Motion Blur

Google is acquiring Wiz, so we decided it’s time to talk about M&A. There’s a lot of analysis on this particular acquisition and less about how it fits into the broader tech ecosystem, so that’s where most of our discussion centers.

We open the conversation by talking about Grant’s time at the 3rd annual American Dynamism Summit in DC, and transition into the Wiz conversation by talking about his latest substack post. Hammad then gives us his perspective on the transaction and whether it will lead to a new era of M&A (and possibly venture liquidity).

And lastly, here’s a tweet Hammad sent that gives some food for thought.

🔗 Show Resource Links

• FT - Alphabet agrees to buy cyber security group Wiz for $32bn

• Odysea - Waiting for the WhatsApp Moment

• Bryce Roberts’ 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 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.

Given the recent market sell off Grant and Hammad thought it would be a good opportunity to discuss their thoughts on the current venture landscape and how macro conditions impact the GP and LP ecosystem. We start off by quickly looking at the American Dynamism 50, which is an annual list of 50 companies highlighted that are supporting the national interest. From there the conversation shifts to the broader markets, LP liquidity needs, and potential shuttering of some non-performant firms.

What starts off as an episode about current market dynamics shifts to one about lessons learned from athletics, venture, and life. We hope that the majority of this ends up being fairly evergreen, even if some of the examples discussed are more transient.

In the words of the late Richard Machowicz, “Not dead, can’t quit!”

🔗 Show Resource Links

• Grant’s Not Dead, Can’t Quit tweet

• American Dynamism 50

🎙️ 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.

Insights from two decades in the private markets

Today we’re interviewing a close friend of the show — Matt Curtolo. Grant first met Matt back during his time at MetLife, and he’s one of the people responsible for Grant entering venture in the first place.

In this episode we discuss Matt’s journey into the allocator’s seat, how his evaluation of managers has changed over time, what the private market landscape looks like for emerging managers, how allocation programs like DEI and other initiatives actually get created and executed, and lastly: what Matt would change about the industry if given the chance.

This was a really fun conversation with someone who’s been ensconced in the venture ecosystem for his entire career. We’re excited for you all to listen to Matt’s wisdom.

🔗 Matt’s Bio

• Matt has spent the last 20+ years covering all functional areas of the private markets from both an allocator and investor lens. He is currently working with both GPs and LPs, and advising on how to build a fund, a firm, and how to manage and invest private markets portfolios.

• Matt most recently was the Managing Director of Investments at Allocate, a fintech start-up focused on offering high-quality alternative investment opportunities to a broader investor base in a fully digital experience. While at Allocate he built the investment capability from the ground up as one of the first non-founder hires. Prior to that role, Matt was a senior leader co-managing MetLife’s Alternative Investments Portfolio, investing globally across strategies. Before that, he served as the Head of Private Equity at Hirtle Callaghan, a large independent OCIO after spending his formative years learning the PE business at Hamilton Lane during its early growth, before it became the world’s pre-eminent private markets allocator. These experiences allowed Matt to invest with and on behalf of some of the largest limited partners in the world, as well as work directly on the front lines in client-facing roles, with high net worth clients and large sophisticated institutional investors. In addition, Matt has been directly and indirectly involved with the management and oversight (including serving on several advisory boards) of hundreds of general partner relationships during his career, across the full spectrum of private capital investment strategies.

🎙️ 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.

Humane, Alexa Plus, and the future of computing

Last week Humane announced that HP was acquiring its team and technology, which formally marks the end of their AI pin product.

We thought today would be a good time to dissect the news, but more importantly, we wanted to explore what the future of computing may look like. This is an area Grant has spent years thinking about, and he opens up by sharing thoughts on the directional arrows of progress within wearables more broadly, and how the history of computing offers clues as to how this next era will unfold. Hammad concludes the conversation with his thoughts on the hyperscalers and whether new startups will be able to create the next iPhone.

This episode is brought to you by SAJJ.

🔗 Show Resource Links

• HP is acquiring the Humane platform and team

• MKBHD’s Review of the Humane Pin

• Opinion: The Humane AI Pin never had a chance

• Amazon launches Alexa Plus

• General Magic – The Movie (trailer)

🎙️ 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.

AI or die?

What’s the latest with AI? Is it really AI or Die?

