Tretakoff Musings

I was following the coverage of last week's Living Social deal for $10 of a Starbucks gift card for $5. One of the more interesting assertions was that Living Social actually paid for the deal, and Starbucks had nothing to do with it. So says a site called FastCasual.com, a site that, as they say: "Since 1997, FastCasual.com has reported on the important news, events, trends and people in the $23.5 billion fast casual restaurant industry segment." The piece on the LS/Starbucks deal was written by the "editor" of FastCasual, Cherryh Butler. Ms. Butler's bio: "Cherryh Butler has been a reporter for nearly 10 years, writing on a variety of topics ranging from the cable industry and business to health and fitness. Before joining fastcasual.com as editor, she wrote for several daily newspapers, magazines and Web sites, including The Kansas City Star and ehow.com" So, I found Ms. Butler's piece a bit troubling in a few areas: - She make...

Flash sales are an amazing phenomenon.Companies like Fab.com have been conducting these curated sales, with each item available for only a very limited time, to great success (Fab recently raised $40 million in new investment, and will generate over $100 million this year). And they are not alone: there are literally dozens of flash sale sites, ranging in specialties on sporting goods ( The Clymb ), furnishings ( Joss & Main , etc.), and every vertical under the sun. For the consumer, quite the win. Or is it? The interesting evolution of flash sale sites start with the same premise. Take, for instance, the come-hither for one of the flash sale granddaddies, Gilt Groupe : "Join Gilt to find the best brands at up to 60% off". Each of these sites promise unheard of savings on amazing brands, all for extremely limited times. And in the early days of their sites, it is so: many run staggeringly low prices for brands. Why and how? Simple: acquisition marketing. These sites...

As I have been in the local offers business for a couple of years, I was surprised today by two radical changes in the offer landscape. First, a while ago, Google got into the local offers game . Unlike others there, they took a "customer-forward" look, offering generous refund terms for customers and promising to use the wealth of data that they have to ensure the offers were relevant, high-quality, and good. They started off with a bang, with great offers from local and national businesses that have been stalwarts in the community. Unfortunately, that honeymoon seems to have worn off. Now, I can overlook the "filler" type offers that have come through lately ( photo collages , etc.), but there is one that shows Google is right among the same low quality offers that seem to be plaguing daily deal sites these days that have no other business with the merchants: Maid 4 Hire . On the surface, looks like a good deal: $149 for 3 2-hour cleanings of your home. In...

Interesting article today from alarm:clock , complaining about perceived fraud about a deal they purchased from Gilt City for Virgin America flights. Normally, I'd comment right on the site, but that was not an option. In essence, the author is using "Virgin America" and "fraud" as linkbait to, as they fully acknowledge, get a refund. All for the power of the free Internet press; good luck. My issue here is that they are clearly overlooking the main details: No one made them buy the deal. The deal stated, clearly, among the frankly terrifyingly large amount of fine print: Offer is final sale and nonrefundable. Fares, routes, fees and schedules are subject to change without notice. Travel must occur between August 15, 2011 and June 15, 2012. Honestly, looking at the sheer quantity of conditions to this deal, I would not (and did not) buy it. However, the author did. And then, while acknowledging that they were cognizant of the terms, and that th...

GigaOm has a post today about CrowdMob . Basically, a mobile gaming platform that, instead of selling you upgraded characters or subscription fees, requires you to buy local daily deals instead. Pretty interesting idea: the customer gets what they want, but it will require a critical mass of offers, as the deal has to appeal to the purchaser. If there is only one deal, it has a limited chance of that. Having said that, it's actually a very innovative approach. After all, local is inherently connected with mobile, and mobile gaming is one of the fastest growing segments, especially among the same demographics who purchase local deals. And it offers gamers a chance to actually get what they want, and have reasons to try the businesses. One quibble, though: the article states "... by allowing merchants to redeem a deal through a variety of methods without having to take a paper coupon, ". This makes it seem that the burden of having to take a paper voucher is one tha...

This week, after false starts, drama, and much gnashing of teeth, Groupon went public on NASDAQ this week. IPO is always a time where the hype gets turned up a little high, but this was fairly exceptional, especially the spewing of vitriol about the company, their business and the fallacy of any investors foolish enough to go anywhere near the stock. Some samples: " Investing in Groupon is like investing in a leaky bucket. " - Rocky Agarwal, most vocal Groupon critic. " Enjoy the ride, Groupon investors! I'm outta here! " - Henry Blodget, Editor in Chief, Business Insider. And that doesn't begin to take into account the torrent on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. It's almost personal...and almost all of it is so hyper emotional, it ignores the basics and the fundamentals of investing. Before I dive in, some caveats and clear statements. I am an executive of a company that provides similar services to Groupon's Daily Deal services to the m...

