Andrew Mason’s "I'm not answering that" technique | Hacker News Reader

Andrew Mason’s "I'm not answering that" technique

allthingsd.com

142 pointsDanielRibeiro31 comments

Presuming that the video is recent, and as Groupon enters it's silent period, it's a good technique for a relatively newly minted CEO who doesn't have 20-30 years of experience dealing with public markets, taking companies public, and all of the legal guidance that they've received in that time.

If Andrew takes three or four companies public, he'll learn how to answer those questions without stepping over the line, but, for right now, with a multi-billion dollar IPO on the line - silence is golden.

Besides - he managed to get an applause out of the audience, so he had good timing as well.

[Edit: Agreed that a "no comment" would have been as effective, but nowhere near as entertaining. I also suspect that the interviewer knew they were not supposed to be asking these questions, so there was another bit of interplay taking place as well.]

I think a simple and direct "no comment, I can't talk about that right now" would have achieved a better result without all of the awkwardness of the "death stare" (and the, IMO, slightly creepy twitching).

Andrew is probably an awesome guy, but not knowing him other than as being the CEO of Groupon, those clips certainly don't give me a good first impression of him at all. He comes off a bit like the "quiet guy nobody suspected would be a killer until he murdered 20 people" in that video. Granted, I'm sure that was exactly the impact whoever edited these clips was going for, and thus you can't really blame the subject for it, but I'd advise him in the future to just go with ye olde "no comment".

He's normally very charismatic when speaking/being interviewed, so in that context, it's pretty funny.

He was actually one of warmer startup guys a year or so back as a TWIST guest (and groupon started as a http://www.thepoint.com, service for activists, philantropists..).

I imagine thinking about billons and getting to 7000 in workforce in such short time can change people, at least on the outside.

http://thisweekin.com/thisweekin-startups/twist-52-with-andr...

It's only akward without context. I thought it was hilarious.

I figured as much, thus the caveat about the editing, but unfortunately these days if you're the public face of a company|country|state|whatever, it is better to avoid doing things which will make you look bad if you know for sure you're being videotaped and the situation can be edited for maximum out-of-context-ness.

From my point of view, I knew who Andrew Mason was, what he did, but had never seen him speak in public. Coming from that starting point, seeing this video gave me a bad personal first impression of him.

It is possible (perhaps likely) that whoever edited this clip didn't even mean for it to make Andrew Mason look creepy, but they had more context than the people who saw just the end result, so maybe this is also a warning to video editors as well.. always consider the impact your clips will have if viewed by someone that doesn't have the full context.

I don't think it's a techique, per se. (disclosure: I've worked with Andrew a bit). Andrew is an awesome guy and he's got a REALLY peculiar sense of humor. I'd wager that he was sitting at lunch someday talking with someone about the press and said: "Wouldn't it be funny if I did something a bit more creative than say 'no comment'?".

Yeah, pretty hilarious. Too bad he wasn't going to answer, though. :D

You gave more info than I gleaned off the site. All I saw were a few banners and a tagline.

Admittedly, I'm using a blackberry, so if it's video content like that, I'm not seeing it. The least the operators of that could have done was offer a transcript, or detect crappy browsers. Oh well.

*edit: I thought about, but failed to mention that a <video> tag would have been most helpful. And, why the downvotes?

There is no transcript to speak of: He's in an interview, the interviewer asks him a few questions, and he simply stares at her without a word. Not even an "I'm not going to answer that." She describes it as a "Death Ray" stare.

It's almost as if he's a contestant on a game show where he wins a billion dollars if he can remain silent no matter what someone else says.

p.s. You haven't missed anything. It's entertaining, but hardly Hacker News.

Here you go (not word for word):

Interviewer: "When are you going public?"

Groupon CEO: [Silence. Look of death. Nervous shaking. Looks like head might explode.]

"Why didn't you sell to Google?"

[Same as above + flaring nostrils.]

"Why didn't you sell to Yahoo?"

[Laughter.]

The shaking seemed more like he was trying to keep from smiling than he was nervous.

The focus of that page is a video. And while I do agree with you about providing transcripts generally, in this case it wouldn't have really helped you understand what happened as it is the body language that is important in this case, not what he says (or rather doesn't say).

I don't think a transcript would be able to describe his reaction in the video.

Yeah, this is one of those articles best left until you get to a desktop or at least your Android tablet. ;)

Anyone who isn't familiar with his style should know that when he raised $1 billion recently he titled the press release:

"Groupon raises, like, a billion dollars."

He has a great sense of humor and doesn't give a shit what people think. My kind of guy.

Considering that $900m of that went into his personal account, I can well believe it!

Personally, it's refreshing to see someone bring some levity to all the seriousness. Especially considering he was obviously countering the penetrating questions the interviewer was asking.

You people need to relax.

I understand why he did it(sec regulations and all) but what was the reason he thought it was cool to look like he was having an aneurism every time Kara asked him these questions? Comedy relief?

I know it sounds cynical, but it's just another reason I don't like Groupon. The dude is creepy, and looks like something straight out of a Dianetics book.

I like it.

His sense of humor might be a little immature, but creepy seems a bit much. Are Dianetics books mostly pictures? That would make a lot of sense given the subject matter.

I found it odd that the audience was applauding but I guess we're missing some context in this short clip.

Jeremy Paxman probably wouldn't have let him get away with silence.

Jeremy Paxman. YES. I would love to see how he would respond to that!

That's hilarious! For a moment I thought he was having a seizure. I was quite relieved when he finally smiled at the end.

I got the feeling that there was probably some pre-arranged agreement that the IPO question was off limits, but that the interviewer went ahead and asked the question anyway. Hence his non-plussed look and the slight shake of his head as if indicating 'you're not supposed to be asking that question'.

Or, it was a joke and an interesting take on the inevitable question.

I think some people can't understand a CEO who doesn't act like the typical corporate robot clone, and others can.

"Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment." - Franklin.

Reminds me of the David Blane interview on GMTV. Maybe thats where he got the technique?

He looks pretty high.

EDIT: that's not meant to be funny; it's my honest impression of his demeanor.

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