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Andrew Mason's statement about being fired as Groupon CEO
- michaelwolfe 14y agoAndrew took Groupon further than 99.99% of all startups will ever go, then went out with a funny, accountable, and humble goodbye note. If you honestly embrace startup risk and failure, you simply cannot bash this guy.
- sethbannon 14y agoI've had little respect for the way Mason ran Groupon, but I have immense respect for the way he's handling his dismissal.
- larrys 14y ago"for the way he's handling " Assumes he wrote the statement and wasn't helped by PR people of course. In that case he gets credit for at least listening to those more experienced than he is. Can't tell without seeing his reaction in other situations that are similar of course.
- ovoxo 14y agoIf you've ever seen, read, listened to anything from this guy, you know he doesn't use PR people. Trust me, this is straight from his mouth/mind.
- larrys 14y agoThanks I was wondering about that.
- petercooper 14y agoYeah, he was once meant to be on TV news talking about Groupon and because they asked a question he didn't want to answer, he told a funny irrelevant story about his life just to play out the clock. A real square peg in a round hole but in the best possible way (though not necessarily from investors' POV).
- larrys 14y agoSame as politicians do. It takes some practice to learn to do that. I would suspect he was prepped in evasion techniques prior to the TV appearance. Actually hard to believe he wasn't schooled in some of this actually.
- shadowmatter 14y ago"John, I'm just been told that Groupon is announcing my termination tomorrow. If you could put me in touch with a PR person that's familiar with Battletoads, I'd be very appreciative."
- bigiain 14y agoIndeed - that's a really well written letter. (Though cynical-me wonders how much of it is heartfelt and honest, and how much of it is carefully engineered spin - crafted and chosen by a team of psychologists/marketers. About the only admirable thing about Groupon, at least to me, is their magnificent use of language to persuade and influence both buyers and sellers of Groupon deals.)
- danilocampos 14y agoWith Mason, I'm assuming phoniness at every turn: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5301302 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5301302
- 9999 14y agoI assume Mason answered that question about ten thousand times before at that point. If the person that asked that really asked it like that, then I have to say it was a poorly phrased, thoughtless question that no CEO would answer. He's hardly a phony for having answered it with a simple, "Yes." How would you actually expect him to have answered that? What's your ideal scenario there? "Nope. We're hosed. Everyone get out now." Would you have wanted to hear all of his strategies for how he was going to make it sustainable? So their competitors could preempt them? Perhaps if the question had been asked in a more thoughtful manner, he would have elaborated in greater detail.
- danilocampos 14y agohttp://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5301375 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5301375
- raylu 14y agoI felt it was dishonest when I got to "good fat camp to lose my Groupon 40." It seems he tried really hard to inject humor and trivialities into the letter.
- callmevlad 14y ago
- nraynaud 14y agoA funny goodbye letter doesn't make up for lying consistently to investors since before the IPO. He failed, a lot, he did not have an accident, he failed over a long period and in various ways (ripping off the shops, the accounting trick and the share value/financial results). He's not a hero for writing this letter, he as to be treated with circonspection, and at best given a second chance under close watch.
- clark-kent 14y agoUnless you have been in his position, running a multi-million dollar public company for the first time in your life, you don't know what mistakes you will make.
- nraynaud 14y agoAnd? I would probably fail way sooner, and that wouldn't mean that making a funny departure letter should save my ass if I misled people.
- nemothekid 14y agoclark-kent is right. Hindsight is 20/20. I'm sure we all know Tom Brady shouldn't have made that pass that caused the game losing interception, but its hard to say if you were in his shoes at that point, that you would have done it any differently/better.
- octatone2 14y agoChrome throws a security error up for this site: The site's security certificate is not trusted! You attempted to reach www.jottit.com, but the server presented a certificate issued by an entity that is not trusted by your computer's operating system. This may mean that the server has generated its own security credentials, which Google Chrome cannot rely on for identity information, or an attacker may be trying to intercept your communications. You cannot proceed because the website operator has requested heightened security for this domain.
- naudo 14y agoMy guess is it's because of the way the site is setup on heroku with regards to SSL.
