Groupon's Biggest Deal Ever: The Inside Story Of How One Insane Gamble, Tons Of Unbelievable Hype, And Millions Of Wild Deals Made Billions For One Ballsy Joker

Description

In late 2010, Groupon made an incredible gamble. Rather than take Google's $6 billion buyout offer, founder Andrew Mason turned the search giant down and decided to go it alone. The experts thought he was insane. Groupon was little more than two years old and staffed from top to bottom with twenty-somethings. The wild ride couldn't last, but Mason thought otherwise, and with knowledge of a possible IPO he liked his odds. A discount service that offers a deal a day at local merchants in countless cities in more than forty-three countries, Groupon is the fastest-growing company in Internet history and is as committed to innovating a new model for commerce as it is to creating an office culture and editorial voice based on radical transparency and absurd humour. "Groupon's Biggest Deal Ever" is the exclusive and unparalleled account of the incredible rise of discount giant Groupon and the compelling story of its offbeat founder Andrew Mason as he created a juggernaut of online commerce and ignited a consumer revolution.

Reviews

Advance Praise for "Groupon's Biggest Deal Ever" "Fresh, fun, and exciting! A great inside business story wonderfully told."-Tony Hsieh, "New York Times" bestselling author of "Delivering Happiness" and CEO of Zappos.com, Inc. "By the end of the first chapter, Sennett's nuggets of detail swell into full-blown revelations. "The Time Out Chicago" editor in chief quickly plunges readers into Groupon's boardroom, providing one of the most detailed accounts of how close the founders came in late 2010 to accepting a $5.75 billion buyout offer from Google and why they ultimately rejected it... The cover of Sennett's book promises "the inside story" of the Chicago-based daily deal company that went from tech startup to multibillion-dollar initial public offering in less than four years, and that's what it delivers. Even the closest of Groupon observers will learn a lot. And they'll also hear from company insiders who rarely grant interviews... Through numerous anecdotes and observations, Sennett also captures all 360 degrees of Mason's personality, from his stubbornness and immaturity to his talent, dedication and loyalty... Sennett has provided us with a well-written and revealing first draft of the company's start."-"Chicago Tribune ["Groupon's Biggest Deal Ever"] is the first comprehensive examination of Chicago's overnight Internet star; it takes readers from the company's start, through its almost-sale to Google Inc. in late 2010 to its IPO last fall.-Crain's Chicago Business "The 'insane gamble' referred to in the subtitle is the one in which Andrew Mason, the founder of the Internet coupon site Groupon, turned down a $6 billion buyout offer from Google...Told with an appealingly jaunty prose style (imagine Ben Mezrich but with even more enthusiasm), the story portrays Mason as a plucky entrepreneur, a laid back and politically incorrect school prankster who, on the other hand, is a sharp-as-a-tack computer programmer