Andrew Mason's statement about being fired as Groupon CEO

https://www.jottit.com/v5wux/

by robbiet480 • 13 years ago

646 186 13 years ago

sethbannon2• 13 years ago

I've had little respect for the way Mason ran Groupon, but I have immense respect for the way he's handling his dismissal.

larrys5• 13 years ago

"for the way he's handling "

Assumes he wrote the statement and wasn't helped by PR people of course. In that case he gets credit for at least listening to those more experienced than he is.

Can't tell without seeing his reaction in other situations that are similar of course.

ovoxo• 13 years ago

If you've ever seen, read, listened to anything from this guy, you know he doesn't use PR people. Trust me, this is straight from his mouth/mind.

shadowmatter• 13 years ago

"John, I'm just been told that Groupon is announcing my termination tomorrow. If you could put me in touch with a PR person that's familiar with Battletoads, I'd be very appreciative."

bigiain• 13 years ago

Indeed - that's a really well written letter.

(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.)

danilocampos2• 13 years ago

With Mason, I'm assuming phoniness at every turn:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5301302

raylu• 13 years ago

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.

nraynaud2• 13 years ago

A funny goodbye letter doesn't make up for lying consistently to investors since before the IPO. He failed, a lot, he did not have an accident, he failed over a long period and in various ways (ripping off the shops, the accounting trick and the share value/financial results).

He's not a hero for writing this letter, he as to be treated with circonspection, and at best given a second chance under close watch.

clark-kent• 13 years ago

Unless you have been in his position, running a multi-million dollar public company for the first time in your life, you don't know what mistakes you will make.

octatone2• 13 years ago

Chrome throws a security error up for this site:

The site's security certificate is not trusted! You attempted to reach www.jottit.com, but the server presented a certificate issued by an entity that is not trusted by your computer's operating system. This may mean that the server has generated its own security credentials, which Google Chrome cannot rely on for identity information, or an attacker may be trying to intercept your communications. You cannot proceed because the website operator has requested heightened security for this domain.

naudo• 13 years ago

My guess is it's because of the way the site is setup on heroku with regards to SSL.

jacquesc3• 13 years ago

I don't understand this error (I get it too). Why doesn't Chrome allow you as a user to understand the security risk and bypass it? Firefox and Safari let me at least continue.

http://cl.ly/image/2c1I0U2o3t0I

lawnchair_larry3• 13 years ago

Because most users will make a bad decision and continue to condition themselves to ignore security warnings. If, instead, a critical mass of users can't use a website at all, the site owner actually has to fix the problem.

I noticed that you said you "don't understand the error" yet you wanted to bypass it. This line of thinking is exactly the problem. I don't mean that in a condescending way. Disabling the last line of defense as a matter of routine is resulting in more and more attacks, so Google wants to move the problem to where it should be - the misconfigured website.

The short version is that during a previous visit to that site, it sent an HSTS HTTP header, which is really the only protection there is against SSL stripping attacks. Basically, it tells your browser, "My site will ALWAYS be SSL (and valid SSL) - if I ever tell you otherwise, it's not me, so do not communicate."

HSTS is relatively new, so browsers are handling it a bit differently and you don't see it often. A broken SSL chain on a site that did not give you HSTS would still allow you to ignore it.

codewright2• 13 years ago

>I don't understand this error

Is it typical for front-enders in Rails to not know web security / SSL?

sethbannon2• 13 years ago

Full text of his statement:

(This is for Groupon employees, but I’m posting it publicly since it will leak anyway)

People of Groupon,

After four and a half intense and wonderful years as CEO of Groupon, I’ve decided that I’d like to spend more time with my family. Just kidding – I was fired today. If you’re wondering why… you haven’t been paying attention. From controversial metrics in our S1 to our material weakness to two quarters of missing our own expectations and a stock price that’s hovering around one quarter of our listing price, the events of the last year and a half speak for themselves. As CEO, I am accountable.

You are doing amazing things at Groupon, and you deserve the outside world to give you a second chance. I’m getting in the way of that. A fresh CEO earns you that chance. The board is aligned behind the strategy we’ve shared over the last few months, and I’ve never seen you working together more effectively as a global company – it’s time to give Groupon a relief valve from the public noise.

