He also hinted at a radical new product, some social Groupon 2.0 platform that never came to fruition. I'm more curious about that in retrospect and what happened. The real story at that moment in time was the flowering of hundreds of Groupon clones.
"This guy" ...Get off it. Ideas > events > people. Leave it to HN, tearing down the mainstream success stories of our clan in ever decreasingly creative ways.
BTW, he wasn't a happy guy. He described very clearly at that event he forgot what being happy felt like while building GRPN. Sorry to bust your editorial bubble, but when you make a bold + false assertion, your detractors will use it to debase your entire narrative.
I'm learning that for a certain segment of humans the presence of rich people bring out claws and fangs, like a full moon.
Your sanctimony would be a bit more compelling if Mason had consistently happy campers creating his riches. That's not how it happened.
Groupon made a lot of money on the backs of small business owners too unsophisticated to understand the nature of the deals they were making. Whatever lack of happiness Mason sustained, it was mirrored in spades by the folks who were burned by Groupon's rapacious sales force and very casual approach to delivering checks on time.
This is a sketchy-ass company we're talking about and this guy made a lot of money off that sketch. Let's be real.
You think he was fired by the street for being too rapacious? WSJ: 'GRPN up 5%, Expected to be Less Aggressive on Earnings.' And how many of those miserable campers spending $1.5 billion a year for half-price chocolate-covered strawberries do you speak for? Any data on the number of SMBs who got bent over, or just memories of a PR kerfluffle you read last year? You should warn Uber and other companies you respect who use Groupon routinely that their checks won't be arriving on time.
My sarcasm isn't directed at you personally, but all broad strokes who delight in black ink when focusing on the aesthetic of someone's career. Schadenfreude fruit hang low.
Let's be real. It's the job of the small business owner to <i> run his damn business </i>, and if GRPN found a way to convince them to sign the checks, then all the power to them. Welcome to capitalism, read what you buy before you buy it.
Ah, but customers talk to each other, especially in this day and age. A company like GRPN doesn't really have an infrastructure advantage or technical advantage over other companies. It relies almost entirely on its network of small business customers. Turn off those customers and the sharks pick the bones of the company clean.
"This guy" ...Get off it. Ideas > events > people. Leave it to HN, tearing down the mainstream success stories of our clan in ever decreasingly creative ways.
BTW, he wasn't a happy guy. He described very clearly at that event he forgot what being happy felt like while building GRPN. Sorry to bust your editorial bubble, but when you make a bold + false assertion, your detractors will use it to debase your entire narrative.
I'm learning that for a certain segment of humans the presence of rich people bring out claws and fangs, like a full moon.