SwBratcher's Posts

The site went from idea to conception in about a month, beginning as a small blog called “Get Your Groupon”. “Get Your Groupon” used a small flash widget originally developed for The Point, featuring a daily deal only unlocked when a certain number of people committed to the deal. The site exploded as has been well publicized; in its 20 months of life, it’s spread to 18 countries, 150 cities, and sells 50,000 groupons a day. They’re currently amassing subscribers at the tune of 1 million people per month.

The best part of the entire interview:

Scott:

What is the “Hallmark after school special” take home message?

Andrew:

Shit that you read all the time. The biggest mistake we made with the point was being completely encumbered by this vision of what I wanted it to be and taking 10 months to build the product, all the while making assumptions on what people want that we then spent the next 10 months backtracking on instead of focusing on the one piece of the product that people actually liked. You’re way too dumb to figure out if your idea is good. It’s up to the masses. So build that very small thing and get it out there and keep on trying different things and eventually you’ll get it right.

If it hasn’t been driven home enough, failure can often provide the types of lessons that lead to future success. The Point swallowed their failure, abandoning their original goal of changing the world through the power of groups and honed in on a small segment of their original idea. They revolutionized deal discovery and amassed a $1.85 billion valuation, all by making things simpler and focusing on what people actually wanted.