Hussein Kanji

Hussein’s career is a tale of serendipity. Convinced of the potential in backing European entrepreneurs, he set up Hoxton after leaving Accel.

Initially, Hussein didn’t plan to work in venture capital in Europe. After his startup exits, he was advised to gain big company experience, which led him to joining Microsoft in Seattle. He spent four years there. His roles at Microsoft varied, and his last role was a top-down directive to make its business units more acquisitive. His work led to a sum total of zero M&A.

Hussein then moved to London to do his MBA at London Business School. He started consulting with Accel shortly after orientation, and joined the team in his first year. Just as he did in college, he juggled work and school.

Prior to venture investing, Hussein built products and technologies in the Bay Area. During college, he joined the founding team of Studio Verso, and commuted regularly from Stanford to South Park. He contributed to an influential web design book in 1995, which pioneered the use of table tags to create invisible grids years before CSS standards. After Verso, he joined Sun Microsystems’ Advanced Technology Group. He left Sun to found a networking startup that collapsed in the dot-com bust. Hussein then joined Radiance, which pioneered video file distribution. Radiance was several years ahead of its time and was eventually acquired. Hussein then helped spin-out Safe-View from Battelle Corporation. Safe-View developed an airport body scanner and was acquired by L-3.

Originally dreaming of becoming a journalist, Hussein has now found a career that blends technology and humanities in venture capital. Outside of work, he is an avid snowboarder and once owned a bakery chain in London. He’s lived in London for over 17 years with his wife and son. His wife, also American, is a dual national, but Hussein stubbornly refuses to swear allegiance to a king, so he remains (just) a proud American.