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)
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🌀 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
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