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 hav...

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 &...

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 an...

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 sh...

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 mi...

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...

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’...

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,...

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 i...

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 Re...

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 critique...

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—o...

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 & Hamm...

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...

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...

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 opportunit...

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,...

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 rebu...

“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 Explorin...

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 ste...

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 incumbe...

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 benchm...

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 Hist...

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 pre...

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...