👋 I’m Justin. I run The SF Grind, 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 Monday! The Ambition Summit is this week Thursday! We have a few tickets left, 100+ people already signed up, and some great speakers joining us. Apply to join today.
Want to attend the Summit free? I’m looking for 1-2 more volunteers on September 24th. Free ticket, lunch covered, done by 5:30 before the closing party. Past event attendees get priority. Sign up here.
My LA founder friend Lindsey is selling fypm* and here's her open letter about why she's looking for a new operator and what it's cost her to build it: Read her letter.
Let’s get to it.
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🌁 Upcoming Event We’re Hosting 🌁
🗓️ September 24: Ambition Summit. Los Angeles.
👋 This Week in SF 👋
🗓️ September 21: -1 to Waymo with Dmitri Dolgov. South Beach. 2:30 - 4 pm.
🗓️ September 22: Codex Community Meetup - San Francisco. Union Square. 6 - 8 pm.
🗓️ September 22: Stripe Developer Meetup San Francisco September 2026. Oyster Point. 6 - 8 pm.
🗓️ September 22: Rho Customer Love Dinner. 6:30 - 8:30 pm.
🗓️ September 23: afore portfolio fall showcase. South Beach. 5 - 9 pm.
🗓️ September 23: Building in the New Spatial Intelligence Era | Spatial Frontier Club x Mission Robotics. Mission District. 6 - 9 pm.
🗓️ September 23: Field Notes: The Product Manager as Builder. SoMa. 6 - 8 pm.
🗓️ September 23: Pitch Roast Live - The S.F. Debut. Mission District. 6 - 9 pm.
🗓️ September 24: GenMedia Conference 2026 Registration. Embarcadero. 9 am - 5 pm.
🗓️ September 24: SF Frontier Hackathon: Build your Autonomous Code Factory. Union Square. 10 am - 8 pm.
🗓️ September 24: Hardware Pitch Night @ Studio 45. Bernal Heights. 6 - 9 pm.
🗓️ September 24: Your GTM belongs in git | SF. Mid-Market. 6 - 8:30 pm.
🗓️ September 24: Designers & Machines September 2026. South Beach. 6:30 - 9:30 pm.
👀 Events Coming Soon 👀
🗓️ September 28: ThinkingAI Agentic Growth Summit 2026. Mountain View. 12 - 4 pm.
🗓️ September 28: Above the Fog: Founders × Investors Rooftop Mixer. South Beach. 6 - 9 pm.
🗓️ September 30: Cache Me Outside: A Rooftop Party at the AI Conference. South Beach. 5 - 8 pm.
🗓️ October 1: Ramp Design Night SF: Craft. Mission Dolores. 6 - 9 pm.
Reply to this email to submit an event for consideration in the next edition.
The week is finally here! The full Ambition Summit schedule is live. September 24th, Santa Monica. 8 sessions: Shivani Siroya (Tala), Dee Murthy (Ghost), Dara Ladjevardian (Delphi), Rick Smith (Crosscut), Mehul Nariyawala (Matic), Jessica Chang (Upwards), Jo Phillips (Payabli), Shamin Walsh (BAM Ventures). Doors open at 9, wraps at 5, closing party after.
Thanks to our Summit sponsors:
DLA Piper, whose Emerging Growth and Venture Capital practice partners with founders and investors from formation through exit.
Citizens Private Bank, offering the "Citizens for Startups" program, designed to support early-stage founders by providing access to customized banking solutions, dedicated startup bankers, and curated resources.
Plus Venice Inc., Bailey Glasser, Ardas, Tax Hack, and Agora.
Top 5 SF Startup Jobs
Senior Software Engineer @ Pine Park Health
Design Engineer @ Gooseworks
Designer (Brand and Marketing) @ Wordware
Customer Solutions Engineer @ Agave
Founding Product Designer @ Moritz
👋 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.
The Ambition Podcast is a show about the world's most ambitious people from history, and the lessons you can take from their lives and use in your own work and life.
