Groupon and Descript: Andrew Mason
9 September 2024 - 1 hour 11 minsAndrew Mason was a 27-year-old with a degree in music when he co-founded one of the fastest growing companies of all time: Groupon. Its deep discounts on everything from sushi rolls to plastic surgery soon became a ubiquitous part of life in cities across the world. In 2011, just three years after launching, Groupon had the largest internet IPO since Google, with a valuation of $12.7 billion.
But people began to complain that Andrew was not up to the role of CEO: he was quirky and unpredictable, and unable to navigate the company’s rocket-ship growth and the surge of copycats that threatened it. Soon, Groupon’s revenue slumped, and Andrew was fired from the company he’d started. But like ma...