You're missing marketing, sales and business development in your analysis. Groupon isn't successful because of its programming prowess. It's successful because

You're missing marketing, sales and business development in your analysis. Groupon isn't successful because of its programming prowess. It's successful because of its sales, marketing and business development prowess. Groupon is a great example of a startup that's not that complicated in the technical department (or at least it wasn't when it started...now it's large enough to where it's justifiable to bring in programming all stars to make sure scalability, maintainability, etc. are in order). So, as to why a developer should work for a proven MVP rather than building his own clone, the reason is simple...why is it more attractive to be an equity technical founder of Groupon vs. starting your own Groupon, if Groupon approaches you after it's already gained traction?