Khan: Keeping tech companies private long-term risks obsolescence from 15-year cycles
Imran Khan · Imran Khan: Why the IPO Market is Not Closed & Lessons From Taking Snap & Alibaba Public | E1194 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings · Aug 26, 2024 · at 9:09
Imran Khan, founder and CIO of Proem Asset Management and former Head of Global Internet Investment Banking at Credit Suisse, explains why holding private venture investments too long creates major structural risk.
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“Why it's really bad from an investor perspective to encourage companies to stay private very long is this technology landscape shift every 15 years. So if you look at, you know, late seventies, early eighties, it was a microcomputer. Mid sixties was mainframe computer. If you go back in go after in mid nineties was it's all about internet. 15 years later, it was all about mobile app. Now we're talking about AI. So you might invest in a business based on a thesis, but 15 years later, that thesis is completely changed based on the world around you.”
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