Shakil Khan contrasts the UK's large domestic market size with smaller European nations, noting that UK companies could succeed without going international.
Opinion
Khan: Uber won ride-hailing; Hailo VCs want immediate exit
“Halo is basically a London niche company funded by VCs who, if they could get an exit, would take their exit tomorrow and get out of the business, because Uber has won in that space.”
Insight
European Startups Adapt Better to City Expansion Than US Firms
“Look at the marketplace businesses, it's actually no longer about countries. It's cities, right? Which cities work and which cities don't work. And, you know, Istanbul is many thousands of miles away from here. And there's an entrepreneur probably go London, I…”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Shakil Khan: TransferWise Could Exceed Spotify and Skype in Scale
“TransferWise is doing an amazing job, and I hope this goes down as, you know, one of the biggest companies ever to come out of Europe, up there with Spotify and Skype, or bigger than even those companies.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Khan: UK Lacks Multi-Billion Exits Needed for Capital Recycling
“We haven't had those major hit after hit of multi-billion dollar exits, whether in the private market or in the public markets, such as the Googles or the Facebook. So that trickle-down effect hasn't happened, and it'll be a while till it happens.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Khan: London Bankers Are Less Active in Tech Investing Than Wall Street
“I think the London Financial Centre versus tech are two separate things apart from where fintech is involved. They seem like two very different industries, unlike Wall Street where a lot of investment bankers are active in investing in tech startups.”
Insight
Khan: Small-market European startups succeed by designing globally from day one
“Take a market like Sweden, the reason why Spotify partly has been successful was, from day one, the product was built to go global. The same thing with Skype, transfer-wise, a building for a global audience, because The local population is far too small to be …”