Andrew Mason Archive

I first met Andrew Mason about two years ago when he launched his social activism site, The Point. Since then Andrew has used the system behind The Point to build group buying service Groupon. It’s like everything old really is new again as I remember the massive number of group buying sites back in the late ’90s. I even purchased my first DVD player from one of them although I can’t seem to locate the receipt to figure out the name of the company.

The basic idea behind Groupon is that there is one item or service for sale each day in each city. Unlike the olden days of the early Web, Groupon uses the power of social media to spread the word about each day’s deal. There’s a catch to Groupon. Just like the DVD player deal I participated in a decade ago, the “deal” has to be fully subscribed to become active.  In looking around a few cities, most of the deals have been over subscribed which is awesome – this means that the people on the deal will receive their goods.

As you can see in the image below, today’s deal in NYC is waxing services for half-off. The most recent deals are all for services including: FreshDirect, Handman services, Pilates classes, mani-pedis and a variety of food items. To see the deals, you are required to signup for their daily newsletter. Of course if you plan to use this method of shopping, it makes sense to receive the newsletter so you learn about each day’s deal.

They are “opening cities” around the U.S. and today have announced the opening of Groupon in Cleveland, Ohio.

Groupon has raised just over $35 million in venture capital funding and is based in Chicago.  The company reports that over 1.3 orders have been placed and that the total savings has been over $64million.