👋 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! We’re less than 3 weeks away from the Ambition Summit and pricing goes up on September 9th! We’ve got a great group of attendees forming, from venture-backed founders to investors managing millions of dollars, to operators at some very interesting companies, and more. Apply to join today.
Want your brand at the Ambition Summit? I'm looking for a few more sponsors, plus CPG brands who want to get food or drinks in front of 150 founders, operators, and investors, and products for speaker and attendee gifts. Reply and I'll send details.
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 8: Tania Ketenjian & Philip Wood // Sound Made Public: The Art of Listening. Berkeley. 5:30 - 6:30 pm.
🗓️ September 8: Blinkko Launch Party: A first look at the social wearable that brings AI into real-world connection. Civic Center. 6 - 9 pm.
🗓️ September 8: AI Internal Tools Happy Hour | Massive Tech Ventures x Rho. Embarcadero. 6:30 - 8:30 pm.
🗓️ September 9: "How I" Happy Hour with Claire Vo. SoMa. 5 - 8 pm.
🗓️ September 9: The Corgi Cup. Belden Place. 5 - 7 pm.
🗓️ September 9: Software Factories Meet Production. Financial District. 6 - 8 pm.
🗓️ September 9: Agents in Sales: Fireside Chat with Bobby Morrison (ex-Shopify CRO). Financial District. 6:30 - 8:30 pm.
🗓️ September 9: The True Cost of Every Prompt: The Sustainability of AI and Data Centers. Lower Haight. 7 - 9 pm.
🗓️ September 10: scrappy sessions @ connected stack. Main Post. 2 - 4:30 pm.
🗓️ September 10: Safer Socials Connector. Oakland. 4 - 7 pm.
🗓️ September 10: Mahjong Party for AI Builders. Dogpatch. 5 - 8 pm.
🗓️ September 10: Startup Pitch Night. Mid-Market. 6 - 8:30 pm.
🗓️ September 10: Private Healthcare AI Networking for Leaders, Founders & Investors - Members +3. Mid-Market. 6:30 - 8:30 pm.
🗓️ September 11: Agentworld x Superdark Factory Antikythera x Disintegrator. Mission District. 6:30 - 9 pm.
🗓️ September 12: Building for Abundance SF. Mid-Market. 9 - 6 pm.
🗓️ September 12: Open Model Hack - Gradient x Google Deepmind. Embarcadero. 9:30 am - 7:30 pm.
🗓️ September 12: European Founder Mixer. 2 - 5 pm.
🗓️ September 12: Agentworld x Superdark Factory Antikythera x Disintegrator. Clarendon Heights. 5 - 8:30 pm.
🗓️ September 13: AI Filmmaking Masterclass + Hackathon. Financial District. 9 am - 7 pm.
👀 Events Coming Soon 👀
🗓️ September 15: All Things Agent Setups. Financial District. 5:30 - 8:30 pm.
🗓️ September 15: AI-native platforms for industries software forgot, Real World Data & Robotics Luncheon. Mountain View. 12 - 1 pm.
🗓️ September 16: SPC Post-Training Forum: Mercor CEO, Brendan Foody. South Beach. 3 - 4 pm.
🗓️ September 16: Bay Area Rust - Graphics Meetup. Mission Dolores. 6 - 8:30 pm.
🗓️ September 17: AI Biotech Block Party: Hosted by Edison Scientific x Multiply Labs. Central Waterfront. 5 - 8:30 pm.
🗓️ September 19: Dream AI Hackathon 2026. Mid-Market. 9 am - 9 pm.
Reply to this email to submit an event for consideration in the next edition.
What happens when you put 150 ambitious founders, investors, and operators in one room for a full day?
We're about to find out.
On September 24th, Ambition 2026 takes over a private venue in Santa Monica. One day, one room, no filler panels.
This isn't a massive conference you wander through with a lanyard. It's curated, it's capped at 150, and attendees have already signed up from across the US and as far as Australia.
VIP tickets include an intimate dinner the night before with some of the speakers and as many great people as I can talk into showing up.
Top 5 SF Startup Jobs
Growth Intern (Fall, Winter cycles) @ CatchBack Cards
Sales Development Representative @ Casco
Software Engineer @ Medplum
👋 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.
Burlingame Studios, a mobile game development studio, raised $12M in user acquisition financing provided by PvX Partners.
Wafer, an artificial intelligence inference chip and hardware infrastructure startup, raised a $40M Series A led by Marathon and Chemistry.
Fambot, a provider of an AI platform designed to simplify family logistics, raised a $3.5M Pre-Seed round led by NextView Ventures and Baukunst.
Lyte, a physical AI perception company, raised a $165M Series C led by Maverick Silicon.
empirik.ai, a provider of an AI agent platform for infrastructure change, raised a $21M round Sequoia Capital, S32 and more.
TabaPay, a provider of a money movement platform, raised a $155M round led by FTV Capital.
Newlight, a clean technology and maritime aerospace startup, raised a $9M Seed round backed by lomarlabs, BIRD Energy and more.
N-Power Medicine, a provider of an oncology drug development and community cancer patient care platform, raised a $32M Series B backed by Labcorp Venture Fund, Merck Global Health Innovation Fund and more.
Clipto, an artificial intelligence video search and content discovery startup, raised a $15M round backed by HSG, GL Ventures and more.
Aranya, a provider of an AI-native multicluster operating system for GPU infrastructure, raised a $2M Pre-Seed round led by Asylum Ventures and a $9M Seed round led by First Round Capital.
Visko, a research company developing real-time interactive world models, raised a $10M in Pre-Seed round led by Llama Ventures.
Owner, a provider of an AI-powered technology and marketing platform for local businesses, raised a $240M round led by Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives.
Lone Palm Labs, the provider of Retro, a private photo-sharing and consumer social platform, raised a +$21M Series A backed by Thrive Capital, Scribble Ventures and more.
Featured Location
Greens. A beautiful waterfront vegetarian restaurant at Fort Mason, featuring floor-to-ceiling windows, warm wood interiors, and sweeping views of the Golden Gate Bridge and Bay.
Fun Events
See you next week,
Justin