:30 pm.
Reply to this email to submit an event for consideration in the next edition
Top 5 SF Startup & VC Firm Jobs
Product Engineer, Post Batch @ Y Combinator
Investment Analyst @ 137 Ventures
AI Engineer @ arnata
Sales Expert @ First Round Capital
Founding Designer @ Syntra
👋 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.
Kargo, a provider of industrial artificial intelligence technology for supply chain and logistics, raised $42M in Series B funding in a round led by Avenir Growth.
Givefront, a fintech startup focused on advancing spend management tools for nonprofits, raised $2M in seed funding in a round led by Script Capital.
Lemon Slice has raised $10.5M in seed funding from Matrix Partners, Y Combinator, Dropbox CTO Arash Ferdowsi, Twitch CEO Emmett Shear, and The Chainsmokers.
Resolve AI, a startup developing an autonomous site reliability engineer (SRE) has raised a Series A led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. The headline valuation for the fresh round is $1 billion.
Aravolta has raised $5.1M to accelerate the development of a next-generation data center operations platform designed for the AI era.
Featured Location
Angler. a Michelin-starred waterfront restaurant in the Embarcadero known for refined seafood cooked over a wood-fired hearth, with an elegant atmosphere and Bay views.
Fun Events
See you next week,
Justin
P.S. Want to connect? Book a Call.