For those who are concerned about me, please don’t be – I love Groupon, and I’m terribly proud of what we’ve created. I’m OK with having failed at this part of the journey. If Groupon was Battletoads, it would be like I made it all the way to the Terra Tubes without dying on my first ever play through. I am so lucky to have had the opportunity to take the company this far with all of you. I’ll now take some time to decompress (FYI I’m looking for a good fat camp to lose my Groupon 40, if anyone has a suggestion), and then maybe I’ll figure out how to channel this experience into something productive.

If there’s one piece of wisdom that this simple pilgrim would like to impart upon you: have the courage to start with the customer. My biggest regrets are the moments that I let a lack of data override my intuition on what’s best for our customers. This leadership change gives you some breathing room to break bad habits and deliver sustainable customer happiness – don’t waste the opportunity!

I will miss you terribly.

Love,

Andrew

larrys5• 13 years ago

"My biggest regrets are the moments that I let a lack of data override my intuition on what’s best for our customers."

Otoh Meg Whitman has said something like "if you can't measure it you can't manage it".

VonGuard• 13 years ago

"If Groupon was Battletoads, it would be like I made it all the way to the Terra Tubes without dying on my first ever play through."

Wow, that's actually kinda a perfect analogy. I totally understand.

dopamean• 13 years ago

Different strokes for different folks.

jacques_chester• 13 years ago

Peter Drucker, actually. Also incorrectly attributed to Deming (who, um, would disagree).

jdlshore• 13 years ago

"If you can't measure it you can't manage it" is a classic management platitude. I doubt Meg Whitman was the first person to say it.

Furthermore, it's completely untrue. Many things that must be managed are incompletely measurable, and almost everything in knowledge work falls into that category. See Robert Austin's excellent "Measuring and Managing Performance in Organizations" for a scientific exploration of the topic. (It's a more accessible version of his Ph.D. thesis.) His insights are applicable to more than just performance measurement.

socalnate1• 13 years ago

This is fantastic letter. If we could all get fired so gracefully.

phillco• 13 years ago

This has to be one of the most honest dismissal statements I've ever read. Major props to him.

tptacek4• 13 years ago

Same. Wow. That guy sounds like someone I'd want to work with in the future.

mattjaynes• 13 years ago

Agreed.

My only previous exposure to him was the awkward/creepy death stare he gave in an earlier interview:

http://allthingsd.com/20110601/see-andrew-masons-amazing-dea... [video]

This letter greatly improves my impression of him. Well done.

lifeisstillgood2• 13 years ago

Agreed, "I failed at this part of the journey"

Yes a few hundred million will make life easier but admitting you failed, up front in a letter you know will be read by everyone you can think of - it takes a certain kind of raw

brianpan• 13 years ago

I'm surprised I haven't seen it mentioned yet, but it strikes me as very similar to Conan O'Brien's "dismissal" statement, especially the "People of Groupon" greeting. It's effectiveness is in the plain, straightforward truthfulness and a dash of self-deprecating humor. Refreshing, but also a great PR move.

"People of Earth:

In the last few days, I've been getting a lot of sympathy calls, and I want to start by making it clear that no one should waste a second feeling sorry for me. For 17 years, I've been getting paid to do what I love most and, in a world with real problems, I've been absurdly lucky. That said, I've been suddenly put in a very public predicament and my bosses are demanding an immediate decision."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/12/conan-obrien-statem...

mnicole• 13 years ago

Regardless of what he did or didn't do with Groupon, I love this letter; it hit all of the points it should have and didn't say too much or too little. The humor, humility and hope really tie it all together.

kurtvarner2• 13 years ago

He's being replaced by Executive Chairman Eric Lefkofsky and Vice Chairman Ted Leonisis. They will serve as co-CEOs until they find a permanent replacement.

Here is Lefkofsky's statment: On behalf of the entire Groupon Board, I want to thank Andrew for his leadership, his creativity and his deep loyalty to Groupon. As a founder, Andrew helped invent the daily deals space, leading Groupon to become one of the fastest growing companies in history. Groupon will continue to invest in growth, and we are confident that with our deep management team and market-leading position, the company is well positioned for the future.

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/28/ceo-andrew-mason-replaced-b...

koenigdavidmj• 13 years ago

Since having two CEO:s worked so well for RIM^H^H^HBlackBerry.

jedc2• 13 years ago

And if I remember correctly, Eric Lefkofsky was one of the investors who cashed out ~$1billion (!) of his Groupon shares during one of their last VC rounds. I'm surprised they were able to do that, but so many people were killing themselves to be a part of the deal that Eric was able to push this slimy deal through. How any rational VC allows early investors to do that is beyond me...

Nothing against the guy (I have no experience with him) but that deal just smelled rotten. So I'm not convinced that these two people are going to be particularly effective replacements/stand-ins.

checker• 13 years ago

No wonder the Capitals have been struggling. Ted's been overextended between them, the Wizards, and the Groupon restructuring.

honestemptor• 13 years ago

Are you serious? Groupon misled investors for years about its real financial numbers, and Mason (along with the puppetmaster, Lefkofsky) made millions off the fake data. The humor in this letter hides the real damage done to investors.

sillysaurus• 13 years ago

Would you back up your claims? This is interesting.

dglassan3• 13 years ago

Fake data? Give me a break. Groupon pioneered a new business model. With a new business model you need to account for things in ways they have never been accounted for before. While I'm not arguing their numbers didn't look shady at times, but it's because no one knew how to account for how the cash moved through Groupon's books because no one had ever done it before.

Do you count the full price of the deal as revenue? Or do you count only Groupon's cut of the deal as revenue? How often should they pay out the merchants? How do you account for refunds? Where do you keep the reserve pools Groupon needed to pay out all those refunds? Are the reserve pools considered an asset? Or a liability? How long do you need to hold the reserves before you can be sure there won't be any more refunds?

Management had to answer all of these questions in a matter of weeks because Groupon was growing so fast. It's not surprising they kept changing the way they accounted for things so often. The fact that you think Groupon knowingly misled investors like it's some sort of conspiracy is absurd.

natural219• 13 years ago

Oh, boo-hoo. If you invest in a company without reading or understanding their finanical reports, too farking bad. That's why you're an investor.

dylangs10302• 13 years ago

It's refreshing to see an exit memo that is so honest. He even put some humor in there, and personal accountability.

Self-deprecating though it may be, I'm sure there are a multitude of factors that he's taking the fall for. CEO's are responsible of course, and he's taking this hit as gracefully as anyone could, but there's no way he could shoulder all of this on his own.

downandout2• 13 years ago

Very classy. Keep in mind, though, that it makes is somewhat easier to take being fired in stride when you have a $200 million cushion. He doesn't have to deal with many of the challenges that most newly-fired people do - like finding a job in the not-too-distant future, etc. To be sure, getting kicked out of the company you founded is an emotionally challenging experience, but he can lick his wounds on board a private jet to a private island.

hyperbovine• 13 years ago

Getting fired from something you poured your heart and soul into for close to five years, sacrificed relationships, health (+40 lbs), etc., must feel awful. I suspect he really does feel love for many of the people who were in the trenches with him during this time, as he avers in the closing line. Staring at your bulging bank account can only do so much to lessen that pain, at least in the short term.

lawnchair_larry3• 13 years ago

I liked how down to earth it was, but also thought that he is probably laughing all the way to the bank.

Perhaps not laughing, and I don't mean he was malicious, just that I'd surely have a bit of a snicker if I had a run that was half as good as he did.

001sky2• 13 years ago

Very classy. Keep in mind, though, that it makes is somewhat easier to take being fired in stride when you have a $200 million cushion.

== Wait what? If you have to say it, it probably aint.

kamaal2• 13 years ago

I definitely have more money than I had 10 years back, but the feelings I go through when I'm hurt are the same.

mseebach• 13 years ago

This is the exact reason you want your CEO to have a good cushion: So you can fire him from one day to the next, or even discuss with him over a longer period of time that he'll have to go, and have as few worries as possible that he's going to take it reasonably well.

ChuckMcM• 13 years ago

I too enjoyed the honesty here, but how much of that is Andrew's personality and how much is facilitated by the fact that by cashing out early [1] on an 'inside' round he doesn't actually have to work if he doesn't want to?

What I'm saying is that I have observed that the honesty someone has about how their last job ended is inversely proportional to their need to get another job. If they really need another job, people position their departure in a way that makes them the victim, if they don't care if they get another job, they are more forthcoming. It may be built into the psyche for all I know.

That said, given that it doesn't matter at all if he's seen as being fired or choosing to leave, I think it was great that he was as forthright about his tenure as he chose to be.

