Groupon CEO Andrew Mason’s Last Pre-IPO Interview (Video)

Just about anyone who follows technology has heard of Groupon, but few people have met its young CEO. So here’s a glimpse of Andrew Mason, who alternates between very earnest and very goofy. Perhaps that’s the kind of personality you have to have if you walk away from a $6 billion offer from Google.

At the D9 conference, Mason tried joking with interviewer Kara Swisher about the status of his company’s IPO. But he’s quite serious when he dismisses concerns that his company’s margins will get hammered by a swarm of competitors.

That kind of skepticism comes with the territory, he says. ”When you’re sort of pioneering a new industry, that’s sort of inevitable. It would have already existed if everybody thought it would succeed.”