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Hussein Kanji

👤 Person
702 total appearances

Appearances Over Time

Podcast Appearances

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Why Large Seed Rounds Increase the Chances of Success | When to Sell in Venture | Why Multi-Stage Firms Do Not Do The Work | Is Europe Totally F****** and Why AI Means London Can Compete with the US with Hussein Kanji

And our best companies are much higher concentrations than our average company. We're getting closer to like 15, 20% ownership pretty consistently.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Why Large Seed Rounds Increase the Chances of Success | When to Sell in Venture | Why Multi-Stage Firms Do Not Do The Work | Is Europe Totally F****** and Why AI Means London Can Compete with the US with Hussein Kanji

The first check is the first check, but we put a second check in and sometimes it's by the third check. So it's between the first and the second check that we're really getting these kinds of underships.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Why Large Seed Rounds Increase the Chances of Success | When to Sell in Venture | Why Multi-Stage Firms Do Not Do The Work | Is Europe Totally F****** and Why AI Means London Can Compete with the US with Hussein Kanji

The first check is the first check, but we put a second check in and sometimes it's by the third check. So it's between the first and the second check that we're really getting these kinds of underships.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Why Large Seed Rounds Increase the Chances of Success | When to Sell in Venture | Why Multi-Stage Firms Do Not Do The Work | Is Europe Totally F****** and Why AI Means London Can Compete with the US with Hussein Kanji

The first check is the first check, but we put a second check in and sometimes it's by the third check. So it's between the first and the second check that we're really getting these kinds of underships.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Why Large Seed Rounds Increase the Chances of Success | When to Sell in Venture | Why Multi-Stage Firms Do Not Do The Work | Is Europe Totally F****** and Why AI Means London Can Compete with the US with Hussein Kanji

We're finding ways to take. We don't want to screw up the downstream investors who have to then write the check. And we don't want to be cherry picking our best companies, but we find ways to get more capital into these things. And sometimes it's as easy as, look, Whatever you're doing the next time around, we want to do more than our prerogative. And it's a handshake agreement.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Why Large Seed Rounds Increase the Chances of Success | When to Sell in Venture | Why Multi-Stage Firms Do Not Do The Work | Is Europe Totally F****** and Why AI Means London Can Compete with the US with Hussein Kanji

We're finding ways to take. We don't want to screw up the downstream investors who have to then write the check. And we don't want to be cherry picking our best companies, but we find ways to get more capital into these things. And sometimes it's as easy as, look, Whatever you're doing the next time around, we want to do more than our prerogative. And it's a handshake agreement.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Why Large Seed Rounds Increase the Chances of Success | When to Sell in Venture | Why Multi-Stage Firms Do Not Do The Work | Is Europe Totally F****** and Why AI Means London Can Compete with the US with Hussein Kanji

We're finding ways to take. We don't want to screw up the downstream investors who have to then write the check. And we don't want to be cherry picking our best companies, but we find ways to get more capital into these things. And sometimes it's as easy as, look, Whatever you're doing the next time around, we want to do more than our prerogative. And it's a handshake agreement.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Why Large Seed Rounds Increase the Chances of Success | When to Sell in Venture | Why Multi-Stage Firms Do Not Do The Work | Is Europe Totally F****** and Why AI Means London Can Compete with the US with Hussein Kanji

In other cases, you know, we'll do a safe on top of our first check. Like we'll find a way to put more capital to work when ownership is still really inexpensive in the grand scheme of things and build up the ownership.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Why Large Seed Rounds Increase the Chances of Success | When to Sell in Venture | Why Multi-Stage Firms Do Not Do The Work | Is Europe Totally F****** and Why AI Means London Can Compete with the US with Hussein Kanji

In other cases, you know, we'll do a safe on top of our first check. Like we'll find a way to put more capital to work when ownership is still really inexpensive in the grand scheme of things and build up the ownership.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Why Large Seed Rounds Increase the Chances of Success | When to Sell in Venture | Why Multi-Stage Firms Do Not Do The Work | Is Europe Totally F****** and Why AI Means London Can Compete with the US with Hussein Kanji

In other cases, you know, we'll do a safe on top of our first check. Like we'll find a way to put more capital to work when ownership is still really inexpensive in the grand scheme of things and build up the ownership.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Why Large Seed Rounds Increase the Chances of Success | When to Sell in Venture | Why Multi-Stage Firms Do Not Do The Work | Is Europe Totally F****** and Why AI Means London Can Compete with the US with Hussein Kanji

