Top all-time · #7135
Rakesh Agrawal
Personal blog · blog.agrawals.orgbusinessstartups
Rakesh Agrawal's personal blog at blog.agrawals.org covers business and startups. Since 2011, 11 different Hacker News readers have linked it 15 times, most often “Airbnb changes a first step, don't go far enough”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-03-28, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (6) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link this blog for critical analyses of startups and business models, especially Groupon and daily deals, plus Airbnb and home-rental insurance. Commenters cite its posts as sources in discussions of those companies.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 6 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Rakesh Agrawal's personal blog
Most-linked posts?
- Airbnb changes a first step, don't go far enough2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2011-08-02
- The terrible numbers that Groupon doesn’t want you to focus on2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2011-08-15
What Hacker News says?
renting out your house for money gives the insurance company an out because your homeowners policy is for personal use. see http://blog.agrawals.org/2011/08/01/answers-on-insurance-air...
Comment linking /2011/08/01/answers-on-insurance-airbnb/
on “Our Commitment to Trust & Safety”Submitted Sam Altman will clean your house for $5 as a story · 215 points
HN discussionAgree with you on this step... They've still got challenges ahead, but this direction seems right. There's a pretty good (if a bit dramatic) analysis of other things that they might want to do at http://blog.agrawals.org/2011/08/01/airbnb-ransack-response-... .
Comment linking /2011/08/01/airbnb-ransack-response-not-enough/
on “Our Commitment to Trust & Safety”Submitted The terrible numbers that Groupon doesn’t want you to focus on as a story · 18 points
HN discussionThe point is that its not real success, its fake success propped up by massive funding rounds and there are numbers to back it up. Note that their ARPU (for customers) is less than their marketing cost. Fixing this # before growing is what Clayton Christensen is talking about when he says "impatient for profit but patient for growth". Groupons unit economics suck and they're not getting better. Revenue and subscribe…
Comment linking /2011/08/15/the-terrible-numbers-that-groupon-doesnt-want-you-to-focus-on/
on “Groupon has no viable business model”Submitted Google+ experience from a Normal user as a story · 7 points
HN discussionOk, sorry, I misunderstood. I had lingering memories of the critiques against groupons earlier non-GAAP measures [1][2][3][4][5][6] but the non-GAAP net income mostly seems to exclude stock, acquistion costs are pretty low and very clearly separated from marketing and customer acquisitions. Again, my bad. [1] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405311190363560457647... [2] http://www3.cfo.com/article/2012/2/banki…
Comment linking /2011/09/24/groupons-cost-of-revenue-is-soaring/
on “Groupon Announces First Quarter 2012 Results”Submitted Watson vs Google as a story · 7 points
HN discussion>Bad for business Bad for those who were already profitable and could not make much out of the deals. Not for those who were alienated in some part of the city and got the kick-start just because of deals. >Bad advice While the link posted by author http://blog.agrawals.org/2011/06/06/best-practices-for-busin... gives some great advice, the allegation on Google asking the merchants to tell their customers about 'Goo…
Comment linking /2011/06/06/best-practices-for-businesses-considering-daily-deals/
on “Why I Want Google Offers And The Entire Daily Deals Business To Die”Submitted Answers from the Insurance Information Institute on Airbnb as a story · 6 points
HN discussionFor sold to each customer, I believe the median is a better measure. See http://blog.agrawals.org/2011/08/11/groupon-s-1-full-of-hole...
Comment linking /2011/08/11/groupon-s-1-full-of-hole/
on “The terrible numbers that Groupon doesn’t want you to focus on”Submitted Social media and the new world of work – my take as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Airbnb changes a first step, don't go far enough as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted An analysis of the Groupon merchant agreement as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted How daily deal companies could improve the merchant experience as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
