How Groupon Went From The Fastest Growing Unicorn To Nothing
Well, not completely nothing but a fall of 97% from its peak is quite something.
Everyone knows Groupon as the “coupon” website that offers cheap products and services at discounted rates ranging from massages to pottery lessons. Based in Chicago, this startup was launched in 2008 November.
By October 2010, Groupon was available in 150 cities in North America and 100 cities in Europe. By 2015, Groupon served more than 500 cities worldwide with nearly 48.1 million active customers.
But their backstory of how it came to be is an interesting tale
In 2006, Andrew Mason was doing his music major while working on his public policy’s graduate degree. On one side, he was maintaining a site called Policy Tree that shared political views across various issues, including the view he wrote called “Karl Rove should be fired or resign over the C.I.A. leak.”
On the other side, he was also contracting under successful entrepreneur Eric Lefkofsky.
“He was kind of squatting in their offices” — said one employee at the time
