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

Because manholes are round

Posted on March 23, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

The elusive square manhole cover I found an interesting set of answers to interview questions. I found the answers first, and sadly, I knew what the questions were. If you haven’t seen the questions before, consider yourself lucky. Very early … Continue reading →

Posted in recruiting | 12 Comments

Algorithms versus car dealers

Posted on March 22, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

My car dealer gave up on the battle. I got my car back from the dealer today and saw the sticker at right on my windshield. On my previous visits, they always put on a sticker telling me to come … Continue reading →

Posted in cars, consumer electronics | Comments Off on Algorithms versus car dealers

Sprint sets location free – sort of

Posted on March 21, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

TeleNav’s GPS navigator service will be included with select data plans, Sprint announced today. Customers who subscribe to the Sprint Power Vision Ultimate Pack ($25), Sprint Power Vision Business Pack ($25) or the new Sprint Power Vision Navigation Pack ($20) … Continue reading →

Posted in gps, mobile, mobile search, satellite navigation, wireless, wireless data | 1 Comment

Cleaning up my digital neighborhood

Posted on March 20, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

My neighborhood undergone a lot of change in the three years I’ve lived here. It’s been very exciting to see new businesses come in and sad to see some old favorites go away. (I’m still puzzled as to how the … Continue reading →

Posted in aol, google, local search, yahoo, yellow pages, yelp | Comments Off on Cleaning up my digital neighborhood

Remote control for your cell phone

Posted on March 18, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

I often leave my cell phone on vibrate during the day, especially on meeting heavy days. I hate being that guy in meetings. But just as often I forget to turn the ringer back on when I get home. That … Continue reading →

Posted in consumer electronics, wireless, wireless data | Comments Off on Remote control for your cell phone

Ah, the feeling of accomplishment

Posted on March 17, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

I sent an email at 9:18 this morning to the developer of GPS Twitter suggesting an enhancement. At 10:09, I got an email back thanking me for the suggestion and asking that I give the fix a try. No change … Continue reading →

Posted in personal | Comments Off on Ah, the feeling of accomplishment

The world’s atwitter about Twitter

Posted on March 17, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

You know you’ve made the big time when the Wall Street Journal writes about you. (Either that, or you’ve jumped the shark.) Twitter got a lot of love this week, both from the Journal and at the SXSW conference. Twitter … Continue reading →

Posted in blogs, flickr, gps, instant messaging, lbs, mobile, social networking, twitter, web 2, web 2.0, where, wireless, wireless data | 11 Comments

WHERE in the world am I?

Posted on March 17, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

I needed to get out my rant about carriers locking up location services before I talk about WHERE. (They refer to themselves in all caps, and because I like the service, I’ll do the same.) WHERE is a platform that … Continue reading →

Posted in gps, lbs, local search, mobile, mobile search, where, wireless, wireless data | 7 Comments

Set my location free

Posted on March 17, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

I’m a big believer in the power of location-based services. Everyday activities like local search, weather and communications can be greatly simplified by using automatic location. The biggest obstacles (and, to be fair, the biggest enablers) of location-based services, are … Continue reading →

Posted in gps, mobile, mobile search, wireless, wireless data | 5 Comments

Blogging from a coffee shop

Posted on March 17, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

It may be cliche, but this is my first time. As I sit here on a Saturday morning, I see more bad news for the newspaper industry: the ratio of laptop users to newspaper readers here is 2:1. And I’m … Continue reading →

Posted in media, newspapers | Comments Off on Blogging from a coffee shop