A bunch of people are telling us to pay more attention to what’s happening, so Grant and Hammad decided to dive into the meta discussion of how to handle periods of profound change. We discuss everything from Formula One race strategies to v2 companies and how these changes will impact the software + hardware playbooks.

This is a wide-ranging conversation that touches a bit of everything. We conclude with Hammad’s excitement for the opportunity in healthcare and Grant’s perspective on the current state of AI within the American Dynamism Cinematic Universe.

Hammad also tells Grant what his favorite types of flowers are. Happy (belated) Valentine’s Day everyone!

“You cannot overtake fifteen cars in sunny weather. But you can when it’s raining.” — Ayrton Senna

🔗 Show Resource Links

• AI or Die – Ravi Gupta, Sequoia

• Alex Rampell innovation vs distribution tweet

• Shake the Snowglobe: Palmer Luckey on Zuck selling the acquisition of Oculus

🎙️ 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.

Choosing Competitors Wisely

You know the line: Competition is for losers!

But what if the opposite is actually true? Today Hammad and Grant explore the topic of choosing your enemies (in reality:competitors), and how that sets your company up for success (or the lack thereof). We dive into Blockbuster, Netflix, Shopify, Amazon, counter-positioning, and much more. This is a topic relevant across the entire startup ecosystem, whether it’s AI and LLMs or the American Dynamism Cinematic Universe.

Hammad and Grant close us out with their perspective of how this extends beyond the business world, and Hammad even gets Grant to blush a bit before wrapping up.

Necessity, it is said, is the “mother of invention”. So perhaps competition could be called the father. —How to Innovate, Aristotle & Armand D’Angour

🔗 Show Resource Links

• Competition is for losers (Peter Thiel YC talk)

• Zero to One

• Bessemer Memos – Shopify and theiconic Outcome Analysis section

🎙️ 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 at⁠⁠Cantos⁠⁠ 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.

Index Investing vs Concentration

Today Hammad and Grant debate the merits of index investing vs concentrated investing at the early stages. The conversation begins with Hammad sharing a tweet from a notable early-stage investing legend; Grant proceeds to explain why he thinks it’s wrong!

Been reflecting lately on various people taking a "portfolio approach" of options where one bet hits big -- Kyle Shanahan w/ various quarterbacks; obviously, VC firms who find a big winner; more recently, Lina Khan & FTC w/ Figma-Adobe.

Obviously, there’s lots of ways to invest, and Grant and Hammad share a nuanced perspective on the merits and shortfalls of each approach before concluding with their sentiments on which style they believe works best. The episode wraps up with a fun sports analogy from Grant’s life.

Enjoy! And apologies to any San Francisco 49ers fans in advance.

🔗 Show Resource Links

🎙️ Podcast Links

🌀 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:

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.

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

⁠⁠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.

Today we have a special episode where Grant and Hammad interview a mentor, friend, and someone who happens to also be Grant’s business partner — Ian Rountree. Ian founded Cantos back in 2016 and has since built the firm into the preeminent early-stage investor in the deep tech universe.

We open the conversation discussing Ian’s path to founding Cantos but then quickly shift to much more spicy topics, starting with what Ian describes as venture’s incentive problem. Learn why Ian thinks “East Coast” biotech teaches us a unique lesson about deep tech, why his flavor of deep tech is quite different than some of his peers, and most importantly, why Ian views Cantos as a true generalist firm (and why software investors are the specialists).

This was a fun one, and we wrap up with Ian’s predictions for 2025 as well as a quick reflection from both Hammad and Grant. Enjoy!

🔗 Show Resource Links

Ian Rountree

Cantos Ventures

🎙️ 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.

We’re back for the first episode of 2025! Today we’re exploring one of Grant’s older essays:The Starlink IPO. We open the conversation discussing Amazon and it’s path to creating AWS, and then compare that story to SpaceX and Starlink's meteoric rise. Grant discusses his thesis in greater detail and Hammad asks him what attributes he seeks in founders trying to build multi-act companies. Hammad also asks Grant to share the biggest difference between Blue Origin and SpaceX. Finally we conclude with a project Hammad is excited to put together for the coming year.

🔗 Show Resource Links

• The Starlink IPO (a play on Ben Thompson’sThe AWS IPO)

• The Idea Maze

🎙️ 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 at⁠⁠Cantos⁠⁠ 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.