- jacquesc 14y agoI don't understand this error (I get it too). Why doesn't Chrome allow you as a user to understand the security risk and bypass it? Firefox and Safari let me at least continue. http://cl.ly/image/2c1I0U2o3t0I http://cl.ly/image/2c1I0U2o3t0I
- lawnchair_larry 14y agoBecause most users will make a bad decision and continue to condition themselves to ignore security warnings. If, instead, a critical mass of users can't use a website at all, the site owner actually has to fix the problem. I noticed that you said you "don't understand the error" yet you wanted to bypass it. This line of thinking is exactly the problem. I don't mean that in a condescending way. Disabling the last line of defense as a matter of routine is resulting in more and more attacks, so Google wants to move the problem to where it should be - the misconfigured website. The short version is that during a previous visit to that site, it sent an HSTS HTTP header, which is really the only protection there is against SSL stripping attacks. Basically, it tells your browser, "My site will ALWAYS be SSL (and valid SSL) - if I ever tell you otherwise, it's not me, so do not communicate." HSTS is relatively new, so browsers are handling it a bit differently and you don't see it often. A broken SSL chain on a site that did not give you HSTS would still allow you to ignore it.
- sethbannon 14y agoFull text of his statement: (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
- larrys 14y ago"My biggest regrets are the moments that I let a lack of data override my intuition on what’s best for our customers." Otoh Meg Whitman has said something like "if you can't measure it you can't manage it".
- VonGuard 14y ago"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." Wow, that's actually kinda a perfect analogy. I totally understand.
- kurtvarner 14y agoHere's a copy of his statement. -- (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
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- rayiner 14y agoAs a fellow Northwestern grad it disappointing to see him go, but as a lover of Chicago its probably for the best. I'd really love to see GroupOn succeed and help anchor a diversified tech presence in the city. We have some great startups, but you need big public companies in the same way a mall needs a Macys, Nordstrom, etc.
- tptacek 14y agoUnfortunately, at least as I understand it, the center of gravity for tech at Groupon is in SFBA now.
- mattmaroon 14y agoWhy do I routinely see people on the net capitalize the second o? (You're not the first I've seen even today.) Is it like Microsoft, where it used to actually be MicroSoft and people like Mark Cuban still spell it that way out of hipsterish I-was-there-in-the-old-days sentiment? Or do a lot of people just think thats how it's supposed to be?
- rayiner 14y agoI think it's just because the pun "Groupon = coupon" is too subtle to be intuitive to me. I think of it as "group on [to]" which I realize makes no sense.
- wilfra 14y agoYour app crashed from the traffic
- jedc 14y agoJottit is a site that was co-created by Aaron Swartz. (And runs on Heroku, apparently.) Hopefully his co-creator can help bring it back up?
- mmuro 14y agoI was okay with this until the third paragraph.
- ritchiea 14y agoWhy do you hate battle toads?
- dylangs1030 14y agoHeads up, as of this writing, the website is down. I think we accidentally slashdotted the page. Anyone confirm it's not just me?
- mehulkar 14y agoconfirm
- donflamenco 14y agoGroupon has Jeff Holden, who was an extraordinary exec at Amazon in the earlier days. He might be a good fit for CEO.
- porter 14y agoBattletoads: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qor5Rn7glaU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qor5Rn7glaU
- sideproject 14y agoan honest post. I haven't really followed what's going on with Groupon or the whole daily deal space, but good on him for driving the whole world insane with the daily deal craze. Seriously, two years ago, finding daily deals online was EVERYWHERE - it's not easy to start something like that. It's like... Gangnam style for startups!!!
- Cherian 14y ago“My biggest regrets are the moments that I let a lack of data override my intuition on what’s best for our customers.” Are there more insights in this? What do you think are the intuition decisions Groupon took (that’s public) that probably wasn’t against data? It might seem obvious in retrospect, but as a startup founder I’d love to learn in context.
- bcoates 14y agoAgreed, even if it's too sensitive today I'd love to someday hear the real story behind ambiguous statements like that. There's a lasting lesson in there for everybody somewhere.
- goronbjorn 14y agoI saw Andrew Mason speak at Startup School in 2010; the headline of his talk was 'Polishing your turds and GETTING SUPER RICH.' http://www.justin.tv/startupschool/b/272030648 http://www.justin.tv/startupschool/b/272030648
- nhangen 14y agoHow fitting for a man that built a predatory company to be ousted by predatory executives.
- choxi 14y agoI used to work at Groupon, and for all the shit it gets there are a lot of good people working on ambitious problems there and this letter is exemplary of the kind of character that inspired people to work there. Best of luck to them as they try to turn things around.
- photorized 14y agoSorry, I am not buying this. He knows what he is doing.
