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!

🔗 Show Resource Links

🎙️ Podcast Links

⁠⁠⁠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.

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(48)

Tempo Tempo Tempo

A case for a high cadenceToday 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 T...

27 Mars 3min

Desperation

The other side of Product Market FitToday Grant reads his latest essay, this one is about desperation, and just like porn: "you know it when you see it".🔗 Show Resource LinksDesperation🎙️ Podcast Li...

27 Mars 3min

Bullets in the Chamber

Snipers, Intentionality, and Why Hardware is HardToday 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 ...

19 Mars 3min

Need For Speed

Another side of vertical integrationToday 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...

12 Mars 7min

Vertically Integrate or Die

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 ...

5 Mars 16min

(Potato) Chips, Hard Hats, and a Happy New Year

Predictions, resolutions, and moreHappy 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 th...

15 Jan 32min

The 2025 Retrospective

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 cooke...

18 Dec 202553min

Pursuing Nonlinearity (Part 2)

When humanity becomes the edgeWhat 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 convers...

11 Dec 202552min