This is classy, glorious and full of honor.
Me personally, I would love to fail like this someday.
The most big wins in my life have come after big failures. This guy is set for something big in life.
Andrew Mason's statement about being fired as Groupon CEO
121–130 of 201 posts
Re: Andrew Mason's statement about being fired as Groupon CEO
#122Full 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…
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…
I definitely have more money than I had 10 years back, but the feelings I go through when I'm hurt are the same.
Re: Andrew Mason's statement about being fired as Groupon CEO
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
Same. Wow. That guy sounds like someone I'd want to work with in the future.
Agree that the letter is good. But I'm puzzled by your reaction to it. Seems more of a populist "touchy feely aw shucks nice guy". How does that make you want to work for him? He wrote a good letter. What about the things he sucked at? What about the immaturity? The bad business decision. So what he is humble. Some of the business people who are viewed as the most heartless and absolute assholes (by outsiders) can be…
The letter is great -- super-gracious, self-deprecating, funny, self-aware. It makes him look good and makes it pretty difficult for other people to criticize or attack him. But I don't think the letter necessarily reveals (1) his true feelings about anything or (2) whether he's a good guy to work for.
Re: Andrew Mason's statement about being fired as Groupon CEO
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
This has to be one of the most honest dismissal statements I've ever read. Major props to him.
I'm surprised I haven't seen it mentioned yet, but it strikes me as very similar to Conan O'Brien's "dismissal" statement, especially the "People of Groupon" greeting. It's effectiveness is in the plain, straightforward truthfulness and a dash of self-deprecating humor. Refreshing, but also a great PR move. "People of Earth: In the last few days, I've been getting a lot of sympathy calls, and I want to start by makin…
The fact that Conan points out how lucky and rich he is makes his letter a bit better in my opinion. (And let's be frank -- if you watch the film made about Conan's banned from TV tour it's clear he was very hurt by the whole deal.)
Re: Andrew Mason's statement about being fired as Groupon CEO
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agree that the letter is good. But I'm puzzled by your reaction to it. Seems more of a populist "touchy feely aw shucks nice guy". How does that make you want to work for him? He wrote a good letter. What about the things he sucked at? What about the immaturity? The bad business decision. So what he is humble. Some of the business people who are viewed as the most heartless and absolute assholes (by outsiders) can be…
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.
It seems like there might be a lopsided U-shaped curve to the expected benefit of "cut[ting] through the crap." On the left, at zero admission of guilt, is the baseline. It seems that in the middle there would be a diminished return expected when making a qualified or partial confession, but if you can get past a certain threshold (which may not be possible for all people in all situations), the expected benefit shoots back up.
Re: Andrew Mason's statement about being fired as Groupon CEO
#126Well done.
"I let a lack of data override my intuition on what's best for our customers." Isn't it intuition that becomes the problem when faced with a lack of data?
Re: Andrew Mason's statement about being fired as Groupon CEO
#127Another Steve Jobs in the making. This has happened with Steve as he was fired after founding Apple.
Except Jobs and Apple built revolutionary products that changed entire industries. Groupon is a way for people to buy the same old stuff for a little cheaper.
Re: Andrew Mason's statement about being fired as Groupon CEO
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Oh the tears of sorrow the poor guy will shed into his heated swimming pool after being ejected from such a respectable business , with 200 million to his name... I don't think I have been this touched ever since Lassie died.
Because wealthy people don't experience passion. Down with the 1%! #occupy
Re: Andrew Mason's statement about being fired as Groupon CEO
#129Full 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…
Are you serious? Groupon misled investors for years about its real financial numbers, and Mason (along with the puppetmaster, Lefkofsky) made millions off the fake data. The humor in this letter hides the real damage done to investors.
Fake data? Give me a break. Groupon pioneered a new business model. With a new business model you need to account for things in ways they have never been accounted for before. While I'm not arguing their numbers didn't look shady at times, but it's because no one knew how to account for how the cash moved through Groupon's books because no one had ever done it before.
Do you count the full price of the deal as revenue? Or do you count only Groupon's cut of the deal as revenue? How often should they pay out the merchants? How do you account for refunds? Where do you keep the reserve pools Groupon needed to pay out all those refunds? Are the reserve pools considered an asset? Or a liability? How long do you need to hold the reserves before you can be sure there won't be any more refunds?
Management had to answer all of these questions in a matter of weeks because Groupon was growing so fast. It's not surprising they kept changing the way they accounted for things so often. The fact that you think Groupon knowingly misled investors like it's some sort of conspiracy is absurd.
Re: Andrew Mason's statement about being fired as Groupon CEO
#130Private companies / IPO research firm PrivCo actually foresaw all this in 2011 pre Groupon IPO. Boy were they right. Just looked up some of the research I read then that made me a believer to avoid Groupon stock and its IPO. A taste, pretty good crystal ball, good solid analysis of the numbers:
http://www.privco.com/research/october-21-2011-groupons-3rd-....
The problem now though: Eric Lefkofsky's Super-Voting Stock (many times public shareholders) means he's still the same guy in control, though now has the CEO title too. So nothing will improve at Groupon. Andrew Mason was only a puppet CEO. Lefkosfky called all the major decisions. IPO investors: boycott ALL IPOs with supervoting stock! This is exactly why! Shareholders should be booting Mason AND Lefkofsky. (Zynga has the same problem: Mark Pincus gave himself 70x-to-1 supervoting stock before the Zynga IPO...stock's down 70% from IPO in barely over a year, yet you can't get rid of him). Don't buy these IPOs. (Also some thing PrivCo and others have advised clients, and I'm one of them.) No matter how tempting the IPO sounds, don't do it. Go on to the next IPO...I'm an active IPO investor, and there are always great new ones on the horizon....just wait for the good ones.