Motion Blur

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

Entropy, record revenue growth, and persistence

Today’s episode covers the Second Law of Thermodynamics — entropy, and how it extends to the world of (AI) companies. We’ve seen a number of companies shatter revenue milestones in record times, and Hammad and Grant viewed this as an opportunity to talk about building enduring businesses in the face of shifting environment.

We open with one of Grant’s favorite facts: the average age of a company in the S&P 500 has fallen over 50 years in the past few decades. The Hedonic Treadmill has only accelerated, and we’re seeing more and more companies impacted. AI companies are no different. Hammad carries us through discussion on some of the practical implications of what this means, and Grant shares some thoughts on the broader uncertainty (and opportunity) with building in such a rapidly shifting playing field.

It’s hard to build a company. It’s even harder to make it last!

“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming 'Wow! What a Ride!'“ —Hunter S. Thompson

Lastly, please send us any questions you’d like us to cover in our upcoming Q&A episode! LinkedIn or Twitter DM us.

🔗 Show Resource Links

• Clouded Judgement - 3.28.25 - The New AI Risk Curve — Jamin Ball

• The average company age in the S&P 500 — Innosight Corporate Longevity Forecast

• USS Indianapolis

🎙️ 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.

What reindustrialization actually means, and how we do it

The market is digesting the impact of the latest round of tariffs, and given that reshoring is a core talking point, we wanted to use this as an opportunity to cover our perspective on the broader reindustrialization efforts.

This is very much an evolving dynamic, so we focus on the broader picture to give this more of a durable perspective. What do stronger tariffs signal about the next phase of American industrial policy? How do you navigate a world of uncertainty?

We dig into the logic behind tariffs, the practical impacts on startups and supply chains, and how founders should think about building in a world where industrial policy is no longer background noise.

The challenge with commenting on anything like this is that you stray outside of your circle of competence. We try to ground this by focusing more on what we know, and leaving other talking points for other people to tackle.

Lastly, please send us any questions you’d like us to cover in our upcoming Q&A episode! LinkedIn or Twitter DM us.

🔗 Show Resource Links

• Here’s the iPhone. Here’s the iPhone with Tariffs — WSJ.

🎙️ 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.

The art of founder picking

Today we’re covering a topic near and dear to our hearts: chicken sexing!

While you might think it’s an odd comparison, there’s actually a lot of similarities between chicken sexing and founding picking. Grant originally wrote about this over a year ago on a previously pseudonymous blog, and then referenced it when he announced he was joining Cantos.

Expect to learn why this analogy resonates, how Grant originally came up with the idea (Hammad had a huge role in the backstory), and how this type of talent evaluation works in other domains like the NFL.

This piece was one of the ways that Grant ended up at Cantos, so it’s fun to revisit now as we get close to the year mark of him leaving a16z. Excited for you all to listen to this one!

Lastly, please send us any questions you’d like us to cover in our upcoming Q&A episode! LinkedIn or Twitter DM us.

🔗 Show Resource Links

• Chicken Sexers — Odysea

• Cantos and Chicken Sexing — Embers

🎙️ 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.

11x, an AI sales development representatives (SDR) co is in the news for some potentially troubling action. We are not going to comment on the individual company, but instead we wanted to use this as an opportunity to talk about what the challenges of building in the world of software are.

Hammad opens the floor by telling us more about what AI SDRs are, how they work, how the market is evolving, and why a story like this might pop up. Grant then asks Hammad to share his perspective on where long-term value accrual will actually happen, especially if a feature (or product) becomes a standard. Grant closes us out by sharing some thoughts about how business is a never-ending race where you have to keep running to stay in the hunt.

Lastly, please send us any questions you’d like us to cover in our upcoming Q&A episode! LinkedIn or Twitter DM us.

🔗 Show Resource Links

• 11x Tech Crunch article

• a16z announcement post investing in 11x

• 
  

🎙️ 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.

A hedonic treadmill, courtesy of ChatGPT’s latest image model