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Motion Blur
Grant Gregory and Hammad Aslam
42 episodes
5 days ago
Exploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam
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All content for Motion Blur is the property of Grant Gregory and Hammad Aslam and is served directly from their servers with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.
Exploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam
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Investing
Business
Episodes (20/42)
Motion Blur
The 2025 Retrospective

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 Links

  • Some fun memes to end the year:

  • Longevity

  • Sell me this pen

  • Never give up

🎙️ 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.

Show more...
2 weeks ago
53 minutes 26 seconds

Motion Blur
Pursuing Nonlinearity (Part 2)

When humanity becomes the edge

What 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 Darwin

Enjoy!

🔗 Show Resource Links

  • Grant’s 10,000 word essay, What If Everyone Could Code?

  • John Maynard Keynes’ Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren (from 1930)

🎙️ 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 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 Ventures

Intro music credit: ⁠Will Harrison⁠

Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! Subscribe to get notified for future episodes.

Show more...
3 weeks ago
52 minutes 8 seconds

Motion Blur
Trevor Noren – Building Sage Road Research and Seeing the Future

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 Links

  • Trevor’s Twitter profile

  • Sage Road Research, and a link to the excellent reports

  • Trevor’s Real Vision interview Grant saw back in 2019 (and the tweet)

🎙️ 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 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, ⁠⁠⁠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.

Show more...
1 month ago
1 hour 5 minutes 20 seconds

Motion Blur
Thanksgiving Gratitudes – 2025

Apps, books, and people we love

It’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 Links

  • App Recommendations: InKind, Copilot (referral code: MW6MHW), and Readwise

  • Book Recommendations: Apple in China and The Book of Rosy

  • Maui: The Road to Hana

🎙️ 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.

Show more...
1 month ago
19 minutes

Motion Blur
Pursuing Nonlinearity (Part 1)

Where venture dogmas go to die

Hammad 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 Links

  • Dan Gray’s tweet

  • Dan’s article: Venture Capital is Not Competitive

  • Ho Nam’s quote tweet

🎙️ 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 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 Ventures

Intro music credit: ⁠Will Harrison⁠

Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! Subscribe to get notified for future episodes.

Show more...
1 month ago
43 minutes 28 seconds

Motion Blur
Michael Gibson & Danielle Strachman – 1517, The Thiel Fellowship, and Finding Outliers

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 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 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, ⁠⁠⁠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.

Show more...
1 month ago
1 hour 14 minutes 41 seconds

Motion Blur
Video: The State of Adventure (Capital)

The official State of Adventure presentation. Enjoy!

🔗 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 Blur

Exploring 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 Ventures

Intro music credit: ⁠Will Harrison⁠

Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! Subscribe to get notified for future episodes.

Show more...
2 months ago
42 minutes 17 seconds

Motion Blur
Bonus Episode: One Year of Motion Blur!

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 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 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 Ventures

Intro music credit: ⁠Will Harrison⁠

Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! Subscribe to get notified for future episodes.

Show more...
2 months ago
11 minutes 13 seconds

Motion Blur
Will's Corner: Hardware Over Software?

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 industries

  • 30:13 Will’s take: Automation is a terrible investment vs services on top

  • 32:10 Advice to founders: narrative warfare + slow conviction

Keep in touch with Slow Ventures: X: https://x.com/slow

Connect with Will

Connect with Grant

🔗 Show Resource Links

  • The full YouTube video of the conversation, and the tweet

  • 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 Blur

Exploring 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 Ventures

Intro music credit: ⁠Will Harrison⁠

Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! Subscribe to get notified for future episodes.

Show more...
2 months ago
38 minutes 28 seconds

Motion Blur
Official Release + Takeaways: The State of Adventure Capital


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 Blur

Exploring 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 Ventures

Intro music credit: ⁠Will Harrison⁠

Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! Subscribe to get notified for future episodes.

