Groupon and Descript: Andrew Mason

How I Built This with Guy Raz

Guy Raz | Wondery

Business

4.8 • 31.1K Ratings

🗓️ 9 September 2024

⏱️ 78 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Andrew 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 many of the best entrepreneurs, he learned from his failure. Today, Andrew runs a new startup, an audio and video editing platform called Descript. In fact, we use Descript to make this show!

This episode was produced by Chris Maccini with music by Ramtin Arablouei.

Edited by Neva Grant, with research from Kathrine Sypher. Our audio engineers were Maggie Luthar and Robert Rodriguez.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Wunderie Plus subscribers can listen to how I built this early and ad free right now.
0:05.0	Join Wunderie Plus in the Wunderie App or on Apple Podcasts.
0:10.0	I feel like I'm missing out because everyone is either starting a side hustle or becoming their own boss.
0:16.0	And you know what they're hearing a lot?
0:18.0	It's the sound of another sale on Shopify, the all-in-one commerce platform to start, run and grow your business.
0:25.0	Shopify is the Commerce Platform revolutionizing millions of businesses worldwide.
0:30.0	Whether you're selling flaky salt or fine art prints, Shopify selling online and in person
0:35.6	so you can successfully grow your business. Curring all your sales channels from a shop-front
0:40.3	ready point of sales system to its all-in-one e-commerce platform. Shopify even gets you selling
0:45.3	across social media marketplaces like Facebook, Instagram and Tik-Tock.
0:49.6	And thanks to award-winning help and with an extensive business course library
0:53.0	Shopify is ready to support your success every step of the way.
0:56.7	Sign up for a one-pound per month trial period at Shopify.co.
1:00.3	UK slash build or lowercase go to shopify dot co-K. UK slash build or lowercase.
1:03.4	Go to Shopify dot-co-dot UK slash build
1:06.7	to take your business to the next level today.
1:09.3	Shopify dot- but did you know
1:19.1	Shopify powers selling in person too? That's right, Shopify is the sound of selling in person too. That's right Shopify is the sound of selling
1:24.9	everywhere online in store on social media and beyond. Shopify POS is your command center for your retail shop.
1:35.0	From accepting payments to managing inventory, Shopify has everything you need to sell in person.
1:41.0	Connect with customers, in line and online. Shopify helps you drive store
1:45.6	traffic with plug and play tools built for marketing campaigns. From Tik-Tock to
	...

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