Regular readers will know I am intrigued by the urgency that folks like Groupon have created in online commerce. For the human side behind Groupon, I’d highly recommend listening in to Mixergy’s interview with Andrew Mason, a co-founder.
Mason is humble and down to earth and admirable in his principles but sadly we find out that the $1m angel round diluted him into a minority stake (and from inferring his tone of voice, less than 30% stake after the angel round it seems). The Internet has spread quality entrepreneurial advice far and wide but it’s unfortunate to see sad situations like this.
With that aside, Groupon as a firm is a loud fuck you to the “you can only do a successful company in Silicon Valley” bullshit spouted by people who have only lived in Silicon Valley and need some way to justify spending their prime years in a soulless, uninteresting suburban sprawl.
