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Ten Years After - The 10 Year kasina Anniversary

by Steven Miyao

I am happy and proud to announce that kasina is now ten years old. When Lee and I founded kasina in September of 1999, we never could have imagined or planned for the events that shaped our company. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our clients, supporters, current and past employees, and our families. Without all of them, the success of the last ten years could not have been possible.

Below, please find a brief chronology of the last ten years:

1999
- Shortly after we started kasina out of a coffee shop in the East Village, we publish our inaugural "Top 20 Web Sites - Mutual Funds" report. We also conduct our first Roundtable event, which brought together executives to discuss industry trends and best practices.

2000
- We move into our first office on 180 Broadway, across from the World Trade Center. During that year, we publish our first study about institutional Web sites.

2001
- kasina introduces the revolutionary "Hybrid Wholesaling" concept in its "e-Wholesaling: The Distribution Solution" report.

- On September 11th are evacuated from our office during the attack on the Word Trade Center and find refuge in the offices of the Silicon Alley Reporter and then at Andy Sernovitz's company, Gaspedal.

- Mike Ma joins us a week after our evacuation, working in our makeshift office. He later becomes a Principal of our firm.

- The dot-com bubble bursts and the industry experiences an eight month recession.

2002
- kasina responds to growing European demand by holding its first Roundtable in London, UK.

2003
- "Intelligent Distribution: Targeted Interactions for Increased Profitability" is released, marking our first distribution study. It calls for a focus on profitability through the improved use of customer data to better segment financial advisors.

- The kasina Youth Foundation was brought to life due to our belief in the importance of receiving a good education. We all developed a love of learning because caring people provided us with opportunities and advantages. The Foundation is a way for us to give back to the community by supporting organizations that provide these same opportunities to children who are not as privileged.

2004
- We tackle advisor behavior in writing the groundbreaking "The Six Segments: A Comprehensive New Look at Intermediary Behavior" study. It is the first report to examine the behaviors and tendencies of U.S.-based financial intermediaries across all distribution channels.

- We kick off our first Distribution Summit and invite a cross section of distribution executives from sales, marketing and key accounts to discuss the future of distribution in that asset management industry.

2005
- We write our first blog piece as part of our effort to communicate with our clients in a more timely fashion on topics that are important to the asset management and insurance industries.

- We publish our compensation study, "Trends in Wholesaler Compensation," which calls for profitability-based sales compensation systems.

- We move into our current offices at 581 Avenue of the Americas.

- We invite key wholesaling leaders to our first Wholesaling Roundtable.

2006
- Due to the increased importance of the institutional buyer, we invite the industry's most influential national accounts executives to our first National Accounts Roundtable.

- In our first Marketing Roundtable, we discuss the changing role of marketing in the asset management industry.

2007
- The Web evolves to facilitate interactive information sharing and collaboration and we become an early advocate for these next-generation Web technologies with our "The Asset Manager's Guide to Web 2.0" report.

2008
- We release our tenth anniversary edition of the "Top 10 Web Sites for Financial Intermediaries" report.

- We publish our first "Future of Distribution" research paper.

- We respond to the global needs of our clients by publishing our first "Top 10 Global Retail Asset Management Web Presences" report.

- We write "Your Site Can Sell, Too" to prove that sales are aided by firms' Web sites.

2009
- kasina and Horsesmouth partner to create and launch FA Vision - the industry's largest-ever survey of financial advisors, giving asset managers frequent, affordable, and transparent data and strategy insights

- On September 16th, kasina celebrates its ten year anniversary