Author Archives: Simeon Simeonov

About Simeon Simeonov

Entrepreneur. Investor. Trusted advisor.

Google Voice vs. Survey App

I think voice recognition, especially when combined with dynamic, data-driven systems is a Big Thing. That said, we have a long way to go as demonstrated by this slightly edited Google Voice transcript of its interaction with an automated survey … Continue reading

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

The next reincarnation of cloud computing

Over Memorial Day weekend I wanted to play with CrunchBase data. I wrote a quick bash script that pulled data from CrunchBase and put it in MongoDB, one of the new databases from the NoSQL movement. In the process, I … Continue reading

Posted in amazon web services, cloud computing, SaaS | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

iPhone economics, startup economics, angel investing economics

Tomi Ahonen has collected a lot of good data about the iPhone app ecosystem and applies solid analysis to reach the conclusion that, from an economic standpoint, on average, it is a waste of developers’ time to build iPhone apps. … Continue reading

Posted in Apple, iPhone, Mobile, startups | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Repurchase agreements: what you should know before you sign

This is the second guest post from Dave Broadwin, head of the Emerging Enterpise Center at Foley Hoag LLP, in the area of founding agreements. Part one is on vesting and the other related posts are on improving the performance … Continue reading

Posted in startups, VC, Venture Capital | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Platforms, Feds, Ads

In trying to write a focused post on the threat of government regulation Apple is facing, I didn’t mention an area I’m personally very interested in from the standpoint of Better Advertising: Apple’s restrictions regarding data collection. Section 3.3.9 of … Continue reading

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Does knowing C allow you to write more efficient programs?

In a thoughtful comment to my post analyzing Apple’s refusal to allow non-native apps–the ones built with Flash, .NET, any type of cross-compiler, etc.–on its devices, Andrew Martin argued: I would argue that knowing a “lower-level” high-level language like C … Continue reading

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Apple vs. Adobe Flash

VentureBeat published an analysis I did of Steve Jobs’s Thoughts on Flash. As one would expect, the comments have been lively. Since I used to work at Macromedia, the creator of Flash, now part of Adobe, I wanted to share … Continue reading

Posted in Adobe, Apple | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments

Founder Agreements – Vesting, Vesting and more Vesting

Following my posts on improving the performance of founding teams, founder agreements and strategies for dealing with poorly performing co-founders, I continue to receive many emails at FastIgnite from entrepreneurs having difficulties with managing and formalizing the relationships with their … Continue reading

Posted in startups, VC, Venture Capital | Tagged , , , , , , | 25 Comments

Picking the ideal market size for a startup

There may be some argument about this but I’ve read in a number of places that the fastest high-tech company to reach $1B in revenue was BEA Systems. How did they do it? They got big backers: a private equity … Continue reading

Posted in startups | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Ten rules for better founding teams

Previously, I highlighted the legal aspects of structuring founder agreements. These are indeed very important but it is even more important to underscore that any agreement can be modified if the parties involved agree to do so. Therefore, a non-confrontational, … Continue reading

Posted in startups | Tagged , , , , , , | 20 Comments