Andrew Mason

Andrew Mason is the founder and CEO of the website Groupon.

Andrew Mason grew up in Pittsburgh. At fifteen years old he launched a small delivery business, called Bagel Express: the mark of entrepreneurial spirit is felt very early. In 1999 he moved to Chicago in order to follow classes at Northwestern University and to obtain a Bachelor in music.

But after three months of classes, Andrew leaved for a good reason. He received an unexpected offer from his former boss available to finance Andrew’s ideas. These ideas will debouch into The Point, which will put the basis to Groupon. He had this idea when he discovered he was overcharged on his telephone invoice and he didn’t have any power of negotiation. Then he imagines a website that allows internet users to cluster in order to negotiate and buy at the best conditions.

Thank to a loan of one million dollar from Eric Lefkofsky, Andrew Manson can launch the platform The Point in November 2007. Alas, the website didn’t find huge success.

Quickly, Andrew brings Point’s business model up, he should change something. In November 2008, at 29 years old, he founded Groupon (contraction of the words “Group” + “Coupon”) an e-commerce site based on the concept of group purchasing. This time, the idea is to distribute vouchers already negotiated with small retailer. He sells them at its customers and he withdraws a commission of 50%. The website launched its first offer in October 2008, for a pizza at half price and then many offers are diffused in Boston, New York and Toronto.

Then the site knew an explosive growth. According to a report in Forbes and a report in the Wall Street Journal, Groupon should generate $ 1 billion dollars faster than any other company.

This growth is allowed by many young business acquisitions, for example Citydeal in May 2010, in France, Germany and U.K. Groupon buys ClanDescuento also present in South America in June 2010, then Qpod.jp in Japan in August 2010 and finally Darberry.ru present in Russia. Prior to these acquisitions, the company had bought Groupon mobile technology Mob.ly.

In two years and half the company is installed in over 45 countries, with more than 4 000 employees. In December 2010, Groupon rejects an offer from Google of $ 6 billion in order to acquire the site.

Since 4 November 2011 Groupon is listed on New York Stock Exchange, and the price of its initial public offering at $20 a share.