The Alternative Data Podcast The Yipit Data Episode
Apr 6, 2026
Vin Vacanti, co-founder and CEO of Yipit Data, tells the story of turning a Groupon aggregator into a leading alternative data company. He talks about building diverse datasets, evolving from web scrapes to receipt and B2B panels, creating SpendHound, pricing strategies, and how AI and enterprise agents will change data access and market reach.
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Episode notes
Pivot From Deal Aggregator To Data Business
- Yipit started as Yipit.com aggregating daily deals like Groupon and gathered 10 million users before pivoting.
- A blog called Yipit Data tracked deal volumes, sold reports to investors and became the core business after 2013.
Why Early Alt Data Favored Marketplaces
- Early alternative data was dominated by web-scraped marketplace signals because sites published purchase counts.
- Scraping scaled only to marketplaces; companies like Netflix lacked public purchase metrics so other panels were needed.
Automatic Panels Made Transaction Data Reliable
- Transition to email-receipt and transaction panels unlocked coverage of companies without public purchase counts.
- Automatic, comprehensive collection (like Nielsen boxes) plus debiasing made relatively small panels accurate and actionable.