Welcome Kevin, Michael, Steve, Dalton, and Andrew
blog.ycombinator.com
blog.ycombinator.com
I had a negative flinch reaction towards seeing Andrew Mason's name, given the performance of Groupon over the last few years, but then I remembered that he was the one who got that low barrier to entry, commodity business to its previously enviable position in the first place. That kind of experience of ultra-rapid ramp up and sales will surely be valuable to more than a few YC companies.
I don't agree with some of the things he did (ex: preferential exits for himself and other execs) but I wish him the best in his new role.
It's not even about what he does or says anymore (for a while, time will pass), it's about flinging a guy who struck it rich by cheating in front of aspiring entrepreneurs. He could repeat "don't cheat" as much as he wants, his position is the single proof that cheating works, it's more powerful that words.
here is an explanation of the accounting thing: http://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2012/08/14/memo-to-se...
“As someone who was in the room as an observer at the Groupon board when the decision to use these metrics was made, I think Groupon was honestly trying to provide additional information that investors would find useful, which mirrored the way management thought about running the business.
However, no good deed goes unpunished, and widespread media paranoia about business metrics still lingering from the 2000 dot com crash combined with other missteps on Groupon’s part combined to make the use of those non-standard metrics highly controversial and ultimately negative for the company.”
http://allthingsd.com/20121217/andreessen-and-mixpanel-call-...
You can do a whole lot of things right but if their is something rotten at the core that undermines everything.
Groupon was rotten. The accounting was shady [1], in my view inexcusable so. I profited handsomely from shorting it, they sold the market what can only be described as a lie. The smoking guns were lying all over the place. Maybe if you tell yourself something loud enough often enough you can come to believe it, that doesn't make it true / right.
[1] http://blogs.smeal.psu.edu/grumpyoldaccountants/archives/742
That's not an argument. That's what his father would say, or his grandmother.
PS1: What does "good guy" even mean? Most people are "good guys" in that they don't spend their weekends torturing small animals in their attic. Most bad things are done by "good guys" because there isn't enough bad guys to do all the evil that's being done.
PS2: Like many others, I did enjoy / admire his exit letter; but I still have a problem not just with accounting practices at Groupon, but the essence of what Groupon was trying to do.
There was a study where students were asked to rate their professor right while the professor was entering the classroom for the first time, and then at the end of the semester. Opinions from students hardly changed at all after a semester of class.
It's very difficult for you to know if you're biased. It's impossible for me to know you're not.
[1] - http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/breakout/one-thing-could-save...
[2] - http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2219-jason-calacanis-vs-david...
[3] - http://blog.asmartbear.com/rich-vs-king-sold-company.html
Mason may know a whole lot – but he commands none of the respect I feel for the other names associated with YC. He's an antibrand. Maybe someone can someday make a compelling case for why Groupon isn't a completely scummy greater fool play. But all the sane, non-frothy things I've read about it make that a tough mountain to scale.
Are the thousands of merchants happy with Groupon outnumbered by the thousands of merchants not happy with Groupon?
> Calling it a "scummy greater fool play" is not appropriate in light of these facts.
Your "facts" more resemble opinions phrased as assertions. Which is your right, but if persuasion was your aim, the feedback might be useful.
This one time, a business school professor interviewing him in front of a lot of MBAs asked, "So, what suggestions do you have for a student who has a tech startup idea, and they need help finding developers to build the first version?" I'm sure she was expecting him to talk about finding contractors, interns or free CS students . His response: "Learn to code." Since then, I've always felt he was one of us.
Many of us would have done exactly what he did (or maybe worse) if we were in his shoes (inexperienced entrepreneur running the fastest growing company ever, where everyone around him had a lot more weight).
(I have no idea about his background.)
0: http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/1/4043566/andrew-masons-deal-...
I'm sure he'd also have things he would do differently this time around, and that is part of his value too.
It's wonderful that he shares some of what made Wufoo great (still one of the many startups we look up to). He has a really sharp eye for product and a unique counter-view to the "raise a load of money, it's the only way" sort of thinking the valley sometimes promotes. A great addition for sure.
Congrats to YC, Kevin, Michael, Steve, Dalton, and Andrew.
On that note, thank you Harj and good luck! And congratulations to the new full and part-time YC partners!
Harj leaving is at least as important as the five new entrants, I'm very curious what he's going to do next. Andrew Mason is a pretty brave pick given the amount of backlash that could create, ethical choices aside he's a smart fellow, there are probably far more people in the start-up scene that would be happy to work with him than there are that would rather stay clear. His farewell note was a class act and sketched the man in a different light for me, but still does not detract from fundamental issues in the groupon model.
YC is making bigger and bigger strides, wished I had a better crystal ball :)
"and 'til recently" or "and until recently"