Show more...
2 months ago
56 minutes 12 seconds

Motion Blur
Early Release: The State of Adventure Capital

The state of all things Hard Tech, Deep Tech, and American Dynamism

After 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 Links

  • Grant’s recent tweets on some of the slides from his deck

🎙️ 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 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 Ventures

Intro music credit: ⁠Will Harrison⁠

Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! Subscribe to get notified for future episodes.

Show more...
3 months ago
36 minutes 21 seconds

Motion Blur
Dan Gray – What's Wrong with Venture?

A deeper discussion on the shortcomings (and benefits) of venture

Today 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 Bio

  • Dan 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 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 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, ⁠⁠⁠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.

Show more...
3 months ago
1 hour 20 minutes 32 seconds

Motion Blur
It's Good to Be Back

“It’s good to be back!” — Tony Stark

We 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 Links

  • Grant’s recent tweets on some of the slides from his deck

🎙️ 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 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 Ventures

Intro music credit: ⁠Will Harrison⁠

Thanks for reading and listening to Motion Blur! Subscribe to get notified for future episodes.

Show more...
3 months ago
14 minutes 58 seconds

Motion Blur
Capital as a Moat

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 Links

  • Strategy Letter I: Ben and Jerry’s vs. Amazon

  • Parker Conrad Tweet

  • Ravens GM on the NFL Draft Tweet

  • Ric Elias of Red Ventures on The Drive Podcast (a top recommendation from Grant)

🎙️ 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 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 Ventures

Intro music credit: ⁠Will Harrison⁠

Show more...
6 months ago
51 minutes 2 seconds

Motion Blur
Craving Commodities

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 Links

  • Shinkei

  • Solugen

🎙️ 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 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 Ventures

Intro music credit: ⁠Will Harrison⁠

Show more...
6 months ago
45 minutes 40 seconds

Motion Blur
IO Awaits

Fundraising milestones, OpenAI's latest acquisition, and the merits of planning ahead


One 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 Links

  • Announcing io

  • Paul Graham’s Tweet

  • Mike Dempsey’s The First 40 Months

🎙️ 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 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 Ventures

Intro music credit: ⁠Will Harrison⁠

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7 months ago
47 minutes 14 seconds

Motion Blur
Finding Maze Historians

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 Links

  • Grant’s post on Finding Maze Historians

  • Balaji’s Lecture Notes

  • Chris Dixon’s Idea Maze Post

🎙️ 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 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 Ventures

Intro music credit: ⁠Will Harrison⁠

Show more...
7 months ago
31 minutes 50 seconds

Motion Blur
Replay: The Hardware Playbook

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 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 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 Ventures

Intro music credit: ⁠Will Harrison⁠

Show more...
7 months ago
40 minutes 50 seconds

Motion Blur
Howdy, Partner

Grant's Promotion to Partner, the State of Seed Investing, and Quantum vs Classical Risks

Today’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 Links

  • ⁠The Purity of Obsession⁠ - Grant’s post on becoming Partner

  • ⁠Heat Death: Venture Capital in the 1980s⁠ - Reaction Wheel (Jerry Neumann)

  • ⁠Slow Ventures’ State of VC 2025 Deck⁠

  • ⁠There are No Stages, Just Early and Late⁠ - Yoni Rechtman

  • ⁠Classical Risk vs Quantum Risk⁠ - Kanyi Maqubela

  • ⁠Odds of Success⁠ - Grant’s Ignition essay

🎙️ 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 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, ⁠⁠⁠⁠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.

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8 months ago
1 hour 6 minutes 8 seconds

Motion Blur
Q&A Mailbag #1

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 Links

  • Bryce Roberts’ tweet on the Wiz acquisition

🎙️ 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.

Show more...
8 months ago
51 minutes 1 second

Motion Blur
Exploring what makes great companies and technologies work. Brought to you by Grant Gregory & Hammad Aslam