Motion Blur

A case for a high cadenceToday Grant reads his latest essay, this one is about building in hardware with tempo.One of my college coaches always preached that we needed to move with Tempo, Tempo, and Tempo.It extended from decision making to the actual execution. Always be moving, and move with purpose. If you’re moving faster than your competitors then you’re going to win in the long run.I have yet to see an example where this is not true — especially with startups.🔗 Show Resource LinksTempo Tempo Tempo🎙️ Podcast Links⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠🌀 About Motion BlurExploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is a Partner at ⁠⁠Cantos⁠⁠ where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, ⁠⁠Susa⁠⁠’s growth fund. Learn more about the hosts:Grant Gregory, ⁠⁠⁠@grant__gregory⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Embers⁠⁠⁠Hammad Aslam, ⁠⁠⁠@_hammad_aslamh⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Susa Ventures⁠⁠If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every week for new episodes.Intro music credit: ⁠⁠⁠Will Harrison⁠⁠⁠Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! ⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ to get notified for future episodes.

The other side of Product Market FitToday Grant reads his latest essay, this one is about desperation, and just like porn: "you know it when you see it".🔗 Show Resource LinksDesperation🎙️ Podcast Links⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠🌀 About Motion BlurExploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is a Partner at ⁠⁠Cantos⁠⁠ where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, ⁠⁠Susa⁠⁠’s growth fund. Learn more about the hosts:Grant Gregory, ⁠⁠⁠@grant__gregory⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Embers⁠⁠⁠Hammad Aslam, ⁠⁠⁠@_hammad_aslamh⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Susa Ventures⁠⁠If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every week for new episodes.Intro music credit: ⁠⁠⁠Will Harrison⁠⁠⁠Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! ⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ to get notified for future episodes.

Snipers, Intentionality, and Why Hardware is HardToday Grant reads his latest essay, this one is about building in hardware.A very close founder friend was recently talking to me about his experience in hardware: “I bled out of my ears and eyes for 3 years. I'm never doing that again.”That was his second startup. When I asked him what in particular made it so hard, he gave an interesting answer: you only have so many bullets in the chamber.🔗 Show Resource LinksBullets in the Chamber🎙️ Podcast Links⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠🌀 About Motion BlurExploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is a Partner at ⁠⁠Cantos⁠⁠ where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, ⁠⁠Susa⁠⁠’s growth fund. Learn more about the hosts:Grant Gregory, ⁠⁠⁠@grant__gregory⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Embers⁠⁠⁠Hammad Aslam, ⁠⁠⁠@_hammad_aslamh⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Susa Ventures⁠⁠If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every week for new episodes.Intro music credit: ⁠⁠⁠Will Harrison⁠⁠⁠Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! ⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ to get notified for future episodes.

Another side of vertical integrationToday Grant reads his latest essay, this one is a continuation of vertical integration benefits.SpaceX customers frequently comment on the fact that they’ve quickly built trust with the company because they saw how hard SpaceX worked to get the products where they needed to be, often in the field with the customer.It’s a mentality. One early Tesla employee shared it succinctly: “If we haven’t finished something yet, and we have 24 hours until a demo, we're still on time.”🔗 Show Resource LinksNeed For SpeedPost on X🎙️ Podcast Links⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠🌀 About Motion BlurExploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is a Partner at ⁠⁠Cantos⁠⁠ where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, ⁠⁠Susa⁠⁠’s growth fund. Learn more about the hosts:Grant Gregory, ⁠⁠⁠@grant__gregory⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Embers⁠⁠⁠Hammad Aslam, ⁠⁠⁠@_hammad_aslamh⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Susa Ventures⁠⁠If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every week for new episodes.Intro music credit: ⁠⁠⁠Will Harrison⁠⁠⁠Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! ⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ to get notified for future episodes.

Today Grant reads his latest essay on the topic of vertical integration.Vertical integration has been the topic de jour the last few days — leading to some energized back and forth on X. One position that kicked off the frenzy centered on the idea that “too many startups vertically integrate without any real strategic reason.”Honestly we’ve enjoyed it. But I think a lot of the conversation is missing something fundamental. So I want to share how we think about it at Cantos, informed by what we’ve seen work (and not work) across our portfolio and the broader ADCU.🔗 Show Resource LinksVertically Integrate or DiePost on XOriginal post that sparked the essay🎙️ Podcast Links⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠🌀 About Motion BlurExploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is a Partner at ⁠⁠Cantos⁠⁠ where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, ⁠⁠Susa⁠⁠’s growth fund. Learn more about the hosts:Grant Gregory, ⁠⁠⁠@grant__gregory⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Embers⁠⁠⁠Hammad Aslam, ⁠⁠⁠@_hammad_aslamh⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Susa Ventures⁠⁠If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every week for new episodes.Intro music credit: ⁠⁠⁠Will Harrison⁠⁠⁠Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! ⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ to get notified for future episodes.

Predictions, resolutions, and moreHappy 2026 everyone! We’re excited to open the show with some exciting news about Hard Hat DAO. We then transition into some new years resolutions, predictions for the tech industry — some of which have already proven true — and then some broader commentary on the state of the world.Welcome to a new trip around the sun. We’re excited for what the new year brings.Oh. And we’re not eating chips in 2026. Feel free to join us (or consume on our behalf). And let us know if you think we should avoid fries too.🔗 Show Resource LinksCan we fix it? Yes we can.🎙️ Podcast Links⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠🌀 About Motion BlurExploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is an investor at ⁠⁠Cantos⁠⁠ where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, ⁠⁠Susa⁠⁠’s growth fund. Learn more about the hosts:Grant Gregory, ⁠⁠⁠@grant__gregory⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Embers⁠⁠⁠Hammad Aslam, ⁠⁠⁠@_hammad_aslamh⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Susa Ventures⁠⁠If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every week for new episodes.Intro music credit: ⁠⁠⁠Will Harrison⁠⁠⁠Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! ⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ to get notified for future episodes.

It’s the end of 2025, so Grant and Hammad decided to revisit some of the most important themes from this year and highlight their significance now that we've had more time to digest them. Hammad cooked in this one, so Grant thinks you’ll particularly enjoy it.Thank you for continuing to listen to us. It’s been a big year (many interviews, the State of Adventure, our 1 year mark, etc.) and we’re excited for many more firsts.This will be our last episode for 2025. We’ll see you in 2026! Happy Holidays, everyone.🔗 Show Resource LinksSome fun memes to end the year:LongevitySell me this penNever give up🎙️ Podcast Links⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠🌀 About Motion BlurExploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is an investor at ⁠⁠Cantos⁠⁠ where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, ⁠⁠Susa⁠⁠’s growth fund. Learn more about the hosts:Grant Gregory, ⁠⁠⁠@grant__gregory⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Embers⁠⁠⁠Hammad Aslam, ⁠⁠⁠@_hammad_aslamh⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Susa Ventures⁠⁠If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every week for new episodes.Intro music credit: ⁠⁠⁠Will Harrison⁠⁠⁠Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! ⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ to get notified for future episodes.