[1] http://articles.marketwatch.com/2011-11-03/commentary/306980...

chc• 13 years ago

Really? It seems to me that a lot of well-compensated but unsuccessful CEOs take the route that Mason pretended to in his first sentence — "I wasn't fired and my departure is completely amicable. I'm just leaving because I suddenly want to pursue new opportunities and/or spend more time with my family." It's sort of like getting broken up with and describing it as "a mutual decision."

dglassan3• 13 years ago

As a former Groupon employee, that's Andrew's personality.

arizoo• 13 years ago

"My biggest regrets are the moments that I let a lack of data override my intuition on what’s best for our customers."

lack of data that overrides intuition? If it was a pile of data I could understand, but lack? That's when intuition come handy no?

bcbrown• 13 years ago

I'm guessing he had an intuition that X was the right thing to do, but there was no data to support doing X.

ErikAugust• 13 years ago

That also leaves me a bit confused.

rz2k• 13 years ago

I was wondering if it was all the made up numbers he's put out over the years, but that hurt investors rather than customers.

vijayboyapati• 13 years ago

Honest and funny. So rare in the corporate world.

cgusto• 13 years ago

+1 for the Battletoads reference. I probably broke a couple NES controllers out of frustration back in the day.

As morbid as it sounds, it is refreshing to see such a painfully honest email. I wish Groupon and Andy the best.

kurtvarner2• 13 years ago

Here's a copy of his statement.

(This is for Groupon employees, but I’m posting it publicly since it will leak anyway)

People of Groupon,

I will miss you terribly.

Love,

Andrew

rayiner2• 13 years ago

As a fellow Northwestern grad it disappointing to see him go, but as a lover of Chicago its probably for the best. I'd really love to see GroupOn succeed and help anchor a diversified tech presence in the city. We have some great startups, but you need big public companies in the same way a mall needs a Macys, Nordstrom, etc.

tptacek4• 13 years ago

Unfortunately, at least as I understand it, the center of gravity for tech at Groupon is in SFBA now.

mattmaroon3• 13 years ago

Why do I routinely see people on the net capitalize the second o? (You're not the first I've seen even today.) Is it like Microsoft, where it used to actually be MicroSoft and people like Mark Cuban still spell it that way out of hipsterish I-was-there-in-the-old-days sentiment? Or do a lot of people just think thats how it's supposed to be?

rayiner2• 13 years ago

I think it's just because the pun "Groupon = coupon" is too subtle to be intuitive to me. I think of it as "group on [to]" which I realize makes no sense.

wilfra• 13 years ago

Your app crashed from the traffic

jedc2• 13 years ago

Jottit is a site that was co-created by Aaron Swartz. (And runs on Heroku, apparently.) Hopefully his co-creator can help bring it back up?

mmuro• 13 years ago

I was okay with this until the third paragraph.

ritchiea• 13 years ago

Why do you hate battle toads?

dylangs10302• 13 years ago

Heads up, as of this writing, the website is down. I think we accidentally slashdotted the page.

Anyone confirm it's not just me?

mehulkar• 13 years ago

confirm

donflamenco• 13 years ago

Groupon has Jeff Holden, who was an extraordinary exec at Amazon in the earlier days.

He might be a good fit for CEO.

porter• 13 years ago

Battletoads:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qor5Rn7glaU

sideproject• 13 years ago

an honest post. I haven't really followed what's going on with Groupon or the whole daily deal space, but good on him for driving the whole world insane with the daily deal craze. Seriously, two years ago, finding daily deals online was EVERYWHERE - it's not easy to start something like that.

It's like... Gangnam style for startups!!!

Cherian• 13 years ago

“My biggest regrets are the moments that I let a lack of data override my intuition on what’s best for our customers.”

Are there more insights in this? What do you think are the intuition decisions Groupon took (that’s public) that probably wasn’t against data?

It might seem obvious in retrospect, but as a startup founder I’d love to learn in context.

bcoates• 13 years ago

Agreed, even if it's too sensitive today I'd love to someday hear the real story behind ambiguous statements like that. There's a lasting lesson in there for everybody somewhere.

goronbjorn• 13 years ago

I saw Andrew Mason speak at Startup School in 2010; the headline of his talk was 'Polishing your turds and GETTING SUPER RICH.'

http://www.justin.tv/startupschool/b/272030648

nhangen• 13 years ago

How fitting for a man that built a predatory company to be ousted by predatory executives.

choxi• 13 years ago

I used to work at Groupon, and for all the shit it gets there are a lot of good people working on ambitious problems there and this letter is exemplary of the kind of character that inspired people to work there.

