Category Archives: Venture Capital

Startup anti-pattern: elephant hunting

Posted on May 10, 2023 by Simeon Simeonov

As part of the continued series on startup anti-patterns, we look at elephant hunting: chasing big customers/deals. Continue reading →

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More startup anti-patterns

Posted on May 10, 2023 by Simeon Simeonov

It’s been a decade since I first assembled the list of startup anti-patterns, the repeatable ways startups waste time and money. The project has always been near and dear to my heart, as I often find myself directing entrepreneurs to … Continue reading →

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Unicorn pressures and startup failures

Posted on April 26, 2016 by Simeon Simeonov

The startup anti-patterns section of my blog summarizes the repeatable ways startups waste time & money and, often, fail. Learning from startup failure is valuable because there are many more examples of failures that successes. (Anti-)Patterns become more noticeable and … Continue reading →

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Angel investing strategies

Posted on July 7, 2014 by Simeon Simeonov

My friend Jerry Neumann wrote a great post on angel investing strategies, dissecting truth and myth about different betting strategies and sharing his own approach. The question of luck came up and a commenter linked to my work on data-driven patterns of successful … Continue reading →

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Raising money for revolutionary startup ideas

Posted on September 22, 2012 by Simeon Simeonov

Between the work we do at Swoop and some big idea startups I’m advising, revolutionary innovation has been top of mind for me recently. That is why the following statement Richard Feynman makes in a lecture about the difficulty of … Continue reading →

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The Zen of fundraising

Posted on October 7, 2010 by Simeon Simeonov

When investing in companies through FastIgnite, I usually sell my super-secret value-add as opposed to just cash. See, cash is not that hard to get if you know how to ask for it and there aren’t any obvious reasons for … Continue reading →

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Repurchase agreements: what you should know before you sign

Posted on May 7, 2010 by Simeon Simeonov

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 →

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Founder Agreements – Vesting, Vesting and more Vesting

Posted on April 25, 2010 by Simeon Simeonov

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 →

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Startup Founder Agreements

Posted on February 22, 2010 by Simeon Simeonov

I have been thinking a lot recently about how to apply agile development principles to investing and key aspects of startup development such as team building. That’s also the thread connecting my two recent posts on VentureHacks. Both stem from … Continue reading →

Posted in startups, VC, Venture Capital | Tagged , , , , , , , | 76 Comments

The best vesting schedule

Posted on February 2, 2010 by Simeon Simeonov

There is no such thing as the best or optimal vesting schedule in a startup. That doesn’t mean current vesting schedules are really good but it does mean that many of the so-called best alternatives are not much better. No … Continue reading →

Posted in startups, VC, Venture Capital | Tagged , , , , | 30 Comments