Weirdly, no, because I think in the UK, it's very easy to convert common if you buy common as like secondary into preferred. And then generally speaking, like we're old fashioned, like we think that the preference matters, even in these large outcomes, because there could be volatility downstream. And yet, so I don't think we've ever really bought common.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Why Large Seed Rounds Increase the Chances of Success | When to Sell in Venture | Why Multi-Stage Firms Do Not Do The Work | Is Europe Totally F****** and Why AI Means London Can Compete with the US with Hussein Kanji

Weirdly, no, because I think in the UK, it's very easy to convert common if you buy common as like secondary into preferred. And then generally speaking, like we're old fashioned, like we think that the preference matters, even in these large outcomes, because there could be volatility downstream. And yet, so I don't think we've ever really bought common.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Why Large Seed Rounds Increase the Chances of Success | When to Sell in Venture | Why Multi-Stage Firms Do Not Do The Work | Is Europe Totally F****** and Why AI Means London Can Compete with the US with Hussein Kanji

Weirdly, no, because I think in the UK, it's very easy to convert common if you buy common as like secondary into preferred. And then generally speaking, like we're old fashioned, like we think that the preference matters, even in these large outcomes, because there could be volatility downstream. And yet, so I don't think we've ever really bought common.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Why Large Seed Rounds Increase the Chances of Success | When to Sell in Venture | Why Multi-Stage Firms Do Not Do The Work | Is Europe Totally F****** and Why AI Means London Can Compete with the US with Hussein Kanji

Yeah, so we've learned this the hard way. So in the case of Dark Trace, which we also took public, Dark Trace went public at £2.50, traded up to four. And by the time lockup was expired, it was around six and we did not sell. And had we sold... Didn't sell anything? I was a super long term and was all the way until the end. And to be fair, I was... How much did you have in that?

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Why Large Seed Rounds Increase the Chances of Success | When to Sell in Venture | Why Multi-Stage Firms Do Not Do The Work | Is Europe Totally F****** and Why AI Means London Can Compete with the US with Hussein Kanji

Yeah, so we've learned this the hard way. So in the case of Dark Trace, which we also took public, Dark Trace went public at £2.50, traded up to four. And by the time lockup was expired, it was around six and we did not sell. And had we sold... Didn't sell anything? I was a super long term and was all the way until the end. And to be fair, I was... How much did you have in that?

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Why Large Seed Rounds Increase the Chances of Success | When to Sell in Venture | Why Multi-Stage Firms Do Not Do The Work | Is Europe Totally F****** and Why AI Means London Can Compete with the US with Hussein Kanji

Yeah, so we've learned this the hard way. So in the case of Dark Trace, which we also took public, Dark Trace went public at £2.50, traded up to four. And by the time lockup was expired, it was around six and we did not sell. And had we sold... Didn't sell anything? I was a super long term and was all the way until the end. And to be fair, I was... How much did you have in that?

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Why Large Seed Rounds Increase the Chances of Success | When to Sell in Venture | Why Multi-Stage Firms Do Not Do The Work | Is Europe Totally F****** and Why AI Means London Can Compete with the US with Hussein Kanji

We would have been a 10x net fund on Darktrace at its peak.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Why Large Seed Rounds Increase the Chances of Success | When to Sell in Venture | Why Multi-Stage Firms Do Not Do The Work | Is Europe Totally F****** and Why AI Means London Can Compete with the US with Hussein Kanji

We would have been a 10x net fund on Darktrace at its peak.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Why Large Seed Rounds Increase the Chances of Success | When to Sell in Venture | Why Multi-Stage Firms Do Not Do The Work | Is Europe Totally F****** and Why AI Means London Can Compete with the US with Hussein Kanji

We would have been a 10x net fund on Darktrace at its peak.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Why Large Seed Rounds Increase the Chances of Success | When to Sell in Venture | Why Multi-Stage Firms Do Not Do The Work | Is Europe Totally F****** and Why AI Means London Can Compete with the US with Hussein Kanji

Yeah. So like our numbers for Darktrace are way higher than our Deliveroo numbers, but we mistimed it. And then you get pressure when you don't sell at the top. And to be fair, like this is also like in 21 where everyone, you know, the market was just euphoric in general. When did you sell? We sold it about a year later because we were coming up to the end of the life of the fund.