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LivingSocial co-founder Aaron Battalion quits

aaronbatalion.com

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Re: LivingSocial co-founder Aaron Battalion quits

#21

Post by alxbrun »

eclipticplane wrote: post #4
lawnchair_larry wrote: post #3

Is anything LivingSocial did something to be proud of? It seems like the majority of those who invested in or did business with LivingSocial suffered greatly. That's fine, sometimes things don't work out, but I don't know why you'd brag about it. "millions of consumers around the world have experienced their local cities because of our products" Sounds like he is reaching, just a bit...

> "millions of consumers around the world have experienced their local cities because of our products" I think its a fair assessment, but not the full story. Millions of people did do things they wouldn't normally do. No way in hell I'm going to pay $200 for a family "dolpin tour" where you usually don't see dolphins, but when it's on LivingSocial (or similar sites) for $50? Sure, why not. Now, whether it was a boon…

Really weird for a dolphin tour business to do a coupon deal... How on earth would somebody become a regular customer of a dolphin tour ?

Re: LivingSocial co-founder Aaron Battalion quits

#22

Post by nchuhoai »

Quite a few commentators on this entry seem to debate whether LS was a "good" or "bad" thing.

The ones debating "good", say it allowed consumers to get great deals, merchants to get coverage, and employees to be employed.

The ones debating "bad", say it caused businesses to do dumb decisions and VC's to do dumb decisions.

All in all, I'd say Groupon/LS was good for the world, because it is exactly to show what happens with these kind of VC-businesses. They need to scale large, and not all of them can become sustainable. Clearly, someone needs to get screwed in the mean time.

We need more profilic failures like Groupon/LS, because obviously the VC model has been the holy grail for quite some time (less so now then lets say two years ago). I don't mean to hate on the VC model (like dhh for example), I like it a lot for many business models. In fact, I liked it for Groupon as well. We just should keep in mind what we are dealing with. Like so many times, information is the key, and the ones that got screwed over are usually the ones that trust blindly.

Re: LivingSocial co-founder Aaron Battalion quits

#23

Post by achompas »

lawnchair_larry wrote: post #15
joonix wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A net negative force on the world? Seriously? How is that? I got good deals, businesses got to try a new marketing method, many did well, some poorly. No businesses were coerced or forced into offering a coupon on LS. I fail to see how they are a negative force or anything worse than a publisher like Yellow Pages selling ads.

If you really don't see how LivingSocial caused more problems than the Yellow Pages, I don't think we will be able to start a discussion. Nobody was forced to buy those mortgages either, right?

To be fair to parent, they may not know about the terrible experience of a local business who works with Groupon, LS, or another daily deals site.

Re: LivingSocial co-founder Aaron Battalion quits

#24

Post by blader »

biznickman wrote: post #7

Why are all the comments so negative on this thread? Aaron has personally contributed a ton to the communities he's a part of and I have no doubt the same goes for LivingSocial. It's a company of thousands of employees and one that most definitely has a massive consumer impact. Whether or not the business thrives or fails, few people on this site can say they founded something with anywhere near as much a reach as LS…

Because it's Hacker News. Nothing gets reported here without half of this community being obnoxiously negative about it, as if we've all could have built something like LivingSocial if we wanted to.

Re: LivingSocial co-founder Aaron Battalion quits

#25

Post by jazzyb »

alxbrun wrote: post #21
eclipticplane wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "millions of consumers around the world have experienced their local cities because of our products" I think its a fair assessment, but not the full story. Millions of people did do things they wouldn't normally do. No way in hell I'm going to pay $200 for a family "dolpin tour" where you usually don't see dolphins, but when it's on LivingSocial (or similar sites) for $50? Sure, why not. Now, whether it was a boon…

Really weird for a dolphin tour business to do a coupon deal... How on earth would somebody become a regular customer of a dolphin tour ?

I would imagine they're hoping the people using the coupons have a good time and then tell their friends about it, and the tour gains more money through word-of-mouth.

Re: LivingSocial co-founder Aaron Battalion quits

#27

Post by jlgreco »

lawnchair_larry wrote: post #15
joonix wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A net negative force on the world? Seriously? How is that? I got good deals, businesses got to try a new marketing method, many did well, some poorly. No businesses were coerced or forced into offering a coupon on LS. I fail to see how they are a negative force or anything worse than a publisher like Yellow Pages selling ads.

If you really don't see how LivingSocial caused more problems than the Yellow Pages, I don't think we will be able to start a discussion. Nobody was forced to buy those mortgages either, right?

Oh, I don't know. Yellow Pages seems like a far more pervasive problem, even if they do lack the severity in harm. Yellow Pages litters their unwanted obsolete crap everywhere. Those coupon startups are worse than littering, but lack the reach.

Re: LivingSocial co-founder Aaron Battalion quits

#28

Post by [deleted] »

blader wrote: post #24
biznickman wrote: post #7

Why are all the comments so negative on this thread? Aaron has personally contributed a ton to the communities he's a part of and I have no doubt the same goes for LivingSocial. It's a company of thousands of employees and one that most definitely has a massive consumer impact. Whether or not the business thrives or fails, few people on this site can say they founded something with anywhere near as much a reach as LS…

Because it's Hacker News. Nothing gets reported here without half of this community being obnoxiously negative about it, as if we've all could have built something like LivingSocial if we wanted to.

[deleted]

Re: LivingSocial co-founder Aaron Battalion quits

#29

Post by steveklabnik »

alxbrun wrote: post #21
eclipticplane wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "millions of consumers around the world have experienced their local cities because of our products" I think its a fair assessment, but not the full story. Millions of people did do things they wouldn't normally do. No way in hell I'm going to pay $200 for a family "dolpin tour" where you usually don't see dolphins, but when it's on LivingSocial (or similar sites) for $50? Sure, why not. Now, whether it was a boon…

Really weird for a dolphin tour business to do a coupon deal... How on earth would somebody become a regular customer of a dolphin tour ?

Exactly.

Re: LivingSocial co-founder Aaron Battalion quits

#30

Post by andyjsong »

incision wrote: post #17
biznickman wrote: post #7

Why are all the comments so negative on this thread? Aaron has personally contributed a ton to the communities he's a part of and I have no doubt the same goes for LivingSocial. It's a company of thousands of employees and one that most definitely has a massive consumer impact. Whether or not the business thrives or fails, few people on this site can say they founded something with anywhere near as much a reach as LS…

I don't see anyone making negative comments about this guy as an individual, just Living Social as a business. Personally, I couldn't find much positive to say about them when they started laying people off back in November[1] and I don't see much positive now. You're right, I can't claim to have created anything with "near as much reach as LS" or as the same "massive consumer impact". However, I can't see what reach…

When you're a co-founder of a business, and someone rags on it, they take it very personally. They might not make it apparent to the public, but they care, a lot.
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