Motion Blur

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.

Dan Gray, Head of Insights at Equidam, dives into the intricacies of venture capital and its pitfalls. He discusses how top firms concentrate reputation and capital, potentially sidelining unconventional founders. From the perspective of LPs, Dan explores the dynamics of portfolio risk and the debate over whether VC behaviors stem from collusion or incentives. He also emphasizes the importance of 'legibility' in startups and shares insights on emerging managers and innovative funding strategies. Listen for his hot takes on shaping the future of venture.

“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

The podcast dives into the challenges of defining benchmarks in today’s fast-evolving venture landscape. It discusses a significant tech acquisition's implications for AI and blockchain startups. The hosts examine the need for aligning product design with user needs rather than investor interests. They also stress the importance of clear vision and adaptability for founders navigating complex funding strategies. The discussion highlights the shifting dynamics of startup investing and the need for immediate revenue generation, especially in SaaS models.

Delve into the fascinating concept of the 'Idea Maze,' which illuminates how founders navigate the complexities of entrepreneurship. Discover the importance of historical context in becoming a 'Maze Historian' and why this knowledge is crucial for success. The discussion also explores the balance between optimism and credible ambition, along with strategic insights for navigating the startup landscape. Dive deep into evolving frameworks and the vital relationship between venture capitalists and founders.

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.