

Andrew Mason asking for advice on "selling a website idea" (2006) - brandnewlow
http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?440070-Selling-a-website-idea-What-to-expect

======
brandnewlow
Hi, HNers. I've been sitting on this link for about 4 years now. This post on
Sitepoint is from shortly after Andrew Mason first pitched The Point, which
later became Groupon, to investors in Chicago.

On a day when folks are discussing the end of his time at Groupon...this link
shows where it first began and the hopefulness and optimism that comes with a
new project!

~~~
sachinag
I love you Brad. It's so good to have an actual journalist amongst our ranks.

~~~
brandnewlow
Man, I miss reporting sometimes. Optimizing onboarding processes and answering
support requests from Brazil are fun and all, but sharing new stuff with
people is a real thrill.

------
gojomo
See also:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=picnichouse>

Several of Mason's posts at HN were also asking for advice:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=picnichouse>

He didn't get any responses for his queries about...

• "Writing pesky account management e-mails for your site"

• "Is it OK to copy terms of service/privacy policy from another site?"

• "Ask YC: Hiring non-technical ("business") staff?"

• "How do I take a U.S. e-commerce site to Canada & overseas?"

A lesson for HNers: don't be offended or discouraged if no one here responds
to your submissions! Keep seeking elsewhere.

~~~
nsomniact
Sucks that he never got any feedback on some of his submissions but at least
folks weren't negative (usually the case nowadays).

------
jordo37
I don't know if I am blinded by my environs or by the 7 years since this, but
how did the idea of selling his idea and then building it ever sound good?

~~~
Mahn
Chances are he was good at selling things that didn't exist (some people are
very talented at this) + he was lucky to find the right kind of person as an
investor.

------
arbuge
Well "for the time being" turned out to be until today. Worked out pretty well
for his pocket book in any case though, I'd say.

~~~
OGinparadise
Extremely well.

Off topic, the guy that took his place appears to be worse IMO.
[http://www.businessinsider.com/groupons-cozy-deals-with-
lefk...](http://www.businessinsider.com/groupons-cozy-deals-with-lefkofskys-
marketing-logistics-and-law-firms-2013-2)

~~~
contingencies
Excellent and enlightening share. Sadly, this seems to be the norm throughout
the upper echelons of the western system of
democratocapitalismywayorthehighway. Ahh, humans.

PS. Where's paradise?

------
will_brown
Very impressive getting meetings and getting commitments of funding with just
the idea of Groupon and a goal of developing it in 6 months. A guy like that
was bound to succeed, and despite stepping down - or, getting fired - that is
what he did, he succeeded.

------
catshirt
_Andrew: He wants to pour a lot of money into the site and hire me to front
the project for the time being._

 _response: "for the time being"? Extremely bad idea._

haha. yes but apparently mostly no.

------
hollerith
How do we know this is Andrew Mason's writing?

(The page contains no instances of "Andrew", "Mason", "Andy", "Drew",
"Groupon", "coupon" or "the point".)

~~~
brandnewlow
<http://lmgtfy.com/?q=andrew+mason+picnichouse>

~~~
kadavy
Actually, I get better results with <http://lmgtfy.com/?q=picnichouse+mason>

~~~
kami8845
you guys can also share these links without the annoying lmgtfy:

example:

<https://www.google.com/#q=mason>

~~~
alaskamiller
But then you lose scene points for not being condescending enough.

