Alexander Asseily

Alexander Asseily is a British/Lebanese technology entrepreneur and investor, and co-founder of consumer electronics company Jawbone. He was CEO of the company until 2007, Executive Chairman until 2010 and Non-Executive Chairman until January 2015.[2] His business interests in the field are extensive, and he holds executive roles with companies such as Chiaro Technology, Atomico Ventures and Azimo. Asseily was named the 33rd most influential person in Silicon Valley in 2013.[3]

Alexander Asseily
Born
London, England
NationalityBritish, Lebanese
EducationBSc Product Design, MSc Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, 1997/1998
OccupationEntrepreneur, Investor[1]

Early life and education

Raised in Beirut, Lebanon and London, UK,[4] Asseily was educated in England before moving to California to obtain a Bachelor of Science in product design in 1997 and a master's in mechanical engineering in 1998 from Stanford University.[5]

Career

In 1999, Asseily founded AliphCom, with Hosain Rahman to develop verbal communications technologies, that were based on ideas originating from his Stanford senior thesis,[6] starting with noise suppression products. In 2002, the company won a contract with DARPA, the Pentagon’s research body, to look into ways for soldiers to communicate in adverse noise conditions. The product they developed was initially trademarked Noise-Assassin and it later became part of the Jawbone headset product range.[7] In September 2004, the company released its first consumer product, followed by the Bluetooth Jawbone in 2006. In 2011, Aliph started operating as Jawbone, a company that had at the time secured more than $100 million in growth funding from the Mayfield Fund, Khosla Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Yuri Milner and J.P. Morgan, among others.[8] Asseily served as CEO of Jawbone until 2007 and as Chairman until 2015.[9]

In 2011-2012, Asseily raised $14 million in seed financing to develop Equal Media. This included global media site State, which he co-founded with his brother Mark Asseily and which launched at TechCrunch Disrupt in September 2013.[10][11] In 2011, he also invested in Lulu, a dating intelligence app marketed at college-age women.[12]

Asseily co-founded Chiaro Technology with Tania Boler in 2013. The women’s health startup is best known for the pelvic floor exerciser Elvie, which is accompanied by an app to track progress. The product won the Best R&D Award at the AXA PPP Health Tech and You awards 2015[13] and was also the winner of the Red Dot Product Design Award in 2016. Asseily acts as an Advisor to Osper, having invested in the company (which provides pre-paid debit cards for children) in 2013.[14] Asseily serves as an adviser at venture capital fund Conversion Capital LLC.[15] Alongside other tech investors, Asseily backed SmartUp, an app designed to aid start-ups.[16] He is also an investor in the club and work space Second Home.[17]

Asseily is also an Entrepreneur Partner at Atomico. Founded in 2006 by Skype co-founder, Niklas Zennström.[18] Atomico invests in technology companies.[19] He has been a member of Google’s Digital News Initiative Innovation Fund Council since 2015.[20] He is also Non-Executive Chairman at Azimo, a money transfer business based in London. It allows people to transfer money to more than 190 countries from internet-enabled devices.[21][22]

Public speaking

Other interests

Asseily produced two documentaries pertaining to conflict in the Middle East and acted as executive producer for feature-length documentary Aluna.[29] The film centers around the ancient Kogi tribe of Colombia, who emerge from their native land to warn the rest of the world about environmental dangers and how to address them. The film was released in June 2012. He also produced the short film Two Men, One War, 33 Years On, which was broadcast on CNN, about two Lebanese civil war fighters reconciling with their past.[30]

References
  1. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/3ba0896e-1517-11e5-9509-00144feabdc0.html
  2. "Alexander Asseily". Maverick Wisdom. 2013-01-08. Retrieved 2020-03-24.
  3. SAI. "The Silicon Valley 100". Business Insider. Retrieved 2020-03-24.
  4. Cheshire, Tom (2011-12-27). "Graphing your opinion: Jawbone founder wants to data-track points of view". Wired UK. ISSN 1357-0978. Retrieved 2020-03-24.
  5. "Alexander Asseily at Crunchbase".
  6. "Jawbone: The trials of a 16-year-old can't-miss startup". Fortune.com. Fortune Magazine. Retrieved 19 October 2016.
  7. "Jawbone: The trials of a 16-year-old can't-miss startup". Fortune. Retrieved 2020-03-24.
  8. Mitchenall, Toby; Brasse, Jonathan (2011-03-17). "Headset Maker Jawbone Calls Up $49M from Andreessen Horowitz". PE Hub. Retrieved 2020-03-24.
  9. "Alexander Asseily". Maverick Wisdom. 2013-01-08. Retrieved 2020-03-24.
  10. "Subscribe to read | Financial Times". www.ft.com. Retrieved 2020-03-24. Cite uses generic title (help)
  11. "State Launches Opinion Network Where You Don't Need Followers To Be Heard". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2020-03-24.
  12. Lulu. "Lulu, The Girls-Only App for Dating Intelligence, Launches in US Colleges". www.prnewswire.com. Retrieved 2020-03-24.
  13. "Homepage". AXA PPP Healthcare. Retrieved 2020-03-24.
  14. Burn-Callander, Rebecca (2014-06-28). "Osper closes £6m funding round". The Daily Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2020-03-24.
  15. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-09-24. Retrieved 2016-09-14.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  16. https://techcrunch.com/2015/06/29/smartup-app-virtually-mentors-new-entrepreneurs-and-could-lead-to-funding/
  17. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-10-11. Retrieved 2016-09-14.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  18. http://www.atomico.com/people/alexander-asseily
  19. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3468acfa-badd-11e5-b151-8e15c9a029fb.html#axzz4KE05KT00
  20. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-08-16. Retrieved 2016-07-18.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  21. https://www.crunchbase.com/person/alexander-asseily#/entity
  22. http://www.techweekeurope.co.uk/e-marketing/epayment/startup-showcase-azimo-196636
  23. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_YGL_LondonEvent_Programme_2011-12.pdf
  24. "Hacking the Refugee Crisis". bloomberg.
  25. "Campus Presents: "Ten Startup Lessons" with Alexander Asseily".
  26. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-08-10. Retrieved 2016-08-02.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  27. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-10-11. Retrieved 2016-09-14.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  28. http://www.fastgrowthicons.com
  29. http://www.thefilmcollaborative.org/films/img/dialoguelists/ALUNA_Dialogue_List_040813.pdf
  30. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq0SGkrBYvs
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