When humanity becomes the edgeWhat does labor look like today, and what does it look like tomorrow? Hammad leads part two of the long-awaited discussion about the concept of linearity. Today’s conversation extends beyond tech and covers a lot more of the societal and philosophical questions that are just beginning to surface. As we’ll highlight, most of these questions actually aren’t that new, but for many people they’re coming to a head now thanks to AI, robotics, and more. What will creativity look like? What will writing look like? What do people do with all the slop and clankers?Grant even talks about a 10,000 word essay he wrote (for fun!) over 8 months during COVID. From the conclusion of that piece:Steve Jobs had a famous aphorism that the computer was the bicycle of the mind. Meaning, that compared to other animals, humans weren’t that special. Our tools changed that. Tools aren’t something we can immediately use — we have to learn and practice first to reach proficiency.We’ve successfully given everyone a bicycle over the past decade, now all we need to do is teach people how to ride it.I’ll give Darwin the final word.“It is not the strongest of species that survive; nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the most adaptable to change.” — Charles DarwinEnjoy! 🔗 Show Resource LinksGrant’s 10,000 word essay, What If Everyone Could Code?John Maynard Keynes’ Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren (from 1930)🎙️ Podcast LinksSpotifyApple Podcasts⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠Subscribe🌀 About Motion BlurExploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is a Partner at Cantos where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, Susa’s growth fund.Learn more about the hosts:Grant Gregory, ⁠Embers⁠Hammad Aslam, ⁠Susa VenturesIntro music credit: ⁠Will Harrison⁠Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! Subscribe to get notified for future episodes.

A discussion with the Founder of Sage Road Research on the biggest forces reshaping the world.Today we’re interviewing someone Grant has been following since 2019: Trevor Noren, Founder of Sage Road Research.Trevor is an information omnivore. He’s a renowned financial analyst and thought leader, but we almost feel like that is too reductive; Trevor consumes huge quantums of data, synthesizes it all, and then packages it into coherent frameworks and analysis for his clients. Everything from tariffs to AI to demographics and investing.We brought him onto the podcast so we could discuss the takeaways from some of his recent reports, as well as go through his overall research process. We cover deregulation, reshoring, the retailization of private markets, and some glimpses into his upcoming report on AI productivity. Longtime Motion Blur listeners will recall that Trevor played a huge role in the Sate of Adventure deck. This conversation covers that and so much more.We also spend some time talking about Sage Road. After spending time at 13D and Wellington, Trevor decided to set out and build a firm that combines his unique synthesis abilities with his long-term time horizon. Sage Road focuses on the core themes and challenges that will define the next few decades.In Trevor’s words: Sage Road is dedicated to industry-leading research into return-defining themes. From my time as an analyst at 13D Research to my time leading investment content for Wellington Management, I have always valued yet struggled to find comprehensive and unbiased thinking on the biggest trends influencing investment outcomes. I founded Sage Road to fill that gap—to get beyond the day-to-day noise, challenge consensus thinking, and connect-the-dots on key investment themes many may recognize, but few have time or opportunity to fully understand.About Trevor: For more than a decade, Trevor Noren has been a financial industry thought leader. He worked for the world-renowned research firm 13D as a managing director and contributor to its flagship publication, What I Learned This Week. His areas of analytical focus ranged from tech disruption to consumer trends to financial industry plumbing, politics, and macroeconomics. After his tenure at 13D, he joined Wellington Management, a Boston-based firm with more than $1 trillion in AUM. In his role as Director of Investment Content, he led efforts to bring vital insights from the firm’s best-in-class, bottom-up investment dialogue to a global client base. He created and spearheaded the firm’s flagship publication, The Wellington Week, which became a go-to resource for thousands of investors and asset allocators across the world. Trevor is a proud graduate of Brown University. He lives in Ketchum, Idaho with his wife, two kids, two dogs, and many fishing rods.Enjoy!🔗 Show Resource LinksTrevor’s Twitter profileSage Road Research, and a link to the excellent reportsTrevor’s Real Vision interview Grant saw back in 2019 (and the tweet)🎙️ Podcast Links⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠🌀 About Motion BlurExploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is a Partner at ⁠⁠Cantos⁠⁠ where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, ⁠⁠Susa⁠⁠’s growth fund. Learn more about the hosts:Grant Gregory, ⁠⁠⁠@grant__gregory⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Embers⁠⁠⁠Hammad Aslam, ⁠⁠⁠@_hammad_aslamh⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Susa Ventures⁠⁠If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every week for new episodes.Intro music credit: ⁠⁠⁠Will Harrison⁠⁠⁠Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! ⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ to get notified for future episodes.

Apps, books, and people we loveIt’s time for our annual Thanksgiving-inspired episode! Grant and Hammad share a few thoughts on an app, book, and person that they each are grateful for.We hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and wonderful start to the Holiday season. Thanks for listening!🔗 Show Resource LinksApp Recommendations: InKind, Copilot (referral code: MW6MHW), and ReadwiseBook Recommendations: Apple in China and The Book of RosyMaui: The Road to Hana🎙️ Podcast Links⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠🌀 About Motion BlurExploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is an investor at ⁠⁠Cantos⁠⁠ where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, ⁠⁠Susa⁠⁠’s growth fund. Learn more about the hosts:Grant Gregory, ⁠⁠⁠@grant__gregory⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Embers⁠⁠⁠Hammad Aslam, ⁠⁠⁠@_hammad_aslamh⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Susa Ventures⁠⁠If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every week for new episodes.Intro music credit: ⁠⁠⁠Will Harrison⁠⁠⁠Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! ⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ to get notified for future episodes.

Where venture dogmas go to dieHammad leads a long-awaited discussion about the concept of linearity, something that is becoming increasingly more important in today’s world. Given its significance, we’ve decided to make this a two-part episode, this first part focuses on venture capital and startups. Hammad begins by giving us his definition of linearity vs non-linearity, and shares his critiques of some of the traditional growth metrics like ‘triple, triple, double, double’. This episode has everything: twitter references, iPhones vs Android, Blackberry, and even some convos about COVID.Enjoy! 🔗 Show Resource LinksDan Gray’s tweetDan’s article: Venture Capital is Not CompetitiveHo Nam’s quote tweet🎙️ Podcast LinksSpotifyApple Podcasts⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠Subscribe🌀 About Motion BlurExploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is a Partner at Cantos where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, Susa’s growth fund.Learn more about the hosts:Grant Gregory, ⁠Embers⁠Hammad Aslam, ⁠Susa VenturesIntro music credit: ⁠Will Harrison⁠Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! Subscribe to get notified for future episodes.

Today we’re interviewing Danielle Strachman and Michael Gibson, co-founders of 1517 Fund. We’ve long admired their distinctive approach to backing builders outside traditional paths, and brought them on to dig into how talent, capital, and company formation work when you deliberately look beyond credentials. 1517 backs dropouts, students, and deep-tech scientists at the very first checks stage—often before there’s a company at all.Danielle is a General Partner at 1517 and was on the founding team that designed and ran the Thiel Fellowship, after earlier founding Innovations Academy, a project-based learning charter school in San Diego. Her career has centered on helping unconventional young founders turn early sparks into real companies.Michael is a GP at 1517 and, alongside Danielle, helped lead the Thiel Fellowship before co-founding the fund. He’s also the author of Paper Belt on Fire, a book about funding outsiders and rethinking how progress happens. Grant can attest, it’s a fantastic read.Enjoy!🎙️ Podcast Links⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠🌀 About Motion BlurExploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is a Partner at ⁠⁠Cantos⁠⁠ where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, ⁠⁠Susa⁠⁠’s growth fund. Learn more about the hosts:Grant Gregory, ⁠⁠⁠@grant__gregory⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Embers⁠⁠⁠Hammad Aslam, ⁠⁠⁠@_hammad_aslamh⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Susa Ventures⁠⁠If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every week for new episodes.Intro music credit: ⁠⁠⁠Will Harrison⁠⁠⁠Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! ⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ to get notified for future episodes.

The official State of Adventure presentation. Enjoy!🔗 Show Resource LinksThe official State of Adventure deckGrant’s tweet announcing the deckGrant’s LinkedIn post announcing the deck, and the full deck🎙️ Podcast LinksSpotifyApple Podcasts⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠Subscribe🌀 About Motion BlurExploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is a Partner at Cantos where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, Susa’s growth fund.Learn more about the hosts:Grant Gregory, ⁠Embers⁠Hammad Aslam, ⁠Susa VenturesIntro music credit: ⁠Will Harrison⁠Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! Subscribe to get notified for future episodes.

