Author Archives: Simeon Simeonov

About Simeon Simeonov

Entrepreneur. Investor. Trusted advisor.

Google and the ecosystem test

I am roaming the halls of Google I/O 2013 and wondering whether Google’s platform passes the ecosystem test. … no platform has become hugely successful without a corresponding ecosystem of vendors building significant businesses on top of the platform. Typically, … Continue reading

Posted in Google | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Anatomy of an online ad

I’ve been asked to explain how online ads are delivered many times and every time I’m surprised by the complexity of covering even the most basic elements of how ads appear on Web pages. Since Wikipedia’s article on ad serving … Continue reading

Posted in Advertising, Swoop | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Startup anti-pattern: platform risk

One of the fastest ways for a startup to grow has always been to ride on the shoulders of a successful platform: from Microsoft/OSS in software to AWS in cloud computing to iOS/Android in mobile to Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest in social to … Continue reading

Posted in Anti-pattern, startups | Tagged , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Startup anti-pattern: ignorance

Listening to a startup pitch a few weeks ago I had to exercise effort not to shake my head in disbelief. The presenters were describing the products and business model of an established company I was very familiar with and … Continue reading

Posted in Anti-pattern, startups | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

One more vote for functional languages

I’ve been doing a lot of work on startup anti-patterns recently so it seems fitting that I look at other things through that lens. Every few months I fall into the same debugging anti-pattern: I start using a debugger to … Continue reading

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Top startup anti-patterns

Following my post on the value of startup anti-patterns, with the help of readers of this blog and friends from the startup ecosystem, I put together a list of the more common ones that I encounter. The list used to … Continue reading

Posted in startups | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

The value of startup anti-patterns

The TechStars Boston spring startups are looking very promising. At the mentors dinner tonight I had conversations with several of the companies and a common question came up: “What makes startups succeed?” My usual answer to this question is along … Continue reading

Posted in FastIgnite, startups | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

The fastest way to learn a new programming language

In school, I used to pick up new programming languages for fun. I could take my time to learn & explore them in whichever way felt right, without pressure. I implemented for fun and the code rarely ended up in … Continue reading

Posted in Code, Swoop | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Startups and intellectual property: how much is a muse worth?

Startup founder agreements has been the top post on my blog for a long time. The post has become much more valuable due to the many interesting questions & situations described in the comments. Every now and then, a comment … Continue reading

Posted in startups | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

The Swoop Credo

I just updated the Swoop entry on my Linkedin profile with the following: Swoop is a native advertising platform that puts users first. Web democracy is powered by advertising-supported content. Traditional online advertising makes the Web suck. Swoop can fix … Continue reading

Posted in Advertising, Native Advertising, Swoop | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment