(Though cynical-me wonders how much of it is heartfelt and honest, and how much of it is carefully engineered spin - crafted and chosen by a team of psychologists/marketers. About the only admirable thing about Groupon, at least to me, is their magnificent use of language to persuade and influence both buyers and sellers of Groupon deals.)
I felt it was dishonest when I got to "good fat camp to lose my Groupon 40." It seems he tried really hard to inject humor and trivialities into the letter.
More than once at company meetings, when he turned around and looked at the video projection, he'd mention being startled at how fat he looked from behind.
This is what Andrew Mason was like. He was one of the high points of working at Groupon.
I assume Mason answered that question about ten thousand times before at that point. If the person that asked that really asked it like that, then I have to say it was a poorly phrased, thoughtless question that no CEO would answer. He's hardly a phony for having answered it with a simple, "Yes." How would you actually expect him to have answered that? What's your ideal scenario there? "Nope. We're hosed. Everyone get out now." Would you have wanted to hear all of his strategies for how he was going to make it sustainable? So their competitors could preempt them? Perhaps if the question had been asked in a more thoughtful manner, he would have elaborated in greater detail.
(Though cynical-me wonders how much of it is heartfelt and honest, and how much of it is carefully engineered spin - crafted and chosen by a team of psychologists/marketers. About the only admirable thing about Groupon, at least to me, is their magnificent use of language to persuade and influence both buyers and sellers of Groupon deals.)