This short bonus episode officially marks the one-year mark for Motion Blur.It’s been a great year, with a lot of highlights. We reflect on some of them and Hammad and Grant each share some exciting personal news.Enjoy! And Happy Halloween!🎙️ Podcast LinksSpotifyApple Podcasts⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠Subscribe🌀 About Motion BlurExploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is a Partner at Cantos where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, Susa’s growth fund.Learn more about the hosts:Grant Gregory, ⁠Embers⁠Hammad Aslam, ⁠Susa VenturesIntro music credit: ⁠Will Harrison⁠Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! Subscribe to get notified for future episodes.

One more convo about the State of Adventure! This one is with our close friend Will Quist at Slow Ventures. Will had Grant on their podcast to riff on Adventure Capital, Narrative Warfare, and much more.Will is one of the sharpest minds in venture, and we’re excited for you to tune into this convo.Grant Gregory and Cantos just dropped a 286-slide deep tech mega-deck. They swap inside baseball on narrative warfare, the voting vs weighing machine, and why “precision” in deep tech labeling matters (Waymo ≠ TLM ≠ Shinkai ≠ Anduril). Grant shows his two most important slides: the Deep Tech Score (levels from SaaS to “OpenAI before Transformers existed”) and the “narrative violation” where hardware’s capital-to-outcome multiples beat software in the data he compiled. Chapters: 00:48 Who is Grant? A16Z American Dynamism team → Cantos 01:36 Why capital finally “got the plot” on hard tech 03:13 The two most important slides: Deep Tech Score + Narrative Violation 04:20 Hardware vs software: the capital-intensity myth, with data 05:59 Narrative warfare: voting machine vs weighing machine 06:38 Anointment dynamics; operating between fundamentals and momentum 07:28 Can founders learn the voting machine? Authenticity over mimicry 09:44 Defense FOMO, IBM-ification of venture, and pre-signal markets 14:18 Defense exits: only a few true fund-returners; multi-product is required 17:21 Deck feedback: founders want a real definition of “venture scale” 18:45 Deep Tech Score criteria: risk types, hypothesis legibility, market maturity 22:22 Why concentrated, full-stack investing matters in non-consensus areas 24:32 Non-VC capital in SpaceX/Tesla/Anduril: the uncomfortable truth 29:31 Business physics: power, supply chains, leverage in physical industries30:13 Will’s take: Automation is a terrible investment vs services on top32:10 Advice to founders: narrative warfare + slow convictionKeep in touch with Slow Ventures: X: https://x.com/slowConnect with WillConnect with Grant🔗 Show Resource LinksThe full YouTube video of the conversation, and the tweetGrant’s tweet announcing the deckGrant’s LinkedIn post announcing the deck, and the full deck🎙️ Podcast LinksSpotifyApple Podcasts⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠Subscribe🌀 About Motion BlurExploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is a Partner at Cantos where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, Susa’s growth fund.Learn more about the hosts:Grant Gregory, ⁠Embers⁠Hammad Aslam, ⁠Susa VenturesIntro music credit: ⁠Will Harrison⁠Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! Subscribe to get notified for future episodes.

It’s officially out! Grant and Hammad discuss the takeaways and reception from the inaugural State of Adventure Capital deck.The presentation covers every aspect of American Dynamism Cinematic Universe, from capital inflows to dilution metrics, deep currents, and more. We dive into the meaning behind “Adventure Capital”, why the timing is right for these categories, and what investment opportunities exist for startups building in the physical world.In Grant’s words: This is something I’ve been wanting to do for 3 years now (ever since my a16z days), and the goal is to have this be an annual project in similar scope to Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends Report. An ambitious goal to be clear! But we believe we have a unique purview of the American Dynamism / Deep Tech / Hard Tech landscape, and are compiling all of our learnings together to share them with our founders, coinvestors, and other people in the cinematic universe. Our hope is that this will be a resource for everyone as they build in these categories.🔗 Show Resource Links​The official State of Adventure deck​Grant’s tweet announcing the deck​Grant’s LinkedIn post announcing the deck, and the full deck🎙️ Podcast Links​Spotify​Apple Podcasts​⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠​Subscribe🌀 About Motion BlurExploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is a Partner at Cantos where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, Susa’s growth fund.Learn more about the hosts:​Grant Gregory, ⁠Embers⁠​Hammad Aslam, ⁠Susa VenturesIntro music credit: ⁠Will Harrison⁠Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! Subscribe to get notified for future episodes.

The state of all things Hard Tech, Deep Tech, and American DynamismAfter 9+ months of work, Grant has finished his inaugural State of Adventure Capital deck. And ahead of Grant’s presentation at the upcoming Cantos AGM, we’re giving Motion Blur listeners a special early listen.The presentation covers every aspect of American Dynamism Cinematic Universe, from capital inflows to dilution metrics, deep currents, and more. We dive into the meaning behind “Adventure Capital”, why the timing is right for these categories, and what investment opportunities exist for startups building in the physical world.In Grant’s words: This is something I’ve been wanting to do for 3 years now (ever since my a16z days), and the goal is to have this be an annual project in similar scope to Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends Report. An ambitious goal to be clear! But we believe we have a unique purview of the American Dynamism / Deep Tech / Hard Tech landscape, and are compiling all of our learnings together to share them with our founders, coinvestors, and other people in the cinematic universe. Our hope is that this will be a resource for everyone as they build in these categories.The State of Adventure will be formally released next week. Until then, enjoy this early version.🔗 Show Resource LinksGrant’s recent tweets on some of the slides from his deck🎙️ Podcast LinksSpotifyApple Podcasts⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠Subscribe🌀 About Motion BlurExploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is a Partner at Cantos where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, Susa’s growth fund.Learn more about the hosts:Grant Gregory, ⁠Embers⁠Hammad Aslam, ⁠Susa VenturesIntro music credit: ⁠Will Harrison⁠Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! Subscribe to get notified for future episodes.

A deeper discussion on the shortcomings (and benefits) of ventureToday we’re interviewing Dan Gray, head of insights at Equidam. We’ve been following Dan’s work throughout the past year and decided to have him on as we begin talking to more LPs about their allocation strategies and perspectives.Dan’s twitter account is a great follow — he frequently shares lots of data-driven insights and rebukes for a lot of the “tried and true” aphorisms. This episode is filled with hot takes, enjoy!🔗 Dan’s BioDan is the Head of Insights at Equidam, a platform for startup valuation that helps make unconventional and novel ideas more legible for investors. With two decades of experience in and around startups, Dan’s career spans industrial engineering, gaming, fintech, and animation. He has worked across the startup ecosystem—from startup hubs to accelerator programs—supporting both founders and investors in navigating the complexities of venture capital.Dan is a prolific writer and commentator on the startup landscape, contributing regularly to Crunchbase News and sharing insights on his blog, credistick.com, as well as on X. His work focuses on demystifying fundraising, startup valuation, and the shifting incentives in the venture capital ecosystem.🎙️ Podcast Links⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠🌀 About Motion BlurExploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is a Partner at ⁠⁠Cantos⁠⁠ where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, ⁠⁠Susa⁠⁠’s growth fund. Learn more about the hosts:Grant Gregory, ⁠⁠⁠@grant__gregory⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Embers⁠⁠⁠Hammad Aslam, ⁠⁠⁠@_hammad_aslamh⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Susa Ventures⁠⁠If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every week for new episodes.Intro music credit: ⁠⁠⁠Will Harrison⁠⁠⁠Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! ⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ to get notified for future episodes.

