Howdy, I'm MG Siegler. I’m a general partner at Google Ventures and a columnist for TechCrunch. This is where I collect things.
Some selected works. Some haikus. Some investments. Ask away.
Showing 4 posts tagged groupon
“After four and a half intense and wonderful years as CEO of Groupon, I’ve decided that I’d like to spend more time with my family. Just kidding - I was fired today.”
Andrew Mason, in his letter to Groupon employees following his ouster. (Which he posted publicly because “it will leak anyway”.)
A brilliant and refreshingly straightforward way to exit.
Wait wait wait!!! But but but!! Ponzi scheme! Should have sold to Google!
Yeah.
Groupon just went public with a market cap now 3x what Google was offering them. We’ll see if the good times last — now that they’re public, they’re going to have to show real growth in the numbers — but it’s pretty clear that either way, Groupon did the right thing in not taking that deal.
Good for them.
Foursquare + LivingSocial, Gilt, and maybe Groupon. Interesting, but the execution of this will be key. If it’s simply tacked on, it could flop. If done correctly, it could be huge.
Why wouldn’t Foursquare just build a deal product themselves? Because they have 75 people. The key to all of these services is having hundreds, if not thousands, of sales people. That’s a main reason why it’s not as easy to replicate these businesses as some might have you believe.
The big challengers here will be (surprise!) Google and Facebook. Both of them have location-based services and their own (fledgling) group deals products.
While I have an account, I’ve never actually used Groupon. And I may never use Groupon. It’s just not really my thing. But the massive backlash following the company’s S-1 filing (so they can IPO) strikes me as a bit odd.
The fast rising consensus now in certain tech circles is that Groupon is essentially a Ponzi scheme (Grouponzi, FTW). The fact that their net income is well underwater (and going deeper) has everyone freaking out. As does the fact that some of the original investors (as well as founders) took hundreds of millions off the table in the last huge round.
But I’m more with Joe Stump on this. You cannot overlook the fact that they’re also making hundreds of millions of dollars each quarter now. The run-rate for this year could be over $3 billion.
