kurtvarner

If a product grows huge quickly, which almost always requires it to be free, it will probably be acquired for a lot of money. Free products that don’t grow quickly enough can usually die with an “acquihire”, which lets everyone save face and ensures that the investors get something out of the deal.

I think this way of thinking is the product of a very frothy market over the last few years. Now, I'm not one to scream series A crunch from the mountain tops, but it's unrealistic to think that thousands of these startups that "don't grow quickly enough" will be acquihired. In 2012 Google and Facebook combined to make 21 acquisitions. That doesn't put much of a dent in the number of failing startups. And with the Formspring shutdown announcement last week, it seems that even companies that have achieved impressive scale (30M users in since 2010) cannot rely on being bought.

I'm blown away that they insist on designing their remotes like kids' toys.

Imagine if they would have drastically pivoted away from check-ins and failed. I'm sure Gowalla would be contemplating what could have been if they stayed true to check-ins and went to war with Foursquare.

I think it's too easy to say in retrospect that they should have "played by their own rules." Even though they were playing by the check-in rules, at least they were playing in a real game.

Here is Lefkofsky's statment: On behalf of the entire Groupon Board, I want to thank Andrew for his leadership, his creativity and his deep loyalty to Groupon. As a founder, Andrew helped invent the daily deals space, leading Groupon to become one of the fastest growing companies in history. Groupon will continue to invest in growth, and we are confident that with our deep management team and market-leading position, the company is well positioned for the future.

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/28/ceo-andrew-mason-replaced-b...

--

(This is for Groupon employees, but I’m posting it publicly since it will leak anyway)

People of Groupon,

After four and a half intense and wonderful years as CEO of Groupon, I’ve decided that I’d like to spend more time with my family. Just kidding – I was fired today. If you’re wondering why… you haven’t been paying attention. From controversial metrics in our S1 to our material weakness to two quarters of missing our own expectations and a stock price that’s hovering around one quarter of our listing price, the events of the last year and a half speak for themselves. As CEO, I am accountable.

You are doing amazing things at Groupon, and you deserve the outside world to give you a second chance. I’m getting in the way of that. A fresh CEO earns you that chance. The board is aligned behind the strategy we’ve shared over the last few months, and I’ve never seen you working together more effectively as a global company – it’s time to give Groupon a relief valve from the public noise.

For those who are concerned about me, please don’t be – I love Groupon, and I’m terribly proud of what we’ve created. I’m OK with having failed at this part of the journey. If Groupon was Battletoads, it would be like I made it all the way to the Terra Tubes without dying on my first ever play through. I am so lucky to have had the opportunity to take the company this far with all of you. I’ll now take some time to decompress (FYI I’m looking for a good fat camp to lose my Groupon 40, if anyone has a suggestion), and then maybe I’ll figure out how to channel this experience into something productive.

If there’s one piece of wisdom that this simple pilgrim would like to impart upon you: have the courage to start with the customer. My biggest regrets are the moments that I let a lack of data override my intuition on what’s best for our customers. This leadership change gives you some breathing room to break bad habits and deliver sustainable customer happiness – don’t waste the opportunity!

I will miss you terribly.

Love,

Andrew

What do you guys think?

[Edit] Looks like he removed it. Good call.

That said, I'm not a big fan of stealing someone's design pixel for pixel. It definitely hurts the Svbtle brand when people mistake WP-Svbtle for Svbtle itself. I wonder what Dustin Curtis thinks.

I'm glad they address this before people complain about Stripe only moving to Canada.

TNW: http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/09/13/500-startups-breaks...

TechCrunch: http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/13/500-startups-angellist/

"scared"

2001-09-11 09:46:48 Skytel [002384252] D ALPHA on. The White House has been evacuated. I'm scared do you know what's going on? Robin

2001-09-11 09:49:14 Skytel [007558008] C ALPHA Michelle.Becker@moody.edu|Call me babe if you can I'm so scared!| Michelle Solar Becker Department Manager, Donor Communications Moody Bible Institute 820 N.

2001-09-11 10:13:10 Arch [0910241] A ALPHA ||i'm home there is lots of smoke outside of my window i can't see anything or use my phone i'm really scared please get help HHeller,IBSG-Cisco|144

2001-09-11 10:38:59 Arch [0949322] C ALPHA jebritt|I AM VERY SCARED ANNE ... PLEASE COME HOME NOW CALL ME

"love you"

2001-09-11 09:23:40 Arch [1008791] B ALPHA 08-GETTING REALLY NERVOUS. PLS CALL TO LET ME KNOW YOU'RE SAFE. I LOVE YOU.

2001-09-11 09:28:48 Arch [0939758] D ALPHA 58-THANK GOD YOU ARE SAFE. PLEASE CALL ME. I LOVE YOU, TERRY.

2001-09-11 09:32:37 Skytel [005062181] B ALPHA PLEASE CALL ME AND LET ME KNOW YOUR OK, I AM AT HOME. I LOVE YOU. SUNSHINE 908 806 6384

I realize that following through on the investment would undoubtedly get me into legal trouble, but you'd think they would prevent this from happening.