Best of luck to them as they try to turn things around.
Andrew Mason's statement about being fired as Groupon CEO
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Re: Andrew Mason's statement about being fired as Groupon CEO
#62Full 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…
"My biggest regrets are the moments that I let a lack of data override my intuition on what’s best for our customers." lack of data that overrides intuition? If it was a pile of data I could understand, but lack? That's when intuition come handy no?
Re: Andrew Mason's statement about being fired as Groupon CEO
#63He knows what he is doing.
Re: Andrew Mason's statement about being fired as Groupon CEO
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
Very classy. Keep in mind, though, that it makes is somewhat easier to take being fired in stride when you have a $200 million cushion. He doesn't have to deal with many of the challenges that most newly-fired people do - like finding a job in the not-too-distant future, etc. To be sure, getting kicked out of the company you founded is an emotionally challenging experience, but he can lick his wounds on board a priva…
Getting fired from something you poured your heart and soul into for close to five years, sacrificed relationships, health (+40 lbs), etc., must feel awful. I suspect he really does feel love for many of the people who were in the trenches with him during this time, as he avers in the closing line. Staring at your bulging bank account can only do so much to lessen that pain, at least in the short term.
Re: Andrew Mason's statement about being fired as Groupon CEO
#65Full 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…
Re: Andrew Mason's statement about being fired as Groupon CEO
#66Sorry, I am not buying this. He knows what he is doing.
Re: Andrew Mason's statement about being fired as Groupon CEO
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
The letter opens with the things he sucked at. I don't care that he's nice. I care that he cut through the crap.
Agreed - but I also suspect he's been writing this letter in his head for quite some time.
I don't care who threw the grenade at this point, Mason jumped onto it.
It's a great letter.
Re: Andrew Mason's statement about being fired as Groupon CEO
#68Full 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…
I too enjoyed the honesty here, but how much of that is Andrew's personality and how much is facilitated by the fact that by cashing out early [1] on an 'inside' round he doesn't actually have to work if he doesn't want to? What I'm saying is that I have observed that the honesty someone has about how their last job ended is inversely proportional to their need to get another job. If they really need another job, peo…
Re: Andrew Mason's statement about being fired as Groupon CEO
#69“ 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.
Re: Andrew Mason's statement about being fired as Groupon CEO
#70Here's the video: http://blip.tv/mixergy/mixergy-groupon-andrew-mason-3852853
And transcript: http://mixergy.com/andrew-mason-groupon-interview/