Hussein Kanji - Latest Comments

Re: European entrepreneurship and exits

andrewjude — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 11:51:12 -0000

Actually, you're wrong its not just YouTube.

Betfair exited for £1bn+ IPO (2010)

So its 2 in total.

Re: Startup Executive Compensation Survey

Francois bonnard — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 10:47:04 -0000

Dear Sir

I wonder if you could give us your appreciation for our project posted
in Angelist (About OLED technology with showcase in Luxury yacht)

The startup's name is "eva cadio design"

Re: European entrepreneurship and exits

Youssef Rahoui — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 02:00:12 -0000

Very interesting blog, thanks!

Re: Startup Executive Compensation Survey

Mo — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 23:32:03 -0000

Dear Mr. Kanji,

please let me know if you are taking on any new projects at this time. I would love to talk to you about our company. You can contact me via the email found in my profile here on your site.

Regards,

Mohamed

Re: Startup Executive Compensation Survey

Francis Pedraza — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 23:20:22 -0000

Fascinating study, thanks for sharing. These numbers seem really high. A mean salary of $194K a year for founder/CEOs with only one round of funding? That's not very lean. I've been told to expect as low as 60K pre-revenue, and it's worth it - hey I'm the founder and I've got equity. If I was after the salary, I'd have taken my offer with Google. What's your take? I feel like the data has a bias to ventures with substantial amounts of financial backing... not the $1.5-2m Series A tech startups...

Re: Apple and the mobile industry

Bonitacio — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 20:04:37 -0000

Great perspective Hussein! but I actually think that Apple has reached its pinnacle in the wireless space. As in the beginning of the 80’s very fast success clouded the best judgement of arguably the best leader of the technology industry – Steve J., and in my view if Google can find (not the current!) leadership on par with Bill Gates, we could easily see a repetition of the Wintel squeeze out of Apple with the Android. If I was those HF’s I would be very focused as to how the iPad performs and its transformation of the space between smart phones and tablets – not reaching the target as predicted by some (Pipper J.) and with looming competition in the space, it is just a question of loyal the content really is…

In summary, I believe your underlying thesis is spot on – mobile computing will cannibalize the PC / laptop world, but with regards to Apple, I’m afraid that the insistence on the HW+SW package and the premium can again see the emergence of the left field player which produces a “just enough” appealing environment to the masses in the smartphone space.

Re: Apple and the mobile industry

RevelMob — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 10:03:20 -0000

I just stumbled on your post and wanted to re-tweet it, but couldn't see the date, when it was published. Then I realized it's 9 months have gone past, but apart from the graph - the info in your post is as timely as ever. Apple goes from strength to strength and since you have written the post, Apple Inc has overtaken Microsoft by market cap. Incredible stuff :)

Re: Startup Executive Compensation Survey

taige — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 04:34:29 -0000

that's really cool thanks!

Re: Apple and the mobile industry

taige — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 19:17:07 -0000

Too bad I can't blog about Apple. But the accounting rule may change which will be a big factor and the China entry is also huge. Seriously no one in India really bought the iPhone cuz it's just not their style. Apple has been trying to entry India forever, but Indian love value and Apple is just luxury+premium. ,But China? They love their apples.

Do you know why they want to change their accounting rules? I don't feel good whenever accounting rules change.

Re: European entrepreneurship and exits

Vinay — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:30:01 -0000

Opsware?

Re: European entrepreneurship and exits

hussein kanji — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 23:55:19 -0000

My theory is there are more trained entrepreneurs in the US who know how to build valuable companies. The $1B exits are market-driven to an extent, the $500M+ require a bunch of a lot of know-how and work to scale up a business.

Re: European entrepreneurship and exits

hussein kanji — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 13:00:30 -0000

Thanks Sean.

I debated putting Markit on the list, but it's also not liquid (yet). And it wasn't venture backed, unlike the rest of the list.

I know the old CTO of Markit quite well (he's also an advisor to Byhiras and just spent another half day with him), and therefore know the story of the firm very well, from its ToDom days.

It's a shame (for the asset class) not a single venture fund had the foresight to back Lance.

Re: European entrepreneurship and exits

parkparadigm — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:17:49 -0000

Betfair is not really unrealized. Yes they are still private but there have been two liquidity events for investors in the past 3 years and so people have been able to take money off the table.

In terms of other big European start-ups (and post 2000 to boot): Markit Group is a multi-billion dollar company that was founded in 2002/03 in London. It is also still private, but has had a number of liquidity events and new investments over the years that give a real 'traded' valuation and have offered liquidity to shareholders who required it. No venture investors however, banks and hedge funds. The private equity and venture guys had a chance to get in a couple years after founding but got greedy / didn't realize they weren't in a position to haggle and missed what would probably have been a 4-6x return...

Good post. Think it underlines that the Valley is a lot better at PR than 'Europe'; plus the geographic concentration is helpful in this regard as well.

Re: European entrepreneurship and exits

Farhan Lalji — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 08:43:47 -0000

So why does the US out perform EU on $600M-$1B exits? Is it because the US VC industry is better at spotting these really big but not huge opportunities?

Re: New London Business School Entrepreneurial Speaker Series | Problem #2

dudex — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 00:54:54 -0000

Good stuff man... Hopefully it'll be sustainable.

Re: Essence’s annual client day | Problem #2

Emily — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 12:11:15 -0000

Glad you liked it! And sorry I didn't get to say goodbye.

Have been spending some time this afternoon twitterating brands, it's just as fun as it sounds. :)

Re: Back to basics

hussein — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 10:08:12 -0000

would having disqus on my little teensy weensy blog make a difference?

Re: Essence’s annual client day | Problem #2

Cathy — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 10:03:11 -0000

Very useful links thanks am sharing with my marketing friends!

Re: Back to basics

Farhan Lalji — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 09:59:42 -0000

Nice. Welcome back to the world of blogging, looking forward to going through your posts.

You might want to use disqus or the like for commenting.