- pokpokpok 14y agoi too felt that it was very self serving. didn't actually place the blame on himself
- NZ_Matt 14y agoAndrew Warner of Mixergy interviewed Andrew Mason in 2010 while Groupon was at its peak. I haven't had a chance to re-watch it yet but I imagine it'll be a very interesting watch given recent events. Here's the video: http://blip.tv/mixergy/mixergy-groupon-andrew-mason-3852853 http://blip.tv/mixergy/mixergy-groupon-andrew-mason-3852853 And transcript: http://mixergy.com/andrew-mason-groupon-interview/ http://mixergy.com/andrew-mason-groupon-interview/
- brunorsini 14y agoBattletoads is definitely one of the best platform games ever created, kudos for the reference. It's playable on online NES emulators such as http://www.playnes.net/play/107/Battletoads.html http://www.playnes.net/play/107/Battletoads.html
- Volscio 14y agoCheck out Andrew Mason's bio blurb at WSJ. Weird. http://topics.wsj.com/person/M/Andrew-Mason/6435 http://topics.wsj.com/person/M/Andrew-Mason/6435
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- millerc 14y agoDear Andrew, One bad year and a couple missed objectives, and your boss fires you? Looks like you were dealing with somebody who doesn't invest in training his employees... you'll be much happier working for somebody else. Love, an observer
- mattmaroon 14y agoIt's not one bad year. Every year they've had, from a profit perspective, has been a bad year. We just didn't know how unstable the business model was when they were private. By the time merchants had a chance to figure out what selling a Groupon actually gets them (which for most is little more than a huge headache and a loss of money) Groupon was a public company. Groupon built this massive juggernaut on a shaky premise, which is that merchants can sell a Groupon and more than recoup the lost revenues in future business. It's debatable whether merchants will keep selling these at 25% when most lose money on it and seem to get no long term benefit. It actually seems unlikely. Groupon also spent more to acquire users than they made off them, figuring they'd make it up later, much like they were telling merchants. That's why they included the ridiculous ACSOI metric in their prospectus. It's likely at this point that they need to pivot, and they probably just don't think Mason is the guy to do it. Maybe they think he should have done it sooner. The nice thing about Groupon is they're in a great position to do it. The bad thing is it's going to be tough, and what they pivot too is uncertain.
- millerc 14y agoInteresting argument. Seeing as Mason created from scratch a company valued at around $20B using Lefkofsky's seed investment of $1M, it seems to me like a very respectable accomplishment. Whether the current business model is viable and how much they need to pivot if they do, that's hard to tell without walking a mile in their shoes. But if I only had to bet on one horse, I'd pick the one that has a proven record for a "very respectable accomplishment" and give him the tools he need to succeed. If Lefkofsky thought the business was so bad, would he have taken the reigns himself?
- mattmaroon 14y ago
- sk2code 14y agoAnother Steve Jobs in the making. This has happened with Steve as he was fired after founding Apple.
- jedwhite 14y ago"Nothing in his life Became him like the leaving it." King Duncan: Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not Those in commission yet return'd? Malcolm: My liege, They are not yet come back. But I have spoke With one that saw him die; who did report That very frankly he confessed his treasons, Implor'd your Highness' pardon, and set forth A deep repentance. Nothing in his life Became him like the leaving it. Macbeth Act 1, scene 4, 1–8
- redact207 14y agoThe problem isn't the CEO, it's the business model.
- berlinbrown 14y agoI thought the entire concept was kind of confusing.
- skulquake 14y agoOverall Andrew has done a awesome job, from just being a guy with a great idea and taking it to be the fastest growing company in history while inventing a new space is quite remarkable. I think everyone on this board would have liked to hit a homerun like this after only a couple hits at the plate.
- redment 14y agoDoes anyone know how many employees Groupon has?
- BostonCFO2 14y agoGroupon has 11,500 employees
- unreal37 14y agoI'm surprised that there's not more comment that they guy taking over, Eric Lefkofsky, is the "slimy one" that made Groupon such as sleazy IPO, not Mason, for cashing out $1BB+ pre-IPO.
- kamaal 14y agoThis is classy, glorious and full of honor. Me personally, I would love to fail like this someday. The most big wins in my life have come after big failures. This guy is set for something big in life.
- camkego 14y agoWell done. "I let a lack of data override my intuition on what's best for our customers." Isn't it intuition that becomes the problem when faced with a lack of data?
