Motion Blur

A case for a high cadence

Today 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 Links

• Tempo Tempo Tempo

🎙️ 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.

The other side of Product Market Fit

Today Grant reads his latest essay, this one is about desperation, and just like porn: "you know it when you see it".

🔗 Show Resource Links

• Desperation

🎙️ 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.

Snipers, Intentionality, and Why Hardware is Hard

Today 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 Links

• Bullets in the Chamber

🎙️ 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.

Another side of vertical integration

Today 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 Links

• Need For Speed

• Post on X

🎙️ 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.

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 Links

• Vertically Integrate or Die

• Post on X

• Original post that sparked the 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.

Predictions, resolutions, and more

Happy 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 Links

• Can we fix it? Yes we can.

🎙️ 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.