Each episode is deeply researched, built around the definitive biography of one person (or in some cases, two), with dozens of hours spent reading, synthesizing, and pulling out what actually matters.
First episodes of Ambition:
Available now on all podcasting platforms including: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, YouTube and more.
Embra AI, a startup building data infrastructure for robotics and physical AI teams, raised a $1M Pre-Seed round.
Nex, a provider of active play systems for families, raised a +$150M Series E led by Baillie Gifford and BAI Capital, and a new credit facility with JPMorgan.
Raindrop, a provider of an AI agent reliability and monitoring platform, raised an undisclosed amount as Series A led by CRV.
Kastle, a provider of an AI workforce platform for financial services, raised a $24M Series A led by Insight Partners.
Mainstay, a provider of an intelligent system of record for residential real estate, raised a +$18M round backed by Parker89, Stackpoint and more.
Hang Ten Systems, a provider of advisory, transformation, and applied-AI services to large enterprises, raised an additional $53M round led by Xora to a $85M Seed round.
Circle Pharma, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing new targeted macrocycle therapeutics for cancer, raised a $92.5M Series E led by The Column Group.
Aristotle, a provider of a voice-first AI tutoring platform, raised a $5M Seed round led by True Ventures.
Rune, a provider of a modular compute system platform, raised a $40M Series A led by Spark Capital.
BackOps, a provider of an AI resolution layer platform for physical goods supply chains, raised a $42M Series B led by Insight Partners.
Gaia Dynamics, a provider of an AI-powered trade compliance platform, raised a $7M Seed round led by Corazon Capital.
Noetive, a provider of an AI intelligence of record platform for the physical economy, raised a $41M Seed round led by Eclipse.
Expanse, an AI infrastructure company, raised a $5.3M Seed round led by Crane Venture Partners.
Ferry Health, a provider of an AI personal assistant platform for healthcare tasks, raised a $9M Seed round backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, and more.
Thatch, a provider of a health benefits platform, raised a $108M round backed by The General Partnership, Index Ventures and more.
TypeSafe AI, a provider of machine-native and composable AI models, raised a $40M Seed round led by DCVC.
TeRAM, a provider of custom 3D SRAM for AI applications, raised a $37M round led by Primary, B Capital and more.
Factory, a provider of a self-improving software development platform, raised a $200M round backed by Blackstone, Khosla Ventures, and more.
Mithrl, an AI infrastructure provider for biopharma companies, raised a $20M Series A led by Obvious Ventures.
Delos Data, an AI inference company, raised a +$100M round backed by Matrix Partners, Playground and more.
Planted, a provider of an autonomous power deployment platform, raised a $31.8M round co-led by Piva Capital and RA Capital Management Planetary Health.
RegCell, Inc., a biotechnology company developing therapies to restore immune tolerance, raised a $44M Series A led by Playground Global.
Decimal AI, a provider of a customer engineering platform for technical support teams, raised a $4M Seed round co-led by Khosla Ventures and Kearny Jackson.
Artificial Intelligence Underwriting Company (AIUC), a provider of confidence infrastructure, standards, and insurance for enterprise AI adoption, raised a $40M Series A led by Ribbit Capital.
Jack & Jill, a provider of an AI agent marketplace for job recruitment, raised a $40M Series A led by Air Street Capital.
Aron, a developer of an AI Chief of Staff for procurement teams, raised a $6M Seed round led by Storm Ventures and a $2M Pre-Seed round led by Menlo Ventures.
Flam, a provider of an AI interactive content platform, raised a $40M Series B led by QED Investors.
Shennon Biotechnologies, a biotechnology company developing precision immunotherapies for cancer, raised a $12M round backed by Future Ventures, NextGen Venture Partners and more.
Featured Location
Bar Sprezzatura. A stylish Italian-inspired bar and restaurant in Jackson Square, known for its chic interiors, handmade pasta, cocktails, and lively atmosphere.
Fun Events
See you next week,
Justin