I'm a big proponent of Foursquare and other location based services. Recently, many have started adding deals to their services by incorporating other companies and services. A good example? JetBlue awarding JetBlue points for checking in on Facebook to their "official" JetBlue locations at the airport. But Foursquare keeps trying, and recently they upped the ante by partnering with Groupon to feature their deals. However, they still have some work to do. For example, Foursquare will often prompt you to add "to do's" for places: essentially, bookmarks. Ok, fair enough. A while ago, I added a To-Do for a sushi place folks told me might be good. Now, at this point, Foursquare has the info: I want to go there. And, the other day, I fired up Foursquare and saw this: All good, right? I click through, and I see: Now, what, you are asking, is the problem? Well, look at the time at the top: it's 9:46 PM. Now, look at the bottom: "Must present between ...

AT&T recently touted they were adding deals to AT&T Wireless subscribers. Thanks to the slightly creepy feature that the network knows where your phone is, they would helpfully send texts with deals at retailers "nearby." I signed up, figuring this would be a good experience, one that companies like Groupon (or even TownHog ) would love to offer. The first offer came in, for a Best Buy 15% off deal. Ok, so it was a few miles from me when it came in, but basically in the ballpark. Not an amazing deal, either, but hey. Not bad. The next was further away...and further away...until the one you see here. Yes, AT&T's version of a local deal was a message about chocolate milk. Not nearby, but just a plug for milk. Seriously. As you can see, that was the last straw: I unsubscribed. Now, you could take this as a lesson: offer local deals, and the deals better be good, and local. These were neither; they were embarrassing.  I hope they do better with YP.com's n...

Pricing errors are a fascinating social experiment. It starts with a website or store mistakenly pricing an item at an outrageous price. Thanks to the power of those old InterTubes, it spreads like wildfire. Before you know it, Twitter is down under the load of people tweeting their good fortune, Facebook changes their terms of service to reflect some other way they think they need to protect themselves, and sites like Woot write wry salutes. What happens next is interesting. First, the retailer pulls the offending item, causing a hue and cry from those who missed it, and a series of gloating posts from those who got in on the deal...or did they? The retailer has a choice at that moment: honor the error, or issue an apology but cancel the orders. Consumers seem to think there is some sort of legal requirement for this, but the laws are based state by state, and most do not have such protection. PR consultants debate what gets more press: reneging and getting TV coverage of the outcry (...

A couple of weeks ago, the wonderful folks over at Woot had a nice deal on an Acer AspireOne netbook. If you aren't familiar with netbooks, they are ultrasmall, ultralight, and ultracheap laptops. The trade off is in performance and usability: the hard drives are usually miniscule; the processor is bare minimum, and the keyboard is usually tiny. The result is a small, fast and light laptop that's good for general net surfing, with maybe a little left over for some music. I've been fascinated with these, since Asus started the craze with their Eee PC. So much of what I do now is "in the cloud:" I don't tend to use traditional software these days. Instead, I use web based versions. Microsoft Office? Ditched it for Google Docs . Bittorrenting TV shows? Hello, Hulu and TV.com . The list goes on, but you get the point. I do a lot of traveling, so a small laptop that runs for 5-6 hours on a single battery, has full wifi access, a built in webcam for Skype, a slot f...

Apple announced an event this week to discuss the upcoming iPhone 3.0 software. Since the 2.0 version was a major change in the success of the platform, 3.0 is eagerly awaited, and, of course, the speculation has begun. Kevin Rose of Digg, who was dead on in his leaks on what would be in the iPhone 2.0, has come out with his predictions . Among them was this tidbit: "Also, the 3.0 update will have enough new features and additions to bring it up to the Palm Pre levels. Whatever Palm Pre has shown us so far, apparently, the iPhone will have too when 3.0 becomes official." Whoa. That's a pretty major statement. I'm definitely going to change up my phone, and I'm torn between the upcoming Pre and a new iPhone 3G (I'm still on the first generation). If Apple's getting close to parity on the intuition the Pre shows, I know which way I am leaning. By the way, I'm sure you are asking why I would be considering the 3G, if I already have an iPhone. Recent month...

ChainLove, a "Woot for bicyclists," had a deal I could not pass up today. I got in on it, pressed the buy button, and I was good. Got an order confirmation in moments. Less than 1 hour later, got the e-mail you see on the right. Their opening line is perfect, and reflected exactly my feeling. Nicely done, gentlemen. Holy crap indeed.

Now this is a site to add to your RSS feeds: ChainLove comes from the folks at Backcountry.com. While they have done Woot-like sites before for various sports, they have finally gotten around to the cycling community, and ChainLove does not dissatisfactory. With an average discount of more than 40%, they don't stick firmly to the Woot model; instead, they put up a single item, in limited quantities, and when it sells out, up goes another. So far the selection is definitely slanted more to the women and cold weather items, but there have definitely been some ones I've wished I grabbed. I like this "specialized" Woot evolution: I can see this expanding to all sorts. Heck, Woot themselves already do specialized ones for wine and t-shirts ; let's hope for even more selection in the future!

