Hussein Kanji is the Founder and Managing Partner of Hoxton Ventures, one of Europe’s leading early-stage firms with mega wins in the form of Darktrace and Deliveroo. Hussein cut his teeth in venture at Accel Partners in his early years.
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Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(00:55) What Is Hoxton’s Right to Exist?
(02:59) Does Having Tier One Investors Really Matter in Fundraising?
(06:02) Does Hoxton Do Outcome Scenario Planning
(07:27) How Long Took To Raise Fund One
(10:46) The Best Investment From the First Fund
(14:11) Approaching Reserves in Venture Investing
(16:10) When To Sell an Investment
(19:46) Missing out on making $400M in Darktrace
(25:03) Doubled Down on a Reserve That Didn’t Work
(27:51) Has Series A Product Quality Declined?
(31:56) Do the Best Founders Really Not Need Help?
(34:36) How Long Took To Raise Fund Two
(36:45) Should Governments Be Funding Venture?
(43:01) Is Hoxton Price Sensitive?
(45:29) Why $150M to $250M is the Optimal Seed Fund Size?
(48:45) The Problem with $75M Seed Funds
(52:45) Is the Criticism of Europe’s Venture Scene Fair?
(01:01:10) An Advice For Keir Starmer
(01:04:17) Spicy Questions
(01:09:16) Quick-Fire Round
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In Today’s Episode with Hussein Kanji We Discuss:
1. How to Raise a Fund:
– What are Hussein’s biggest lessons from his first fund taking 39 months to raise?
– Why does Hussein believe you should fundraise for a set amount of time and not to achieve a certain amount of capital?
– Does Hussein believe governments should be investing in venture funds?
– What are the biggest mistakes Hussein sees emerging managers make when raising?
2. How to 10x a Fund:
– What is Hussein’s formula for knowing when to sell an investment?
– How did Hussein miss out on making $400M in Darktrace? What did he learn from it?
– How much money did Hoxton make from Deliveroo? How did doing 37x on Deliveroo impact how Hussein invests today?
3. How to Build a Team in Venture:
– Why does Hussein believe the incentive mechanism for young VCs is broken? Why do they just want to get cash out the door and not worry about quality?
– Why is it hard to hire female partners today? What needs to happen for this to change?
– What are the single biggest ways that venture partnerships break down? What went wrong between Hussein and his partner, Rob?
4. Is Europe Totally F*******:
– Why does Hussein believe small seed rounds are a massive problem in the UK?
– Why does Hussein believe the dire state of the London Stock Exchange is not a problem?
– Why does Hussein advise companies that the best way to scale is in the US?
– What advice would Hussein give to Keir Starmer on how to stimulate growth in the UK?
– Why does AI mean that the UK can now compete with the US?
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