“It’s good to be back!” — Tony StarkWe are finally back after a long summer hiatus. Grant and Hammad discuss some exciting personal news, as well as what’s in the pipeline for the next few episodes of Motion Blur.Enjoy! 🔗 Show Resource LinksGrant’s recent tweets on some of the slides from his deck🎙️ Podcast LinksSpotifyApple Podcasts⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠Subscribe🌀 About Motion BlurExploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is a Partner at Cantos where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, Susa’s growth fund.Learn more about the hosts:Grant Gregory, ⁠Embers⁠Hammad Aslam, ⁠Susa VenturesIntro music credit: ⁠Will Harrison⁠Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! Subscribe to get notified for future episodes.

Today we’re talking about a topic we get asked about at least once every week: capital as a moat. Should you raise a billion dollars? Should you bootstrap?Grant opens the debate by discussing the merits of durability and the idiosyncrasies of building in different categories. We dig more into Parker Conrad’s tweet about venture backed competition potentially eating your lunch, and Hammad then steps in to discuss his thoughts on capital as acceleration and the quality of leadership.This discussion plays off of many of our prior episodes: chicken sexing, anointment, the hedonic treadmill, and more. Ultimately, capital can be a powerful accelerant in the hands of disciplined leadership, and it’s contingent upon founders (and their investors) to make the most of it. Enjoy! 🔗 Show Resource LinksStrategy Letter I: Ben and Jerry’s vs. AmazonParker Conrad TweetRavens GM on the NFL Draft TweetRic Elias of Red Ventures on The Drive Podcast (a top recommendation from Grant)🎙️ Podcast LinksSpotifyApple Podcasts⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠Subscribe🌀 About Motion BlurExploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is a Partner at Cantos where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, Susa’s growth fund.Learn more about the hosts:Grant Gregory, ⁠Embers⁠Hammad Aslam, ⁠Susa VenturesIntro music credit: ⁠Will Harrison⁠

We are back after a short summer break! Our first order of business, commodity companies. But not the ones you’re thinking of, we’re talking about businesses that make and sell commodities.Most investors shy away from commodities because they imply heightened competition and structurally lower margins (and returns). But there are benefits – commodities imply massive scale, and many of the incumbents are huge as a result. Which begs the question, can startups break into these markets and capture some of the upside?Grant believes there’s real opportunity to do just that within in the American Dynamism Cinematic Universe. Companies like Shinkei, Solugen, and others are finding ways to provide products at structurally different cost profiles, and that opens the door to large outcomes.We wrap up the podcast by exploring how Hammad thinks about the topic and how it relates to software companies.🔗 Show Resource LinksShinkeiSolugen🎙️ Podcast LinksSpotifyApple Podcasts⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠Subscribe🌀 About Motion BlurExploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is a Partner at Cantos where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, Susa’s growth fund.Learn more about the hosts:Grant Gregory, ⁠Embers⁠Hammad Aslam, ⁠Susa VenturesIntro music credit: ⁠Will Harrison⁠

Fundraising milestones, OpenAI's latest acquisition, and the merits of planning aheadOne of the hardest dynamics of today’s venture landscape is figuring out milestones to benchmark yourself against. Categories like American Dynamism aren’t mature enough for there to be definitive milestones, and the software / AI world is shifting so rapidly that founders are left to explain their own benchmarks (or adapt to rapidly changing ones).In today’s episode Grant and Hammad discuss how to navigate this type of uncertainty, and how OpenAI’s latest acquisition compliments the discussion. They also discuss Mike Dempsey’s latest piece on venture fundraising and how it captures the current market zeitgeist.This is perhaps the most active the tech ecosystem has ever been. All the incumbents are live players, and the challenger companies are aggressively expanding their horizons. It’s going to be a fun ride.🔗 Show Resource LinksAnnouncing ioPaul Graham’s TweetMike Dempsey’s The First 40 Months🎙️ Podcast LinksSpotifyApple Podcasts⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠Subscribe🌀 About Motion BlurExploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is a Partner at Cantos where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, Susa’s growth fund.Learn more about the hosts:Grant Gregory, ⁠Embers⁠Hammad Aslam, ⁠Susa VenturesIntro music credit: ⁠Will Harrison⁠

In today’s episode Grant and Hammad unpack the “Idea Maze” — a framework for understanding whether founders truly grasp the terrain they’re building in. The Idea Maze comes from Balaji Srinivasan’s lecture notes on entrepreneurship, and was subsequently popularized by Chris Dixon’s succinct blog post.Beyond just being able to chart possible paths, great founders become what Grant calls Maze Historians — encyclopedic students of their category’s history, players, dead ends, and hidden treasures. Grant argues that this level of mastery is foundational for building in the American Dynamism Cinematic Universe.We explore the origins of the original Idea Maze concept, why it’s taken hold at firms like Andreessen, and why action — not just analysis — creates key insights. 🔗 Show Resource LinksGrant’s post on Finding Maze HistoriansBalaji’s Lecture NotesChris Dixon’s Idea Maze Post🎙️ Podcast LinksSpotifyApple Podcasts⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠Subscribe🌀 About Motion BlurExploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is a Partner at Cantos where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, Susa’s growth fund.Learn more about the hosts:Grant Gregory, ⁠Embers⁠Hammad Aslam, ⁠Susa VenturesIntro music credit: ⁠Will Harrison⁠

Given we’ve had a bunch of new subscribers recently, we decided to re-release one of our first episodes we ever recorded, and the first one we launched with!You know the saying: Hardware is hard! In today’s episode, Grant and Hammad discuss why that’s the case. Together they examine the software investing frameworks that also apply to hardware, and also explore new frameworks that offer some predictability in the built world.The culmination of this conversation is a project Grant’s been working on for a while now dubbed The Hardware Playbook. Hammad closes us out with some thoughts on his perspective on the Near Frontier / Dynamism categories, and gets us ready for an upcoming episode on his software world view.🎙️ Podcast LinksSpotifyApple Podcasts⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠Subscribe🌀 About Motion BlurExploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is a Partner at Cantos where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, Susa’s growth fund.Learn more about the hosts:Grant Gregory, ⁠Embers⁠Hammad Aslam, ⁠Susa VenturesIntro music credit: ⁠Will Harrison⁠

Grant's Promotion to Partner, the State of Seed Investing, and Quantum vs Classical RisksToday’s episode is a day late but for good reason — Grant was recently promoted to Partner(!), so Hammad wanted to open the pod congratulating him, and let Grant share some thank you’s to those that have helped him reach this amazing milestone.We then shift to a topic that’s seemingly on everyone’s minds: why is early stage (seed) investing so competitive? And what will happen from here? Grant opens with an iconic Jerry Neumann post from 10 years ago, and connects it to two other posts on the differences in risks between early and late stage startups.This is one of our most wide-ranging episodes to date. We cover everything from quantum vs classical risks to lessons from Grant’s recent dinner with a founder of an iconic venture firm. Grant was also semi-caffeinated for this, which if you know him well, means you’re in for a high-tempo convo. Enjoy!“I like hitting the tennis ball.” —Novak Djokovic🔗 Show Resource Links⁠The Purity of Obsession⁠ - Grant’s post on becoming Partner⁠Heat Death: Venture Capital in the 1980s⁠ - Reaction Wheel (Jerry Neumann)⁠Slow Ventures’ State of VC 2025 Deck⁠⁠There are No Stages, Just Early and Late⁠ - Yoni Rechtman⁠Classical Risk vs Quantum Risk⁠ - Kanyi Maqubela⁠Odds of Success⁠ - Grant’s Ignition essay🎙️ Podcast Links⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠⁠🌀 About Motion BlurExploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is a Partner at ⁠⁠⁠Cantos⁠⁠⁠ where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, ⁠⁠⁠Susa⁠⁠⁠’s growth fund. Learn more about the hosts:Grant Gregory, ⁠⁠⁠⁠@grant__gregory⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠Embers⁠⁠⁠⁠Hammad Aslam, ⁠⁠⁠⁠@_hammad_aslamh⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠Susa Ventures⁠⁠⁠If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every week for new episodes.Intro music credit: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Will Harrison⁠⁠⁠⁠Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! ⁠⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠⁠ to get notified for future episodes.

