Groupon's Andrew Mason

How one man created a billion-dollar company overnight

You’ve heard it mentioned at work, even from the waiter at the restaurant last night. But what is Groupon? Here’s the deal: Each day you receive an email with the day’s Groupon. One day it’s a discounted dinner at Green Zebra; another day, fitness classes at The Bar Method; then it’s a cut rate membership to The Art Institute. When a given amount of people have signed up for the daily deal, the discount kicks in. If the minimum number of respondents isn’t met, the promotion doesn’t go through and neither party is charged. You lose out on a discounted offer and the business loses out on, well, more business.

Soon after Andrew Mason, 29, founder and CEO, launched Groupon in 2008 out of a similar Web concept he created called The Point, a platform for people to organize group action, he started realizing the effect his company could have. “When our customers started telling us, ‘I love Groupon because it’s getting me out of the house, making me live my life,’ is when we realized the full impact of what we were doing,” Andrew says.

He continues, “We’re not in it for making money. We’re in it for the passion we have for big ideas, making an impact and making the world better.”
From the start, Andrew and his team have made sure to keep quality standards high. “Our customers can trust that they’re going to have a good experience, take a risk on a business they’ve never heard of, just because it’s on Groupon,” he says.

Just like the customers snagging deals can’t get enough of the unique site, either can the featured businesses. There’s a waiting list to be the deal of the day. Since first launching in Chicago, Groupon is currently in over 50 cities including Toronto and expects to be in 100 by year end. Just one year ago, the company had 11 employees; today, there’s 250. Though many copycat sites have popped up, Groupon stays ahead of the pack in buzz, and in one other important area that makes them the envy of many wannabe Web entrepreneurs: the site became profitable shortly after its launch, in June 2009. And according to a recent article on TechCrunch.com, Groupon is valued at just over $1 billion.

To keep things interesting, they created the Live Off Groupon For a Year talent search. If the chosen guy or gal can handle cutting up their credit card, wearing clothes only made of Groupons, eating at Groupon-deal restaurants and basically surviving the exclusively Groupon lifestyle for the entire year, they could win $100,000. “From the very beginning we’ve taken the attitude of building a site and a brand that amuses us, that we’re entertained by,” says Andrew. “The idea for Groupon is so simple that it gives a lot of room to be expressive and to create something that’s really fun to work on.”

Get your Groupon here:www.groupon.com/chicago