by Daria Steigman on November 8, 2011
Groupon went public on Friday, and it was reported to be the largest IPO since Google. I don’t get it.
The founders took $900 million in cash from the company before it went public. Which suggests they think the company is overvalued (and they want their money while it’s there) or they don’t plan to stick around to find out. Either way, it’s not a vote of confidence.
There was a long, fascinating article in Business Insider last week that looks at the history of Groupon. It’s a tale of start-up woes and poor management, a revolving door for top talent, out-of-control sales commissions, and spurning an offer from Google reportedly out of fears that the deal would be rejected by the SEC on anti-trust grounds.
Here’s a sample:
[CEO Andrew Mason] can’t hang on to a COO. The SEC is asking questions. Industry executives are calling him a ponzi schemer. Early employees are demanding six-figure pay for 9 to 5 hours. One even filed a lawsuit. Merchant customers are screaming. And Mason and his board, having helped themselves to $900 million of cash that could have gone to the company, are are now being blasted for incompetence and greed.
It’s a cautionary tale about rapid growth (and entrepreneurs reading their own press clips). Take a few minutes and dive in. Then I’d love to hear your takeaways.
Photo by Dan4th Nicholas (Flickr).
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Tagged as:
Business,
Business Insider,
Entrepreneur,
Entrepreneurship,
Google,
Groupon,
Securities and Exchange Commission
by Daria Steigman on October 28, 2011
Lycos used to be a big deal.
Lycos was one of the first ad-supported search engines. It completed one of the fastest IPOs in history. It was one of the first profitable Internet companies. And it barely exists today.
Look at the home page, and you see a flashback to the old Web.
Lycos developed a model, then other companies came into the space. They did it better. They saw opportunities. They innovated.
Which brings us to Groupon, which has been hemorrhaging for months.
Groupon’s founders never understood that the $6 billion offer from Google was never about Groupon’s business value. It was about buying an infrastructure that Google could build out.
Being the first on your block to do something doesn’t make you special. Or gifted. Or the best. It just makes you first.
What do you think: Is Groupon the next Lycos?
Photo by blathlean (Flickr).
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Tagged as:
Business,
Google,
Groupon,
Innovation,
Lycos,
mobile
by Daria Steigman on October 11, 2011
A big rap on Groupon is that it brings in one-time customers that most retail businesses have no idea how to convert. If it led to a steady uptick in business, companies would be cheering. Right?
But can you have too much business?
Chef Geoff‘s uptown location used to have a terrific happy hour. You could come in, plop down at the bar, order a Super Mug, watch the news or a game, and hang out. My last memory of Tim Russert was on a bar stool at Chef Geoff.
That was Before The Groupon.
The Groupon brought in a new customer base–and a noisy, bustling happy hour made up mostly of law students from a nearby university. Now I have nothing against grad students (or college bars), but it’s a different atmosphere. And empty bar stools are hard to find.
I don’t know whether Chef Geoff is happy with its new business model. Or whether it’s impacted their dinner numbers–which is what generates the real revenue. What I do know is they sent an e-mail in June saying that the schools were out and it was a good time to come back in.
Maybe you can’t have too much business. But you can have too much of the wrong customers for your core market.
Photo by Mo Riza (Flickr).
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Tagged as:
Chef Geoff,
Groupon,
marketing,
Tim Russert
by Daria Steigman on December 9, 2009
I’ve been on a rulemaking binge lately, and I’m loving it. And you just might be surprised how a few little rules can simplify your business life.
I’m talking about Outlook Rules. While lots of people have Inbox Zero goals, that doesn’t work for me. But having 150 random items piling up isn’t helpful either. So recently I got serious and created a Subscriptions sub-folder in my inbox. I then built rules to move every SmartBrief, Financial Times, MarketingProfs, LinkedIn, Groupon, Sporting News, and other subscription automatically out of my inbox and into that new folder. Now the mail I need stays at the top, and the rest is there to dig in or delete when I’m ready.
Sometimes you just have to have a few rules. What rules have you create to improve your productivity?
Photo by Entressen kirjasto (Flickr).
Have you grabbed a free copy of Your Social Media Checklist? Download it today to get 9 tips for being findable and attracting the right customers for your business.
Tagged as:
Business,
Groupon,
LinkedIn,
Marketing Profs,
Outlook Rules,
SmartBrief,
Sporting News
by Daria Steigman on October 28, 2009
As with (likely) everyone else who attended, I enjoyed BlogPotomac last week. Geoff Livingston deserves kudos for bringing the Washington region’s communications pros, techies, and bloggers together for a broad-reaching discussion around social media and the social Web. And his format, short talks and lots of discussion, is a great way to evolve a conversation. (For example, Andy Carvin‘s remarks led to a discussion about filtering information and identifying trust agents.)
My big takeaways involve data–where it’s coming from and how we will package and use it over time:
- Sean Gorman, FortiusOne, talked about the application of geo-location and data mapping for everything from humanitarian relief to marketing.
- Jane Quigley, Crayon, identified three emerging Web trends: simplicity (to facilitate ease of use and participation), localization (i.e., Brightkite, Groupon), and the real-time Web (i.e., Google Wave).
- Peter Slutsky, Ning, talked about niche social networks. Interesting factoid: at Ning, you own your data. Seems like a big value add to me.
What’s your BlogPotomac takeaway?
Photo by ghbrett (Flickr).
Have you grabbed a free copy of Your Social Media Checklist? Download it today to get 9 tips for being findable and attracting the right customers for your business.
Tagged as:
Andy Carvin,
BlogPotomac,
Brghtkite,
Crayon,
FortiusOne,
Geoff Livingston,
Groupon,
Jane Quigley,
Ning,
Peter Slutsky,
Sean Gorman
