

My interview with Groupon when they were in only 10 cities - timjahn
http://www.beyondthepedway.com/groupon

======
sayemm
Thanks for posting this. One of my favorite clips of Andrew Mason is this one
w/ him before Groupon (when it was ThePoint):
[http://thedreaminaction.com/2010/07/17/my-interview-with-
and...](http://thedreaminaction.com/2010/07/17/my-interview-with-andrew-mason-
ceo-of-groupon-before-groupon/)

My favorite line from him is around 3:20: "I wasn't trying to be a tech
entrepreneur or anything like that, I didn't know about any of that stuff. I
was just a developer."

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Joakal
Could you apply subtitles or provide a transcript for deaf readers like me?

It would be very helpful to following the interview.

~~~
rokhayakebe
Hawaian looking lady

This is my first .....Groupon is Fun. Time.

Someone else: Good

Hawaian looking lady continues (while counting on her fingers) Girls. Here.
Are. Fun and Boys.

They burst out laughing...

Hawaian looking lady continues Love. Wa.Wa.Wi.Wa

(I am not even kidding, this is really what she said)

Music plays for a few seconds until 0:55,

Andrew:

My name is Andrew Mason, and I am the founder slash ceo of Groupon. Groupon is
aaaaa local shopping site, and we feature one deal each day on something to do
in a city across the United States. We started in Chicago back in November,
now in 10 different cities, will be in 30 by the end of the year.

The deals are on everything from restaurants to spas, salons, events
activities,sidekicks, all kind of things, anything that's interesting to do in
a city and we try to find the best stuff out there. And then we have 50% off,
more than that. And the way we get those prices is by this idea of group
buying. Hence the name groupon, group coupon.

And what that means is for each one of this deal a minimum number of people
need to join in order to actually get that deal. For businesses there is no
other way to get a thousand, 3000, 5000, 7000 customers. Guaranteed customers
through your door. An ad on the New York Times is not going to do that, or the
Tribune, or or putting something on the side of the bus or on the ...., ya'
know. None of that stuff is going to give you the same kind of measurable
results.

Shawn Bercuson:

We tested a lot of neat things. Huhhh Real estate, apartment rentals. We've
contacted by a lot of neat companies. The thing a.. We .. We don't really ..We
try not to turn anybody down... People see our model, whether it's hard wood
flooring or ya' know, not the traditional groupon. But we are going to try to
figure out a way to make it work.

We think outside the box and continue to, again, push the limits...And, I dont
know if Andrew already told you this or not, but the mentality we have here is
not why, it's why not. Can we make it work, and we are going to do our best
to.. To try to accomodate anybody who wants to use groupon as best we can.

Mason:

For every city we go into, there is almost like a mini business and the two or
three people that are working on that city, it's like their own mini
entrepreneurship. And they get to go in there and start out with 5000
subscribers on the daily email list, getting a 100 groupons sold a day or
something like that and watch that grow to the point that they are
selling,..ya know.. 2000 and then 3000 a day and then more and more... So
everybody in their own way gets to be engaged in the excitement of the growth
the group is experiencing.

Pawan:

We handle all the calls . We have a 800 number. So we handle all the calls and
the emails to our support at groupon email address. So if people have
questions regarding accessing their groupon or questions about expiration
dates or what groupon is about. We are essentially the voice.. The first voice
they hear when someone contacts the groupon support number.

Interviewer:

Do you get like a lot of questions throughout the day

Pawan:

Yeah. We probably get something like. At least 500, 600 calls a day at least
it seems that way. We receive probably at least same number of emails on a
daily basis. We are quite fast paced. And..we are constantly busy.

Mason:

We try to build a company that we would like to work for and most of that just
means the same thing as being a good person. hmmm. which is you behave the
same way you would other people, companies to behave towards you. Hmm so we
look for people who have that kind of integrity, but it is also people that
are excited by the idea of building a company that feels human in a sense that
they are doing the things that amuse them orrrr that they enjoy and have fun
with

Bob Matteson:

I was actually the first sales guy that we hired at Groupon...Haaaa, back in
October. So I came in on an internship paying me pennies per hour, but haa, I
started basically because I thought it was a cool concept and it had some
legs. Actually I was run in by a friend of mine Shawn who knew I grew up in
Chicago and would be a good guy to kinda think of fun things to do.

Interviewer:

You were the first sales guy.

Bob:

I was the first sales guy.

Interviewer:

How have things changed since that first day you walked in October.

Bob:

Well I did change quite a bit because hmm

I:

Does it rain paper a lot (refering to someone throwing paper at Bob)

Bob:

It does rain paper. See that is something that has changed. So on their 8th
floor it did not rain paper.

Mason:

I came to chicago in 1999 and I've always loved it here and when it came to
start a business it just..There never were a good reason to do it anywhere
else. From threadlist to 37 signals to Everyblock. There is lot of. Everybody
that is doing something is sort of carving their own, their place and doing
their own thing.. and that is something that I really like about the
technology scene here, here in Chicago

Jessi:

I am the community manager here at Groupon. So I run twitter streams, and
Facebook pages. I do press outreach as well so. So some of the time the
twitter stream you talk to is me, sometimes it's ANdrew. You know if you get
lucky. It's a good job, it's fun. I really like it and I am new.

Interviewer:

You've got quite the setup here:

Jessi: Yeah. Exciting. Wheeeeww.

Interviewer: What is your favorite part about groupon?

Jessi: It's a fun environment (then she plays with her hair...maybe she is
lying or she likes the interviewer. Just saying). There is a lot of young
perople, a lot of energetic people so we really. It's always a good time, it
does not really matter. YOu there isn't a bad time. You are always having fun
while...which is not a lot of people can say that about their job.. Cool...

End

~~~
Joakal
Wow, thanks for taking the time to write a transcript with unprecedented
detail!

~~~
rokhayakebe
The pleasure was mine :).

~~~
timjahn
Looks like you beat me to it. Thanks, appreciate it!

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timjahn
As I was checking the referrers to Beyond The Pedway, I noticed Groupon had a
page listing all of it's media mentions including my interview from 2 years
ago.

I figured I'd share it here since it's such an old interview, most folks
coming to my site don't know it exists.