Today’s episode is the long-awaited Q&A. Thank you to all our listeners who submitted questions to us, we did our best to cover as many as possible. We plan on making more of these in the future so please keep them coming (and hopefully we can get to some that we couldn’t cover this time).🔗 Show Resource LinksBryce Roberts’ tweet on the Wiz acquisition🎙️ Podcast Links⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠🌀 About Motion BlurExploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is an investor at ⁠⁠Cantos⁠⁠ where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, ⁠⁠Susa⁠⁠’s growth fund. Learn more about the hosts:Grant Gregory, ⁠⁠⁠@grant__gregory⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Embers⁠⁠⁠Hammad Aslam, ⁠⁠⁠@_hammad_aslamh⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Susa Ventures⁠⁠If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every week for new episodes.Intro music credit: ⁠⁠⁠Will Harrison⁠⁠⁠Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! ⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ to get notified for future episodes.

Entropy, record revenue growth, and persistenceToday’s episode covers the Second Law of Thermodynamics — entropy, and how it extends to the world of (AI) companies. We’ve seen a number of companies shatter revenue milestones in record times, and Hammad and Grant viewed this as an opportunity to talk about building enduring businesses in the face of shifting environment.We open with one of Grant’s favorite facts: the average age of a company in the S&P 500 has fallen over 50 years in the past few decades. The Hedonic Treadmill has only accelerated, and we’re seeing more and more companies impacted. AI companies are no different. Hammad carries us through discussion on some of the practical implications of what this means, and Grant shares some thoughts on the broader uncertainty (and opportunity) with building in such a rapidly shifting playing field.It’s hard to build a company. It’s even harder to make it last!“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming 'Wow! What a Ride!'“ —Hunter S. ThompsonLastly, please send us any questions you’d like us to cover in our upcoming Q&A episode! LinkedIn or Twitter DM us.🔗 Show Resource LinksClouded Judgement - 3.28.25 - The New AI Risk Curve — Jamin BallThe average company age in the S&P 500 — Innosight Corporate Longevity ForecastUSS Indianapolis🎙️ Podcast Links⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠🌀 About Motion BlurExploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is an investor at ⁠⁠Cantos⁠⁠ where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, ⁠⁠Susa⁠⁠’s growth fund. Learn more about the hosts:Grant Gregory, ⁠⁠⁠@grant__gregory⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Embers⁠⁠⁠Hammad Aslam, ⁠⁠⁠@_hammad_aslamh⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Susa Ventures⁠⁠If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every week for new episodes.Intro music credit: ⁠⁠⁠Will Harrison⁠⁠⁠Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! ⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ to get notified for future episodes.

What reindustrialization actually means, and how we do itThe market is digesting the impact of the latest round of tariffs, and given that reshoring is a core talking point, we wanted to use this as an opportunity to cover our perspective on the broader reindustrialization efforts.This is very much an evolving dynamic, so we focus on the broader picture to give this more of a durable perspective. What do stronger tariffs signal about the next phase of American industrial policy? How do you navigate a world of uncertainty?We dig into the logic behind tariffs, the practical impacts on startups and supply chains, and how founders should think about building in a world where industrial policy is no longer background noise.The challenge with commenting on anything like this is that you stray outside of your circle of competence. We try to ground this by focusing more on what we know, and leaving other talking points for other people to tackle.Lastly, please send us any questions you’d like us to cover in our upcoming Q&A episode! LinkedIn or Twitter DM us.🔗 Show Resource LinksHere’s the iPhone. Here’s the iPhone with Tariffs — WSJ.🎙️ Podcast Links⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠🌀 About Motion BlurExploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is an investor at ⁠⁠Cantos⁠⁠ where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, ⁠⁠Susa⁠⁠’s growth fund. Learn more about the hosts:Grant Gregory, ⁠⁠⁠@grant__gregory⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Embers⁠⁠⁠Hammad Aslam, ⁠⁠⁠@_hammad_aslamh⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Susa Ventures⁠⁠If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every week for new episodes.Intro music credit: ⁠⁠⁠Will Harrison⁠⁠⁠Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! ⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ to get notified for future episodes.

The art of founder pickingToday we’re covering a topic near and dear to our hearts: chicken sexing!While you might think it’s an odd comparison, there’s actually a lot of similarities between chicken sexing and founding picking. Grant originally wrote about this over a year ago on a previously pseudonymous blog, and then referenced it when he announced he was joining Cantos.Expect to learn why this analogy resonates, how Grant originally came up with the idea (Hammad had a huge role in the backstory), and how this type of talent evaluation works in other domains like the NFL.This piece was one of the ways that Grant ended up at Cantos, so it’s fun to revisit now as we get close to the year mark of him leaving a16z. Excited for you all to listen to this one!Lastly, please send us any questions you’d like us to cover in our upcoming Q&A episode! LinkedIn or Twitter DM us.🔗 Show Resource LinksChicken Sexers — OdyseaCantos and Chicken Sexing — Embers🎙️ Podcast Links⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠🌀 About Motion BlurExploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is an investor at ⁠⁠Cantos⁠⁠ where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, ⁠⁠Susa⁠⁠’s growth fund. Learn more about the hosts:Grant Gregory, ⁠⁠⁠@grant__gregory⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Embers⁠⁠⁠Hammad Aslam, ⁠⁠⁠@_hammad_aslamh⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Susa Ventures⁠⁠If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every week for new episodes.Intro music credit: ⁠⁠⁠Will Harrison⁠⁠⁠Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! ⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ to get notified for future episodes.

11x, an AI sales development representatives (SDR) co is in the news for some potentially troubling action. We are not going to comment on the individual company, but instead we wanted to use this as an opportunity to talk about what the challenges of building in the world of software are.Hammad opens the floor by telling us more about what AI SDRs are, how they work, how the market is evolving, and why a story like this might pop up. Grant then asks Hammad to share his perspective on where long-term value accrual will actually happen, especially if a feature (or product) becomes a standard. Grant closes us out by sharing some thoughts about how business is a never-ending race where you have to keep running to stay in the hunt.Lastly, please send us any questions you’d like us to cover in our upcoming Q&A episode! LinkedIn or Twitter DM us.🔗 Show Resource Links11x Tech Crunch articlea16z announcement post investing in 11x🎙️ Podcast Links⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠🌀 About Motion BlurExploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is an investor at ⁠⁠Cantos⁠⁠ where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, ⁠⁠Susa⁠⁠’s growth fund. Learn more about the hosts:Grant Gregory, ⁠⁠⁠@grant__gregory⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Embers⁠⁠⁠Hammad Aslam, ⁠⁠⁠@_hammad_aslamh⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Susa Ventures⁠⁠If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every week for new episodes.Intro music credit: ⁠⁠⁠Will Harrison⁠⁠⁠Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! ⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ to get notified for future episodes.A hedonic treadmill, courtesy of ChatGPT’s latest image model

Google is acquiring Wiz, so we decided it’s time to talk about M&A. There’s a lot of analysis on this particular acquisition and less about how it fits into the broader tech ecosystem, so that’s where most of our discussion centers.We open the conversation by talking about Grant’s time at the 3rd annual American Dynamism Summit in DC, and transition into the Wiz conversation by talking about his latest substack post. Hammad then gives us his perspective on the transaction and whether it will lead to a new era of M&A (and possibly venture liquidity).And lastly, here’s a tweet Hammad sent that gives some food for thought.🔗 Show Resource LinksFT - Alphabet agrees to buy cyber security group Wiz for $32bnOdysea - Waiting for the WhatsApp MomentBryce Roberts’ tweet🎙️ Podcast Links⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠🌀 About Motion BlurExploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is an investor at ⁠⁠Cantos⁠⁠ where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, ⁠⁠Susa⁠⁠’s growth fund. Learn more about the hosts:Grant Gregory, ⁠⁠⁠@grant__gregory⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Embers⁠⁠⁠Hammad Aslam, ⁠⁠⁠@_hammad_aslamh⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Susa Ventures⁠⁠If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every week for new episodes.Intro music credit: ⁠⁠⁠Will Harrison⁠⁠⁠Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! ⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ to get notified for future episodes.