Best of luck to them as they try to turn things around.

photorized• 13 years ago

Sorry, I am not buying this.

He knows what he is doing.

pokpokpok• 13 years ago

i too felt that it was very self serving. didn't actually place the blame on himself

NZ_Matt• 13 years ago

Andrew Warner of Mixergy interviewed Andrew Mason in 2010 while Groupon was at its peak. I haven't had a chance to re-watch it yet but I imagine it'll be a very interesting watch given recent events.

Here's the video: http://blip.tv/mixergy/mixergy-groupon-andrew-mason-3852853

And transcript: http://mixergy.com/andrew-mason-groupon-interview/

brunorsini• 13 years ago

Battletoads is definitely one of the best platform games ever created, kudos for the reference. It's playable on online NES emulators such as http://www.playnes.net/play/107/Battletoads.html

Volscio• 13 years ago

Check out Andrew Mason's bio blurb at WSJ. Weird. http://topics.wsj.com/person/M/Andrew-Mason/6435

millerc2• 13 years ago

Dear Andrew,

One bad year and a couple missed objectives, and your boss fires you? Looks like you were dealing with somebody who doesn't invest in training his employees... you'll be much happier working for somebody else.

Love,

an observer

mattmaroon3• 13 years ago

It's not one bad year. Every year they've had, from a profit perspective, has been a bad year. We just didn't know how unstable the business model was when they were private. By the time merchants had a chance to figure out what selling a Groupon actually gets them (which for most is little more than a huge headache and a loss of money) Groupon was a public company.

Groupon built this massive juggernaut on a shaky premise, which is that merchants can sell a Groupon and more than recoup the lost revenues in future business. It's debatable whether merchants will keep selling these at 25% when most lose money on it and seem to get no long term benefit. It actually seems unlikely.

Groupon also spent more to acquire users than they made off them, figuring they'd make it up later, much like they were telling merchants. That's why they included the ridiculous ACSOI metric in their prospectus.

It's likely at this point that they need to pivot, and they probably just don't think Mason is the guy to do it. Maybe they think he should have done it sooner.

The nice thing about Groupon is they're in a great position to do it. The bad thing is it's going to be tough, and what they pivot too is uncertain.

millerc2• 13 years ago

Interesting argument. Seeing as Mason created from scratch a company valued at around $20B using Lefkofsky's seed investment of $1M, it seems to me like a very respectable accomplishment.

Whether the current business model is viable and how much they need to pivot if they do, that's hard to tell without walking a mile in their shoes. But if I only had to bet on one horse, I'd pick the one that has a proven record for a "very respectable accomplishment" and give him the tools he need to succeed.

If Lefkofsky thought the business was so bad, would he have taken the reigns himself?

sk2code• 13 years ago

Another Steve Jobs in the making. This has happened with Steve as he was fired after founding Apple.

taphangum• 13 years ago

I doubt it.

djt• 13 years ago

Except Apple was very profitable at one stage.

LargeWu• 13 years ago

Except Jobs and Apple built revolutionary products that changed entire industries. Groupon is a way for people to buy the same old stuff for a little cheaper.

jedwhite• 13 years ago

"Nothing in his life Became him like the leaving it."

King Duncan: Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not Those in commission yet return'd?

Malcolm: My liege, They are not yet come back. But I have spoke With one that saw him die; who did report That very frankly he confessed his treasons, Implor'd your Highness' pardon, and set forth A deep repentance. Nothing in his life Became him like the leaving it.

Macbeth Act 1, scene 4, 1–8

redact207• 13 years ago

The problem isn't the CEO, it's the business model.

berlinbrown• 13 years ago

I thought the entire concept was kind of confusing.

skulquake• 13 years ago

Overall Andrew has done a awesome job, from just being a guy with a great idea and taking it to be the fastest growing company in history while inventing a new space is quite remarkable. I think everyone on this board would have liked to hit a homerun like this after only a couple hits at the plate.

redment• 13 years ago

Does anyone know how many employees Groupon has?

michaelwolfe• 13 years ago

Andrew took Groupon further than 99.99% of all startups will ever go, then went out with a funny, accountable, and humble goodbye note.

