👋 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.

Happy Monday! On Wednesday morning I’m planning on announcing something new I've been working on the last few weeks. I've already poured dozens of hours into this new project, and it's going to be a big part of my work moving forward. I think people are going to like it. Be on the lookout in your inbox soon for the update!

Sponsors: I have spots available for newsletter sponsorships (Get in front of 4,000+ founders, investors, and operators in SF), events, and Ambition (150-person curated startup summit in September). If interested in becoming a sponsor, please reply to this email.

Let’s get to it.

Safeguard Your Startup’s IP Now

Have you double-checked that your patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, and license agreements are truly secure? A quick mistake can cost millions later.

HPL Law’s IP Check-Up makes sure:

  • Ownership is in your current company’s name

  • Every assignment is signed and recorded with the right agency

  • Renewal and maintenance fees are paid on time and calendared for the future

  • You have one clean dashboard that shows what you own, the correct numbers, where the evidence lives, and who is on the hook for updates

Skip the guesswork. Know exactly where your creative assets stand before your next fundraise, product launch, or M&A convo.

Need a pro to walk you through it?

Email Anooj Patel at [email protected] today and protect what you have in mind.

Reply to this email if you want to sponsor this newsletter.

🌁 Upcoming Event We’re Hosting 🌁

👋 This Week in SF 👋

🗓️ June 30: Coffeeflare. Mid-Market. 7 - 10 am.

🗓️ July 1: AIE USA World Cup Watch Party. Financial District. 4:30 - 8:30 pm.

🗓️ July 1: Physical AI Hang-out. North Beach. 6 - 8:30 pm.

👀 Events Coming Soon 👀

🗓️ July 9: The GTM Summit. Financial District. 5 - 8 pm.

Reply to this email to submit an event for consideration in the next edition.

Top 5 SF Startup Jobs

Head of People @ Salient

👋 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 with the 4,000+ subscribers of this newsletter.

Kotoba Technologies, a developer of real-time speech models and simultaneous translation software, raised a $10M additional Seed round led by Kindred Ventures.

Mirendil, a developer of domain-specific artificial intelligence tools and foundation models for scientific discovery, raised a $200M Seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Kleiner Perkins.

Patronus AI, a developer of AI evaluation and simulation infrastructure, raised a $50M Series B led by Greenfield Partners.

Tomo, a developer of an iMessage-native personal AI companion and self-improvement platform, raised a $5M Seed round led by Bain Capital Ventures (BCV).

Scaled Cognition, an AI model lab, raised a $100M Series A led by Khosla Ventures.

Sail Research, an infrastructure company purpose-built for long-horizon AI agents, raised a $80M Seed and Series A led by Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins, respectively.

Airwallex, a provider of a financial platform for modern businesses, raised a $320M Series H led by Addition.

Sazabi, a provider of an AI-native observability platform for fast-moving engineering teams, raised a $8M Seed round led by J2 Ventures, Village Global, and Y Combinator.

xCures, a healthcare data company focused on improving healthcare outcomes solutions, raised a $46M Series B led by Innovius Capital.

Hang Ten Systems, an enterprise AI services company, raised a $32M Seed round led by Mayfield.

Coval, a provider of an evaluation platform for voice AI, raised a $28M Series A led by Norwest.

Seltz, a provider of a web retrieval infrastructure layer service for large language models (LLMs) and AI agents, raised a $12.5M Seed round led by Speedinvest and B Capital.

Caplight Technologies, a company providing building data and transaction infrastructure for venture capital, raised a $16M Series A led by BlackRock and Fin Capital.

Assort Health, a provider of an AI agents platform for the patient journey, raised $120M Series C led by Menlo Ventures.

Engram, a company building a learned memory layer service for AI, raised a $98M round backed by General Catalyst, Kleiner Perkins and more.

JustAI, an AI-native marketing platform provider helping companies automate personalization, experimentation and decisioning at scale, raised a $17M Series A led by Base10 Partners.

Peregrine Technologies, a provider of a platform that helps organizations unify information across siloed systems, raised a $250M Series D led by Fifth Down Capital, Sequoia Capital and more.

Osanni Bio, a provider of a development-stage therapeutics platform, raised a $190M Series B led by Patient Square Capital.

Orthogonal, a developer of a discovery, orchestration, and payments layer for AI agents, raised a $4.3M Seed round led by Pantera Capital.

Nura Bio Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing neuroprotective small molecule therapies, raised a $73.8M Series B led by The Column Group.

Ploy, a provider of a marketing platform, raised a $27M Seed round led by First Round Capital and Y Combinator.

Clair Health, a developer of wearable hormone monitoring systems for women, raised a $11.6M Seed round led by Khosla Ventures.

Featured Location

Bix. An elegant Art Deco supper club known for its classic cocktails, live jazz, and refined American cuisine. It has a warm, glamorous atmosphere with a two-story dining room, making it a popular choice for date nights and special occasions.

Fun Events

See you next week,

Justin

P.S. Want to connect? Twitter | LinkedIn

Keep Reading