Motion Blur

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 Po...

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’...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

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 ma...

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 shari...

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-...

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...

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 -- Kyl...

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 lon...

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 top...

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...

It’s the end of the year, so Grant and Hammad decided to revisit some of the most popular 2024 tech predictions and evaluate how accurate they were. We open with Grant’s maritime prediction from his time at a16z, and then we shift to robotics, crypto, Apple’s Vision Pro, and geopolitics. Hammad then wraps the show by sharing his favorite idea from Satya’s recent podcast interview. This is a lively...

Grant and Hammad discuss how the act of creating a company is like surfing a monster 100 foot wave. Grant begins by sharing a surfing metaphor that explains what it’s like to build a company. Hammad steps in to share his pushback, and then the conversation transitions to some stories about John Doerr, Tesla, and Navy SEALs and sledgehammers. They conclude the show by discussing some of the deep cu...

Larry’s tone was in the friendly advice-category. He teed it up this way: I had a choice. I could be an insider or I could be an outsider. Outsiders can say whatever they want. But people on the inside don’t listen to them. Insiders, however, get lots of access and a chance to push their ideas. People — powerful people — listen to what they have to say. But insiders also understand one unbreakable...

In this special 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! 🎙️ Podcast Links ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠ ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠ ⁠⁠⁠X (FKA Twitter)⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠ 🌀 About Motion Blur Exploring what makes great companies and tec...

Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM, or so the saying goes. Grant and Hammad talk about how that same sentiment has pervaded everything from Boeing to Venture, and what that means for today’s startup environment, as well as ways to address it. Hammad shares some perspectives on growth, and Grant wraps us up by talking about some founder stories from the last few eras of Venture. We’re iterating o...

Episode 3: The iconic line. Everyone’s heard it. We’ve joked about it. Today we’re talking about it. Grant and Hammad cover everything from how multistage firms support portcos to founder dinners. Grant tells us his gold standard for helping founders, and then closes us out with some comments on his time working with Hammad and Susa. We’re iterating on this as we go. Please let us know what you th...

Episode 2: Software strikes back! In today’s episode, Hammad leads a discussion about the history of software and how it brought us to today's venture landscape. Hammad details how incrementalism has come to dominate investing decisions and why he eschews that in favor of embracing true outlier-type opportunities. Grant and Hammad closes us out with their excitement around what this next era of ve...

You know the saying: Hardware is hard! In today’s episode, Grant and Hammad discuss why that’s the case. They examine the software investing frameworks that also apply to hardware, and also explore new frameworks that offer some predictability in the built world. Hammad closes us out with some thoughts on his perspective on the Near Frontier / Dynamism categories, and gets us ready for an upcoming...