Author Archives: Rakesh Agrawal

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About Rakesh Agrawal

Rakesh Agrawal is a 0-1 product leader. Ex-Amazon, Ex-Microsoft, as well as a number of startups. He tweets at @rakeshsfnyc

A note about my Groupon coverage and accountability

I’m sometimes asked if I ghost write under other names or post comments anonymously about Groupon. I do not. Everything I’ve written about Groupon and the daily deals space has been posted under my name. I do, however, answer a … Continue reading

Posted in daily deals, groupon | 1 Comment

Like many Groupons, Groupon is no bargain — even at 50% off

Groupon finally announced the details of its much awaited IPO. The company seeks a valuation that is between 1/3 and 1/2 of what was rumored when its first S-1 was published in June. Although the numbers are on the surface … Continue reading

Posted in daily deals, groupon | 4 Comments

Groupon and LivingSocial get half off deals they won’t like: their traffic

Traffic to leading daily deal sites Groupon and LivingSocial has fallen often a cliff in the last few months, according to data from Compete. Since June, unique visitors to Groupon have fallen more than 50% from 33.7 million to 15.8 … Continue reading

Posted in daily deals, groupon, livingsocial | 3 Comments

Why I agree 100% with Groupon on obfuscating its Deal Counter numbers

Groupon announced on its blog yesterday that it’s going to obfuscate the numbers shown in its Deal Counter, which shows how many of each deal sold. It’s the right move for Groupon. I noticed this in action several weeks ago … Continue reading

Posted in daily deals, groupon, livingsocial | 2 Comments

Groupon, IPOs and incentives

When I first started writing about Groupon more than four months ago, my friend Semil asked me “Why are you the only one saying these things?” I explained that it call came down to incentives. Consider the various people involved … Continue reading

Posted in daily deals, groupon | 3 Comments

What every small business should do. Today.

I’ve written quite a bit about how bad a deal running Groupons is for many businesses, including the extremely lopsided merchant agreement and the potential for Groupon to damage businesses in the long term by destroying Yelp ratings. It occurred … Continue reading

Posted in daily deals, groupon | 7 Comments

My batshit crazy challenge

In order to motivate myself to exercise more, I’ve decided to donate to Newt Gingrich Rick SantorumMichele Bachmann every day I don’t meet my exercise goals until a Republican candidate is selected for President. The rules of the challenge: For every … Continue reading

Posted in personal | 6 Comments

Up In The Air

The airline industry is one of the most volatile out there. I’ve had a chance to experience many of the ups and downs of the industry on a variety of U.S. and foreign carriers. U.S. carriers (10) Alaska American Avelo … Continue reading

Posted in travel | Comments Off on Up In The Air

Groupon’s cost of revenue is soaring

The third amendment to Groupon’s S-1 shows significant changes. Although the prospectus is cleaner and better reflects the company’s financial position, it brings to light more bad news about an already troubled offering. The most significant new issue I see … Continue reading

Posted in daily deals, groupon | 10 Comments

Google and antitrust: looking at the good and bad effects of monopolies

This is the last in a multi-part series on Google and antitrust. Part 1: Competing in Web search against Google would be extremely hard Part 2: How Google favors its own products Part 3: Looking at the good and bad effects of monopolies Disclosures: I … Continue reading

Posted in google, search | 3 Comments