- mrgordon 14y agoIt seems he means that his intuition was correct but wasn't followed for lack of data backing it up
- BostonCFO2 14y agoPrivate companies / IPO research firm PrivCo actually foresaw all this in 2011 pre Groupon IPO. Boy were they right. Just looked up some of the research I read then that made me a believer to avoid Groupon stock and its IPO. A taste, pretty good crystal ball, good solid analysis of the numbers: http://www.privco.com/research/october-21-2011-groupons-3rd-quarter-financials-filed-this-morning-privcocom-analysis-all-key-business-metrics-took-quarterly-sequential-tumble-again http://www.privco.com/research/october-21-2011-groupons-3rd-.... The problem now though: Eric Lefkofsky's Super-Voting Stock (many times public shareholders) means he's still the same guy in control, though now has the CEO title too. So nothing will improve at Groupon. Andrew Mason was only a puppet CEO. Lefkosfky called all the major decisions. IPO investors: boycott ALL IPOs with supervoting stock! This is exactly why! Shareholders should be booting Mason AND Lefkofsky. (Zynga has the same problem: Mark Pincus gave himself 70x-to-1 supervoting stock before the Zynga IPO...stock's down 70% from IPO in barely over a year, yet you can't get rid of him). Don't buy these IPOs. (Also some thing PrivCo and others have advised clients, and I'm one of them.) No matter how tempting the IPO sounds, don't do it. Go on to the next IPO...I'm an active IPO investor, and there are always great new ones on the horizon....just wait for the good ones.
- beedogs 14y ago$25 IPO stock about to become an OTC stock.
- aaronbird 14y agoI love how candid he is in this letter. Good stuff.
- joonix 14y agoI'm curious why he was "fired" rather than given the "opportunity to resign."
- droithomme 14y agoThat's a great letter.
- sfink 14y agoErrrr... I'm not really getting the tenor of many of the comments here. For one, look at what he isn't saying. But start with what we know. He is being fired. That means he isn't leaving by choice, and most likely doesn't want to be leaving at all. He is the CEO, and the CEO takes responsibility for the company's failures. Them's the rules of the game, for any leadership role. He is saying no more than that. In particular, he never says he was wrong. He says he failed to continue being the successful CEO of this particular company. In fact, he somewhat obscurely implied that his intuition was right when what the company did turned out to be wrong. Why do you think the company did those things then? Did he tell it to, or did he lose the battle? This letter was not written to us. It was written to the people at his company. People who are important to him. Which means it probably wasn't written for us either. The speculation that this is wholly a calculated move seem BS to me. All that is just pointing out the known facts and suggesting likely deductions. More speculatively, I'd like to share my interpretation of the tone of the letter: He's pissed. He's pissed but doesn't want to show it. He is staying well in control, writing a decent letter that puts something of himself into it but not too much, not enough to lose face or stir up conflict that could only harm the ones left behind. He's trying to bow out gracefully without capitulating, and I think he did a decent job of it. But this is no "wow, this guy is awesome, I bet he's learned some great lessons and I'd be stoked at the chance to work with him" letter. It's adequate, mainly admirable for hitting just the right level of adequacy when you know the guy probably wants to scream and rip someone or something's head off. He just got fired, dammit!
- awakeasleep 14y agoAnd not just fired from some place he worked at. Fired from a company he put more thought and time into over the past 5 years than anyone even puts into raising their own children.
- codeme 14y agoHe has made his money. Enough to do another startup.
- just2n 14y agoGroupon fires an excellent CEO while Yahoo's new CEO is utterly impervious (for whatever reason) and is getting away with waging a holy war against engineers? What is going on? Can I expect the laws of physics suddenly to invert tomorrow?
- objclxt 14y agoI am not sure that Andrew Mason would be universally described by all as an "excellent CEO"...Groupon's financial performance suggests otherwise.
- just2n 14y agoTo blame a company's success or failure on 1 person is a ludicrous notion. All I've seen from the man indicates that he's a CEO I'd definitely like to work with and then have a beer after work with. To take the failure of a company on your own shoulders in spite of it being a collective group failure or a fundamental failure of the business model is a heroic act. To be so publicly fired for something that arguably no person could have prevented is not something I'd want to experience. OTOH, it's interesting to see how bad the downvoting on HN has become lately. Point out a CEO is good and another CEO is terrible, which seems to be in broad agreement with every other commenter, and get downvoted into oblivion. What's going on, guys?
- Rashmi123 14y agoandrew given a statement about being fired itns nice here i want to give you some information about What Causes False Pregnancy?: http://goo.gl/Q432O http://goo.gl/Q432O
- kgosser 14y agoIt's shocking to me how bad the HN community is getting when I check out of a comment thread every couple weeks or so.
- kvirani 14y agoThis is a true testament to the difference between startup and cube culture.
- alxbrun 14y agoI don't like Mason, but I like this smart, classy, honest message. And he has a great sense of humour.
- cpsales 14y agoGreat, lets hope the CEO of VEVO reads this.