Given the recent market sell off Grant and Hammad thought it would be a good opportunity to discuss their thoughts on the current venture landscape and how macro conditions impact the GP and LP ecosystem. We start off by quickly looking at the American Dynamism 50, which is an annual list of 50 companies highlighted that are supporting the national interest. From there the conversation shifts to the broader markets, LP liquidity needs, and potential shuttering of some non-performant firms.What starts off as an episode about current market dynamics shifts to one about lessons learned from athletics, venture, and life. We hope that the majority of this ends up being fairly evergreen, even if some of the examples discussed are more transient.In the words of the late Richard Machowicz, “Not dead, can’t quit!”🔗 Show Resource LinksGrant’s Not Dead, Can’t Quit tweetAmerican Dynamism 50🎙️ Podcast Links⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠🌀 About Motion BlurExploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is an investor at ⁠⁠Cantos⁠⁠ where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, ⁠⁠Susa⁠⁠’s growth fund. Learn more about the hosts:Grant Gregory, ⁠⁠⁠@grant__gregory⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Embers⁠⁠⁠Hammad Aslam, ⁠⁠⁠@_hammad_aslamh⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Susa Ventures⁠⁠If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every week for new episodes.Intro music credit: ⁠⁠⁠Will Harrison⁠⁠⁠Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! ⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ to get notified for future episodes.

Insights from two decades in the private marketsToday we’re interviewing a close friend of the show — Matt Curtolo. Grant first met Matt back during his time at MetLife, and he’s one of the people responsible for Grant entering venture in the first place.In this episode we discuss Matt’s journey into the allocator’s seat, how his evaluation of managers has changed over time, what the private market landscape looks like for emerging managers, how allocation programs like DEI and other initiatives actually get created and executed, and lastly: what Matt would change about the industry if given the chance.This was a really fun conversation with someone who’s been ensconced in the venture ecosystem for his entire career. We’re excited for you all to listen to Matt’s wisdom.🔗 Matt’s BioMatt has spent the last 20+ years covering all functional areas of the private markets from both an allocator and investor lens. He is currently working with both GPs and LPs, and advising on how to build a fund, a firm, and how to manage and invest private markets portfolios.Matt most recently was the Managing Director of Investments at Allocate, a fintech start-up focused on offering high-quality alternative investment opportunities to a broader investor base in a fully digital experience. While at Allocate he built the investment capability from the ground up as one of the first non-founder hires. Prior to that role, Matt was a senior leader co-managing MetLife’s Alternative Investments Portfolio, investing globally across strategies. Before that, he served as the Head of Private Equity at Hirtle Callaghan, a large independent OCIO after spending his formative years learning the PE business at Hamilton Lane during its early growth, before it became the world’s pre-eminent private markets allocator. These experiences allowed Matt to invest with and on behalf of some of the largest limited partners in the world, as well as work directly on the front lines in client-facing roles, with high net worth clients and large sophisticated institutional investors. In addition, Matt has been directly and indirectly involved with the management and oversight (including serving on several advisory boards) of hundreds of general partner relationships during his career, across the full spectrum of private capital investment strategies.🎙️ Podcast Links⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠🌀 About Motion BlurExploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is an investor at ⁠⁠Cantos⁠⁠ where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, ⁠⁠Susa⁠⁠’s growth fund. Learn more about the hosts:Grant Gregory, ⁠⁠⁠@grant__gregory⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Embers⁠⁠⁠Hammad Aslam, ⁠⁠⁠@_hammad_aslamh⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Susa Ventures⁠⁠If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every week for new episodes.Intro music credit: ⁠⁠⁠Will Harrison⁠⁠⁠Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! ⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ to get notified for future episodes.

Humane, Alexa Plus, and the future of computingLast week Humane announced that HP was acquiring its team and technology, which formally marks the end of their AI pin product.We thought today would be a good time to dissect the news, but more importantly, we wanted to explore what the future of computing may look like. This is an area Grant has spent years thinking about, and he opens up by sharing thoughts on the directional arrows of progress within wearables more broadly, and how the history of computing offers clues as to how this next era will unfold. Hammad concludes the conversation with his thoughts on the hyperscalers and whether new startups will be able to create the next iPhone.This episode is brought to you by SAJJ.🔗 Show Resource Links HP is acquiring the Humane platform and team MKBHD’s Review of the Humane Pin Opinion: The Humane AI Pin never had a chance Amazon launches Alexa Plus General Magic – The Movie (trailer)🎙️ Podcast Links ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠ ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠ ⁠⁠⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠🌀 About Motion BlurExploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is an investor at ⁠⁠Cantos⁠⁠ where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, ⁠⁠Susa⁠⁠’s growth fund. Learn more about the hosts: Grant Gregory, ⁠⁠⁠@grant__gregory⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Embers⁠⁠⁠ Hammad Aslam, ⁠⁠⁠@_hammad_aslamh⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Susa Ventures⁠⁠If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every week for new episodes.Intro music credit: ⁠⁠⁠Will Harrison⁠⁠⁠Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! ⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ to get notified for future episodes.

AI or die?What’s the latest with AI? Is it really AI or Die?A bunch of people are telling us to pay more attention to what’s happening, so Grant and Hammad decided to dive into the meta discussion of how to handle periods of profound change. We discuss everything from Formula One race strategies to v2 companies and how these changes will impact the software + hardware playbooks.This is a wide-ranging conversation that touches a bit of everything. We conclude with Hammad’s excitement for the opportunity in healthcare and Grant’s perspective on the current state of AI within the American Dynamism Cinematic Universe.Hammad also tells Grant what his favorite types of flowers are. Happy (belated) Valentine’s Day everyone!“You cannot overtake fifteen cars in sunny weather. But you can when it’s raining.” — Ayrton Senna🔗 Show Resource LinksAI or Die – Ravi Gupta, SequoiaAlex Rampell innovation vs distribution tweetShake the Snowglobe: Palmer Luckey on Zuck selling the acquisition of Oculus🎙️ Podcast Links⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠🌀 About Motion BlurExploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is an investor at ⁠⁠Cantos⁠⁠ where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, ⁠⁠Susa⁠⁠’s growth fund. Learn more about the hosts:Grant Gregory, ⁠⁠⁠@grant__gregory⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Embers⁠⁠⁠Hammad Aslam, ⁠⁠⁠@_hammad_aslamh⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Susa Ventures⁠⁠If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every week for new episodes.Intro music credit: ⁠⁠⁠Will Harrison⁠⁠⁠Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! ⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ to get notified for future episodes.

