Motion Blur23 Jan 2025

Ian Rountree – Founder & Managing Partner of Cantos

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!

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🌀 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.

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