Hacker News Reader

jproberton Groupon could IPO for as much as $25 Billion

I unsubscribed from all daily deal sites including LivingSocial and BuyWithMe. I couldn't stand the daily barrage of emails that I received for products and services that were far less than intriguing.

jproberton Groupon could IPO for as much as $25 Billion

This seems to be an absurd number that they are throwing out there. Perhaps it is a psychology tactic to get people to accept a $15B IPO. I'm not sure how Groupon can maintain this value as more and more people are beginning to associate anything with Groupon as cheap. Take for instance the deal they offered on Wednesday for the new Matthew McConaughey movie, once people saw the offer they immediately assumed that the movie was horrible.

jproberton Dropbox: The hottest startup you've never heard of

I love dropbox and we use it personally and for our company (we are paid subscribers). But it seems to me that this space has fewer barriers to entry than say Groupon. People argue that Groupon has little barriers to entry but the fact is that it cost a lot to sell and get merchants on board. Dropbox is a very unique and helpful product but what will stop the competition from creating something similar and possibly better?

jproberton Jawbone Raises $49 Million from Andreessen Horowitz

I had a Jawbone Hero for approximately 8 days (I bought it so I could communicate with my team while I drove home). In any case the device was great, less the fact that it has only 3-4 hours of talk time... but that is standard for bluetooth. I loved it and would continue to use it but it was stolen from my office desk.....

jproberton Groupon Client Goes Public With Beef at SXSW

I work in this space and we have received feedback on Groupon from hundreds of merchants. In many cases they were not happy with their promotions for the following reasons: 1) Groupon didn't adhere to the sales limits and oversold vouchers 2) Once the promotion was set in stone (a few months before it ran) the sales reps for Groupon were unreachable. Additionally, merchants could not contact sales reps to run another promotion. 3) Customer retention was very low.

I agree with the comments in the article that the sales force has no idea what is going on operationally. Really all they care about is inking the next deal so they get paid while all other considerations for proper customer service and the well being of the merchant fly out the window.