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

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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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