If you honestly embrace startup risk and failure, you simply cannot bash this guy.

unreal37• 13 years ago

I'm surprised that there's not more comment that they guy taking over, Eric Lefkofsky, is the "slimy one" that made Groupon such as sleazy IPO, not Mason, for cashing out $1BB+ pre-IPO.

kamaal2• 13 years ago

This is classy, glorious and full of honor.

Me personally, I would love to fail like this someday.

The most big wins in my life have come after big failures. This guy is set for something big in life.

camkego• 13 years ago

Well done.

"I let a lack of data override my intuition on what's best for our customers." Isn't it intuition that becomes the problem when faced with a lack of data?

mrgordon• 13 years ago

It seems he means that his intuition was correct but wasn't followed for lack of data backing it up

beedogs• 13 years ago

$25 IPO stock about to become an OTC stock.

aaronbird• 13 years ago

I love how candid he is in this letter. Good stuff.

joonix• 13 years ago

I'm curious why he was "fired" rather than given the "opportunity to resign."

droithomme• 13 years ago

That's a great letter.

sfink• 13 years ago

Errrr... I'm not really getting the tenor of many of the comments here.

For one, look at what he isn't saying. But start with what we know.

He is being fired. That means he isn't leaving by choice, and most likely doesn't want to be leaving at all.

He is the CEO, and the CEO takes responsibility for the company's failures. Them's the rules of the game, for any leadership role. He is saying no more than that.

In particular, he never says he was wrong. He says he failed to continue being the successful CEO of this particular company. In fact, he somewhat obscurely implied that his intuition was right when what the company did turned out to be wrong. Why do you think the company did those things then? Did he tell it to, or did he lose the battle?

This letter was not written to us. It was written to the people at his company. People who are important to him. Which means it probably wasn't written for us either. The speculation that this is wholly a calculated move seem BS to me.

All that is just pointing out the known facts and suggesting likely deductions. More speculatively, I'd like to share my interpretation of the tone of the letter:

He's pissed. He's pissed but doesn't want to show it. He is staying well in control, writing a decent letter that puts something of himself into it but not too much, not enough to lose face or stir up conflict that could only harm the ones left behind. He's trying to bow out gracefully without capitulating, and I think he did a decent job of it. But this is no "wow, this guy is awesome, I bet he's learned some great lessons and I'd be stoked at the chance to work with him" letter. It's adequate, mainly admirable for hitting just the right level of adequacy when you know the guy probably wants to scream and rip someone or something's head off. He just got fired, dammit!

awakeasleep• 13 years ago

And not just fired from some place he worked at. Fired from a company he put more thought and time into over the past 5 years than anyone even puts into raising their own children.

codeme• 13 years ago

He has made his money. Enough to do another startup.

just2n2• 13 years ago

Groupon fires an excellent CEO while Yahoo's new CEO is utterly impervious (for whatever reason) and is getting away with waging a holy war against engineers? What is going on?

Can I expect the laws of physics suddenly to invert tomorrow?

objclxt• 13 years ago

I am not sure that Andrew Mason would be universally described by all as an "excellent CEO"...Groupon's financial performance suggests otherwise.

just2n2• 13 years ago

To blame a company's success or failure on 1 person is a ludicrous notion. All I've seen from the man indicates that he's a CEO I'd definitely like to work with and then have a beer after work with.

To take the failure of a company on your own shoulders in spite of it being a collective group failure or a fundamental failure of the business model is a heroic act. To be so publicly fired for something that arguably no person could have prevented is not something I'd want to experience.

OTOH, it's interesting to see how bad the downvoting on HN has become lately. Point out a CEO is good and another CEO is terrible, which seems to be in broad agreement with every other commenter, and get downvoted into oblivion. What's going on, guys?

kgosser• 13 years ago

It's shocking to me how bad the HN community is getting when I check out of a comment thread every couple weeks or so.

kvirani• 13 years ago

This is a true testament to the difference between startup and cube culture.

alxbrun• 13 years ago

I don't like Mason, but I like this smart, classy, honest message. And he has a great sense of humour.

Andrew Mason's statement about being fired as Groupon CEO

Related Stories