Choosing Competitors WiselyYou know the line: Competition is for losers!But what if the opposite is actually true? Today Hammad and Grant explore the topic of choosing your enemies (in reality:competitors), and how that sets your company up for success (or the lack thereof). We dive into Blockbuster, Netflix, Shopify, Amazon, counter-positioning, and much more. This is a topic relevant across the entire startup ecosystem, whether it’s AI and LLMs or the American Dynamism Cinematic Universe.Hammad and Grant close us out with their perspective of how this extends beyond the business world, and Hammad even gets Grant to blush a bit before wrapping up.Necessity, it is said, is the “mother of invention”. So perhaps competition could be called the father. —How to Innovate, Aristotle & Armand D’Angour🔗 Show Resource LinksCompetition is for losers (Peter Thiel YC talk)Zero to OneBessemer Memos – Shopify and theiconic Outcome Analysis section🎙️ Podcast Links⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠🌀 About Motion BlurExploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is an investor at⁠⁠Cantos⁠⁠ where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures,⁠⁠Susa⁠⁠’s growth fund. Learn more about the hosts:Grant Gregory,⁠⁠⁠@grant__gregory⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠Embers⁠⁠⁠Hammad Aslam,⁠⁠⁠@_hammad_aslamh⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠Susa Ventures⁠⁠If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every week for new episodes.Intro music credit:⁠⁠⁠Will Harrison⁠⁠⁠Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur!⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ to get notified for future episodes.

Index Investing vs Concentration Today Hammad and Grant debate the merits of index investing vs concentrated investing at the early stages. The conversation begins with Hammad sharing a tweet from a notable early-stage investing legend; Grant proceeds to explain why he thinks it’s wrong! Been reflecting lately on various people taking a "portfolio approach" of options where one bet hits big -- Kyle Shanahan w/ various quarterbacks; obviously, VC firms who find a big winner; more recently, Lina Khan & FTC w/ Figma-Adobe. Obviously, there’s lots of ways to invest, and Grant and Hammad share a nuanced perspective on the merits and shortfalls of each approach before concluding with their sentiments on which style they believe works best. The episode wraps up with a fun sports analogy from Grant’s life. Enjoy! And apologies to any San Francisco 49ers fans in advance. 🔗 Show Resource Links Semil’s tweet Playing Different Games — Ev Randle 🎙️ Podcast Links ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠ ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠ ⁠⁠⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ 🌀 About Motion Blur Exploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is an investor at ⁠⁠Cantos⁠⁠ where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, ⁠⁠Susa⁠⁠’s growth fund. Learn more about the hosts: Grant Gregory, ⁠⁠⁠@grant__gregory⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Embers⁠⁠⁠ Hammad Aslam, ⁠⁠⁠@_hammad_aslamh⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Susa Ventures⁠⁠ If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every week for new episodes. Intro music credit: ⁠⁠⁠Will Harrison⁠⁠⁠ Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! ⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ to get notified for future episodes.

Lessons from a last-minute trip to Tokyo, and DeepSeek Hello from Tokyo! This week Grant shares some lessons from a recent trip to Japan to support one of the Cantos portfolio companies: Shinkei Systems. For context, Shinkei is a vertically-integrated robotic fish processing company. They’re using robots to process fish more efficiently and humanely, which makes the fish taste better and last longer. They achieve this using robotics and AI to scale the artisanal craft of ike-jime — a technique that actually comes from Japan. Hammad asks Grant to open with Cantos’ thesis around partnering with Saif Khawaja, Shinkei’s Founder & CEO, and then the conversation shifts to some of the extensible lessons we can gleam from Dynamism companies that have global ambitions. We then shift the conversation to talk about DeepSeek, which has taken the AI world by storm. Hammad shares his overarching views before we close the episode on a note about innovation more broadly. 🔗 Show Resource Links The Future of Fish, and Food – Partnering with Shinkei Shinkei Systems Seremoni – Shinkei’s fish brand Forbes piece on Shinkei DeepSeek FAQs 🎙️ Podcast Links ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠ ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠ ⁠⁠⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ 🌀 About Motion Blur Exploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is an investor at ⁠⁠Cantos⁠⁠ where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, ⁠⁠Susa⁠⁠’s growth fund. Learn more about the hosts: Grant Gregory, ⁠⁠⁠@grant__gregory⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Embers⁠⁠⁠ Hammad Aslam, ⁠⁠⁠@_hammad_aslamh⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Susa Ventures⁠⁠ If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every week for new episodes. Intro music credit: ⁠⁠⁠Will Harrison⁠⁠⁠ Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! ⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ to get notified for future episodes.

Today we have a special episode where Grant and Hammad interview a mentor, friend, and someone who happens to also be Grant’s business partner — Ian Rountree. Ian founded Cantos back in 2016 and has since built the firm into the preeminent early-stage investor in the deep tech universe. We open the conversation discussing Ian’s path to founding Cantos but then quickly shift to much more spicy topics, starting with what Ian describes as venture’s incentive problem. Learn why Ian thinks “East Coast” biotech teaches us a unique lesson about deep tech, why his flavor of deep tech is quite different than some of his peers, and most importantly, why Ian views Cantos as a true generalist firm (and why software investors are the specialists). This was a fun one, and we wrap up with Ian’s predictions for 2025 as well as a quick reflection from both Hammad and Grant. Enjoy! 🔗 Show Resource Links Ian Rountree Cantos Ventures 🎙️ Podcast Links ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠ ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠ ⁠⁠⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ 🌀 About Motion Blur Exploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is an investor at ⁠⁠Cantos⁠⁠ where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, ⁠⁠Susa⁠⁠’s growth fund. Learn more about the hosts: Grant Gregory, ⁠⁠⁠@grant__gregory⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Embers⁠⁠⁠ Hammad Aslam, ⁠⁠⁠@_hammad_aslamh⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Susa Ventures⁠⁠ If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every week for new episodes. Intro music credit: ⁠⁠⁠Will Harrison⁠⁠⁠ Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! ⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ to get notified for future episodes.

We’re back for the first episode of 2025! Today we’re exploring one of Grant’s older essays:The Starlink IPO. We open the conversation discussing Amazon and it’s path to creating AWS, and then compare that story to SpaceX and Starlink's meteoric rise. Grant discusses his thesis in greater detail and Hammad asks him what attributes he seeks in founders trying to build multi-act companies. Hammad also asks Grant to share the biggest difference between Blue Origin and SpaceX. Finally we conclude with a project Hammad is excited to put together for the coming year.🔗 Show Resource LinksThe Starlink IPO (a play on Ben Thompson’sThe AWS IPO)The Idea Maze🎙️ Podcast Links⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠🌀 About Motion BlurExploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is an investor at⁠⁠Cantos⁠⁠ where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures,⁠⁠Susa⁠⁠’s growth fund. Learn more about the hosts:Grant Gregory,⁠⁠⁠@grant__gregory⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠Embers⁠⁠⁠Hammad Aslam,⁠⁠⁠@_hammad_aslamh⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠Susa Ventures⁠⁠If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every week for new episodes.Intro music credit:⁠⁠⁠Will Harrison⁠⁠⁠Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur!⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ to get notified for future episodes.

It’s the end of the year, so Grant and Hammad decided to revisit some of the most popular 2024 tech predictions and evaluate how accurate they were. We open with Grant’s maritime prediction from his time at a16z, and then we shift to robotics, crypto, Apple’s Vision Pro, and geopolitics. Hammad then wraps the show by sharing his favorite idea from Satya’s recent podcast interview. This is a lively back and forth episode that culminates with some reflections on the first year of Motion Blur. This will be our last episode for 2024. We’ll see you in 2025! Happy Holidays, everyone. 🔗 Show Resource Links Grant’s 2024 Maritime Prediction Google’s Veo 2 vs Open AI’s Sora 2 Some 2024 Predictions: Fred Wilson’s 2024 Predictions The Next Big Thing: 2024 Predictions Nikhil (NBT)’s Personal 2024 Predictions Satya’s Appearance on the BG2 Pod 🎙️ Podcast Links ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠ ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠ ⁠⁠⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ 🌀 About Motion Blur Exploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is an investor at ⁠⁠Cantos⁠⁠ where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, ⁠⁠Susa⁠⁠’s growth fund. Learn more about the hosts: Grant Gregory, ⁠⁠⁠@grant__gregory⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Embers⁠⁠⁠ Hammad Aslam, ⁠⁠⁠@_hammad_aslamh⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Susa Ventures⁠⁠ If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every week for new episodes. Intro music credit: ⁠⁠⁠Will Harrison⁠⁠⁠ Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! ⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ to get notified for future episodes.

