On a warm, early October day, the Starbucks on Broadway and 81st Street is crowded. People place and wait for their orders while others sit at tables.
James Siminoff, in a light blue Polo shirt, black jeans and brown sandals, sits at a table with a grande vanilla latte. It is what he feels like having today, he says, smiling.
And he has plenty to smile about these days.
Business Kudos
Siminoff, 31, is the CEO of SimulScribe, a software company that allows people to read voice mails on their BlackBerries. In its fourth year of operation, Siminoff expects to make more than $1 million. The company’s most recent accolade is winning a Crain’s Small Business Award.
Not bad for a company with origins in happenstance.
Five years ago, Siminoff visited his friend Bill Wachtel in Los Angeles. Before going to dinner one night, it took Wachtel awhile to go through his phone messages that accumulated that day.
“He was dropping f-bombs,” said Siminoff. “His son and I were basically yelling at him.”
At one point, Wachtel’s son Jesse, then 17, mused, “Wouldn’t it be great if you could read your voice mail?”
Birth of an Idea
Intrigued, Siminoff was determined to make the notion a reality. The result was
SimulScribe, started in 2003. Within four months, SimulScribe had a prototype.
“SimulScribe” means “simultaneous voice mail transcription” and was coined by Wachtel, who assists Siminoff. Siminoff came up with “VitalScribe.”
SimulScribe’s technology has a heritage that dates back to the 1970s. “Voice recognition works on reference points and predictability,” Siminoff said. “A big part of it is the experience of it.”
Proper names and places, for example, are bound to not be clear. The bookstore Barnes & Noble is recognized as “Barnes and Nobel” and “82 Street” becomes “AG Circus.”
Siminoff concedes the software can get thrown off, but his goal is for people to never have to check voice messages.
“I thought Jaime was energetic and thoughtful and very engaged about his business,” said Michael Green, head of development for SimulScribe, about when the two first met. “He’s looking to implement our plans to be successful.”
A Start in Sales
Siminoff’s road to success started in an unlikely place. He sold lawn mowers in high school in his hometown of Chester, N.J. “It was sort of a cow town,” said Siminoff. “It was a nice mix of rural and being exposed to things New York City.”
He was encouraged to enroll in Babson College, a small business school for entrepreneurs in Wellesley, Mass., by the father of one of his friends.
While there, he had a telecommunications company called Your First Step. “I built that company with another partner out of a dorm room,” said Siminoff.
The other partner was Thomas Konbel. In 2001, Siminoff merged his company with Konbel’s Nobel, another telecommunications firm, and became a partner. He resigned the position to start SimulScribe.
Besides attempting to capitalize on a business opportunity, Siminoff started SimulScribe as a way to start something fresh. “If you want to be creative, the business becomes its own machine,” he said.
The company symbol, a black-outlined yellow square containing a rightward-pointing black caret, was chosen deliberately as to be something fresh.
“I like feng shui and feng fui in terms of logos,” Siminoff said. Many companies use blue because it works best on the Web. But Siminoff did not want to conform to a color pattern. Black and yellow stand out and the caret gives the impression of movement.
On the Rise
And SimulScribe’s business is continually moving up. Besides the projected yearly revenue, Siminoff hired four executives away from Motorola, and SimulScribe’s already more than 10,000 customers are increasing weekly by 9 percent.
The Crain’s award has helped, too.
“It’s already been positive,” he continued. “Companies want SimulScribe to do all voice mail.”
But with like any business, there are bumps. In December 2007, Siminoff learned that Klausner Technologies was suing SimulScribe for voicemail technology patent infringement. Others named in the suit were Apple, AT&T and Vonage. Siminoff said that he will meet with Klausner officials and hopes to come to a settlement.
“If you’re going to be sued, it’s sort of fun to be with big people,” he said. “We can at least pick up some press and notoriety.”
As the lawsuit illustrates, Siminoff never knows what he’ll wake up to on a given day.
“I don’t have a typical day,” he said.
He usually starts off by reading his BlackBerry and e-mails. In between meetings he calls people. Siminoff likes to work. “That’s what energizes me,” he said. He is also on a plane three times a week.
“I actually find it very healthy for me,” Siminoff said of commuting. It is a chance to do work, think and reflect. He commutes for business purposes all over America.
“I like being everywhere,” Siminoff said. “I don’t like to be in one place.”
So why base SimulScribe in New York City?
“We’re a service where you pay and people in New York are willing to pay for better service,” Siminoff said.
His job is to create more opportunity and business. Case in point: London-based and voice-to-text converter SpinVox gave its product away last February in an attempt to put SimulScribe out of business.
But SimulScribe had larger developments and maintained a leadership position.
“They didn’t kill us,” Siminoff said.
He believes technology has a future in the city. “Technology comes from innovation,” he said. “We can also have the smart, creative people working with us, for us, around us.”
Talking Business
As chief executive officer, Siminoff makes sure the company makes payroll. But there are bad days, like system problems that affect customers, bad meetings and deals falling through.
“It is tough,” Siminoff said, but in the end he keeps his energy up to not get bogged down.
Business needs to have a certain art of energy to it.
“Business needs to have a certain art of energy to it,” Siminoff said, like people energy. “It gets felt by the customer. Don’t get burned out and cry at work.”
During the interview, Ari Zoldan, CEO of telecommunications firm Launch 3 Communications Inc., sits at a table next to Siminoff, turns around and faces Siminoff. He apologizes for the interruption and praises SimulScribe.
“You have a great advert model, by the way,” he says. “I think it’s a great product with harmony potential.”
At the end of the interview, the two talk business.
(To see a video of James Siminoff talking about his business, click here.)
