Looking at the recent crazy high $15B (yes billion) valuation of two year old Groupon got me thinking about why? What did Groupon do correctly? Are they winning because they were first to market with group online discounts ? I don't think so; Town Hog and Living Social were both founded earlier. I can think of many variants of online couponing companies that have come and gone over the years . What Groupon has done really right and continues to do really right is make a massive investment in outselling and out hustling their competition. OK raise your hands, how many of you have written, spoken, read or heard the words: "We will dominate the markets we enter by being first to market". I have written this phrase into a few business plans and have heard it many times from entrepreneurs. Googles nifty word frequency analysis tool shows that "first to market" increased in usage 400% in the last decade peaking ... Continue reading →
