👋 I’m Justin. I run The SF Grind and The LA Grind, host the Ambition Podcast, 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 Friday! I’m really excited to announce our latest speaker for the Ambition Summit on September 24th in Santa Monica and I have an update to share on tickets.
Big thanks to our early Ambition Summit sponsors: Bailey Glasser LLP, Ardas, and Venice Inc.
We’re locking down a few more sponsors, including our Presenting Sponsor: the Ambition Summit presented by your company, plus promotion across The LA Grind and The SF Grind newsletters and our social channels.
Interested in sponsoring the Ambition Summit? Reply to this email.
Let’s get to it.
The Ambition Summit, on September 24th, will bring a curated group of 150 founders, operators, and investors together in Santa Monica to learn and connect for a full day, with a VIP dinner the night before.
I’m excited to announce our latest speaker:
Tala is the financial infrastructure company for the global majority, connecting global capital to billions of new consumers through Tala's AI-native credit stack.
Over 14 million people across Latin America, Southeast Asia, and East Africa have used Tala products to start and expand small businesses, manage day-to-day needs, and pursue their financial goals with confidence.
Tala has raised more than half a billion dollars in investments and debt, backed by visionary investors including Kindred Ventures, Upstart, the Stellar Development Foundation, IVP, Revolution Growth, and more.
The company has been named to the Fortune Impact 20 list, CNBC’s World’s Top Fintech Companies twice, and Forbes’ Fintech 50 list for ten years running.
Shivani is a WEF Global Leader, Endeavor Entrepreneur, and is also on the board of Airtm and Echoing Green. Shivani’s success has been recognized in the Forbes Innovator 250 List and her work has been featured in several bestsellers, most notably Julia Boorstin’s When Women Lead: What They Achieve, Why They Succeed, and How We Can Learn from Them.
Shivani joins our other confirmed speakers:
Mehul Nariyawala: Co-Founder, Matic Robots. Mehul previously co-founded Flutter, which Google acquired for $40M, and went on to work on Nest. In January 2026, Matic raised a $60M Series C to scale their home robotics platform, a product that earned a 10/10 from WIRED (the reviewer's first 10/10 in over a decade of reviews) and a 9/10 from The Verge.
Dee Murthy, Co-Founder of Ghost, an AI-native distribution platform for the best brands in the world, that has raised $95M, most recently a $40M Series C.
Jessica Chang, Co-Founder of Upwards, the largest childcare network in the US, and a company that raised $43.3M, most recently a $21M Series B.
Shamin Walsh, Managing Director at BAM Ventures. Prior to joining BAM Ventures as a managing director, she was a consumer-focused partner at an early-stage generalist firm with tangible assets in 3PL/fulfillment, cold storage/co-packing, and manufacturing, giving her a holistic perspective through which to evaluate emerging consumer businesses.
Jo Phillips, Co-Founder of Payabli, the intelligent fintech operating system for software platforms, that most recently raised a $28M Series B led by Fika Ventures and QED Investors.
Dara Ladjevardian, Founder & CEO of Delphi, the platform that turns a person's knowledge, thinking, and voice into a digital mind others can talk to. Backed by Sequoia, Founders Fund, Lux Capital, and the founders of YouTube, Zoom, Lyft, and DoorDash.
A heads up on tickets: current pricing holds through September 8th. Starting September 9th, Standard moves from $499 to $599 and Service Provider from $699 to $799 (Limited to 15 tickets). If you've been thinking about it, now is the time!
See you next week,
Justin