Interesting news, as Nokia has purchased Avvenu . Not familiar with Avvenu? Not surprising, if you weren't a Palm OS user. They make a little program that lives on your PC, making the files available to be accessed with a mobile phone. The revenue model was invisible, so it was always a little headscratching. As to access, well, it was OK, but never amazing. And the idea of having all of your files open to be accessed by anyone hitting a URL and entering a username and password always seemed a bit harebrained to me. On the odder side, Nokia immediately discontinued access outside the US and killed Avvenu's streaming music service in favor of their own. Here's what they had to say: Dear Avvenu Customer, As a registered user of the Avvenu service, we wanted to let you know that Nokia and Avvenu have signed an agreement under which Nokia has acquired Avvenu Inc. Nokia intends to continue the Avvenu Access 'n Share service, and enhance Avvenu's secure remote access and ...

It's been a crazy time. First, the move to the new house. Then, the arrival of the in-law family: first my sister-in-law and my mother-in-law, then the arrival of my brother-in-law, followed by the departure of my sister-in-law. Essentially, for the better part of a month, we've had houseguests. On top of that, work went crazy this week: growing pains from scale, along with the surge of the Mother's Day holiday, and several new clients (and a new team member!)...man, what a ride. The good news is that I survived. Now, to get back to this blogging thing. :-) I decided to finally listen to Charles and chuck the mountain bike for my daily commute: I'm now 8 miles, each way, to the Ferry. So, last Saturday, we headed to the bike stores for the test rides. First, I was amazed they let you test ride these things on the street: hand over an ID and a credit card, and away you go. With bikes that were, on average, well over $1000, and some stretching up to $5k, this seemed crazy...

Did you know the IRS is refunding Excise taxes collected between 2003 & 2006 this year, if you have long distance service? Depending on how many deductions you claim you could get up to $60 back. Hell, $30 is there for the taking. Curiously, this new blog, Nextlust , was what turned me on to it, but they implied it was VOIP users only. My bad.

In my recent posting about AT&T's VOIP Service , I wrote: "Yes, Vonage has a few more features I would like, and is $5 less;" To which, a commenter, the mysterious SamIam , kindly said: "AT&T CallVantage isn't $5 more than Vonage. Call them up and change your plan. The new plan (same as the old plan) is under $25 -- The FCC requires you change to the new plan!" Well, I logged into my CallVantage account today, saw a link to change my plan, and was able to switch it to the $25 plan instead. There is NO difference between the $30 and $25 plans; just different price. Thanks, SamIam: $60 a year savings, because of your comment!

I've mentioned before that I ditched my landline some time ago in favor of a Voice Over IP (VOIP) line from AT&T, with their CallVantage service. $29.95 a month, with unlimited local and long distance calling, with crystal-clear sound quality. Uses your broadband Internet connection, and comes with almost every feature you can imagine: voicemail, caller ID, privacy time, and dozens more...all included. What I have not mentioned is why I think their service is the best thing going. Yes, Vonage has a few more features I would like, and is $5 less; yes, SunRocket will give you a deal for $199 for 2 years of service. What AT&T gives me is some of the best customer service I could ask for, as well as the best phone quality you can imagine: far better than any landline I ever had. Examples of their service: call them, and speak to a human, 24 hours a day. Try that with any other VOIP provider. Got a problem? They will patiently try to fix it, and, if all else fails, they FedEx y...

I'm the kinda guy who has LOTS of betas, bleeding edge programs, and other sundry things on his computer, looking for the next great thing. I'm also not necessarily one who associates reduced performance with those programs. Good example: the Tab Effect I recommended a few days ago : great idea, but really slows down Firefox's performance: I ended up jettisoning it. Not quite ready for prime time. However, I recently found out about other such programs, sapping not performance of my computer, but bandwidth. Remember when I mentioned about my aborted efforts to move to DSL? Well, my nephew Jeremy read that post, and IM'ed me this: Hey Josh...you know, Cnet's speed test is horribly inaccurate. Go retest with Speakeasy's. http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/ I get (on average) 5.7 megs a second....6.1 or so on good nights. I'd stay with Comcast, I've only had a problem maybe 4-5 times in the 3-4 years we've had it, and the reviews on Yahoo and Verizon ...

I like good, cheap cigars. Sure, I love my Zino's, but as a startup guy, it's hard to justify dropping $100 a month on such class. Instead, I've made it a passion to search for good cheapies. I'm talking a buck a stick kinda cheapies. In the past, Cigars International has been my 1 stop shop for this. They have amazing weekly specials, and I try them frequently. They've turned me on to some nice cheap brands that won't leave you thinkign you've just smoked "floor sweepings." But now, I discovered Cigar Bid : an auction site for cigars. I think it might be owned by CI, as it features many of their products and brands, but the prices...WOW. I've got three bids in now...we'll see how it goes!