Grant and Hammad discuss how the act of creating a company is like surfing a monster 100 foot wave. Grant begins by sharing a surfing metaphor that explains what it’s like to build a company. Hammad steps in to share his pushback, and then the conversation transitions to some stories about John Doerr, Tesla, and Navy SEALs and sledgehammers. They conclude the show by discussing some of the deep currents they’re focusing on today. 🔗 Show Resource Links 100 foot wave tweet Deep Currents Not Dead, Can’t Quit (Let’s get our sledgehammer on) 🎙️ Podcast Links ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠ ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠ ⁠⁠⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ 🌀 About Motion Blur Exploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is an investor at ⁠⁠Cantos⁠⁠ where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, ⁠⁠Susa⁠⁠’s growth fund. Learn more about the hosts: Grant Gregory, ⁠⁠⁠@grant__gregory⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Embers⁠⁠⁠ Hammad Aslam, ⁠⁠⁠@_hammad_aslamh⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Susa Ventures⁠⁠ If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every week for new episodes. Intro music credit: ⁠⁠⁠Will Harrison⁠⁠⁠ Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! ⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ to get notified for future episodes.

Larry’s tone was in the friendly advice-category. He teed it up this way: I had a choice. I could be an insider or I could be an outsider. Outsiders can say whatever they want. But people on the inside don’t listen to them. Insiders, however, get lots of access and a chance to push their ideas. People — powerful people — listen to what they have to say. But insiders also understand one unbreakable rule: They don’t criticize other insiders. — Elizabeth Warren, A Fighting Chance Grant and Hammad discuss the concept of Insiders and Outsiders and how this applies to founders and investors alike. Grant pulls the curtain back on how these relate to hiring, fundraising, and more. Hammad talks about his first impression of Grant in the Susa Fellowship program and Grant shares his path into venture. Hammad closes us out with sage advice: Play the hand of cards you’re dealt (and enjoy it while you do!) 🔗 Show Resource Links A Nirav or a Naval? - That is the question Yeah. And he went to Hofstra 🎙️ Podcast Links ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠ ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠ ⁠⁠⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ 🌀 About Motion Blur Exploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is an investor at ⁠⁠Cantos⁠⁠ where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, ⁠⁠Susa⁠⁠’s growth fund. Learn more about the hosts: Grant Gregory, ⁠⁠⁠@grant__gregory⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Embers⁠⁠⁠ Hammad Aslam, ⁠⁠⁠@_hammad_aslamh⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Susa Ventures⁠⁠ If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every week for new episodes. Intro music credit: ⁠⁠⁠Will Harrison⁠⁠⁠ Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! ⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ to get notified for future episodes.

In this special Thanksgiving-inspired episode, Grant and Hammad share a few thoughts on an app, book, and person that they each are grateful for. We hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and wonderful start to the Holiday season. Thanks for listening! 🎙️ Podcast Links ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠ ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠ ⁠⁠⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ 🌀 About Motion Blur Exploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is an investor at ⁠⁠Cantos⁠⁠ where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, ⁠⁠Susa⁠⁠’s growth fund. Learn more about the hosts: Grant Gregory, ⁠⁠⁠@grant__gregory⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Embers⁠⁠⁠ Hammad Aslam, ⁠⁠⁠@_hammad_aslamh⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Susa Ventures⁠⁠ If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every week for new episodes. Intro music credit: ⁠⁠⁠Will Harrison⁠⁠⁠ Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! ⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ to get notified for future episodes.

Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM, or so the saying goes. Grant and Hammad talk about how that same sentiment has pervaded everything from Boeing to Venture, and what that means for today’s startup environment, as well as ways to address it. Hammad shares some perspectives on growth, and Grant wraps us up by talking about some founder stories from the last few eras of Venture. We’re iterating on this as we go. Please let us know what you think. 🎙️ Podcast Links ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠ ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠ ⁠⁠⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ 🌀 About Motion Blur Exploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is an investor at ⁠⁠Cantos⁠⁠ where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, ⁠⁠Susa⁠⁠’s growth fund. Learn more about the hosts: Grant Gregory, ⁠⁠⁠@grant__gregory⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Embers⁠⁠⁠ Hammad Aslam, ⁠⁠⁠@_hammad_aslamh⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Susa Ventures⁠⁠ If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every week for new episodes. Intro music credit: ⁠⁠⁠Will Harrison⁠⁠⁠ Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! ⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ to get notified for future episodes.

Episode 3: The iconic line. Everyone’s heard it. We’ve joked about it. Today we’re talking about it. Grant and Hammad cover everything from how multistage firms support portcos to founder dinners. Grant tells us his gold standard for helping founders, and then closes us out with some comments on his time working with Hammad and Susa. We’re iterating on this as we go. Please let us know what you think. 🎙️ Podcast Links ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠ ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠ ⁠⁠⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ 🌀 About Motion Blur Exploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is an investor at ⁠⁠Cantos⁠⁠ where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, ⁠⁠Susa⁠⁠’s growth fund. Learn more about the hosts: Grant Gregory, ⁠⁠⁠@grant__gregory⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Embers⁠⁠⁠ Hammad Aslam, ⁠⁠⁠@_hammad_aslamh⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Susa Ventures⁠⁠ If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every week for new episodes. Intro music credit: ⁠⁠⁠Will Harrison⁠⁠⁠ Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! ⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ to get notified for future episodes.

Episode 2: Software strikes back! In today’s episode, Hammad leads a discussion about the history of software and how it brought us to today's venture landscape. Hammad details how incrementalism has come to dominate investing decisions and why he eschews that in favor of embracing true outlier-type opportunities. Grant and Hammad closes us out with their excitement around what this next era of venture-backed companies can become. We’re iterating on this as we go. Please let us know what you think. 🎙️ Podcast Links ⁠Spotify⁠ Apple Podcasts ⁠⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠⁠ ⁠Subscribe⁠ 🌀 About Motion Blur Exploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is an investor at ⁠Cantos⁠ where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, ⁠Susa⁠’s growth fund. Learn more about the hosts: Grant Gregory, ⁠⁠@grant__gregory⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Embers⁠⁠ Hammad Aslam, ⁠⁠@_hammad_aslamh⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Susa Ventures⁠ If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every week for new episodes. Intro music credit: ⁠⁠Will Harrison⁠⁠ Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! ⁠Subscribe⁠ to get notified for future episodes.

You know the saying: Hardware is hard! In today’s episode, Grant and Hammad discuss why that’s the case. They examine the software investing frameworks that also apply to hardware, and also explore new frameworks that offer some predictability in the built world. Hammad closes us out with some thoughts on his perspective on the Near Frontier / Dynamism categories, and gets us ready for an upcoming episode on his software world view. We’re iterating on this as we go. Please let us know what you think. 🎙️ Podcast Links Spotify Apple Podcasts ⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠ Subscribe 🌀 About Motion Blur Exploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam. Grant is an investor at Cantos where he focuses on physical world technologies. Hammad is a Partner at Kivu Ventures, Susa’s growth fund. Learn more about the hosts: Grant Gregory, ⁠@grant__gregory⁠, ⁠Embers⁠ Hammad Aslam, ⁠@_hammad_aslamh⁠, ⁠Susa Ventures If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every Wednesday for new episodes. Intro music credit: ⁠Will Harrison⁠ Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! Subscribe to get notified for future episodes.