Dear Andrew "No Comment" Mason: How About a Comment on That Unfortunate New Beard?
That Internet sprite, Groupon Co-founder and CEO Andrew Mason, continued in his quest to be the cleverest little entrepreneur on the Web with a very funny post on the Chicago-based start-up’s blog yesterday titled: “No Comment!”
Mason is well known for his hipster-ironic-cute no-comment responses to the media, such as one he gave the New York Times recently:
“Andrew Mason, Groupon’s chief executive, declined an earlier interview request, adding that he would talk ‘only if you want to talk about my other passion, building miniature dollhouses.'”
Buuuuuurn, NYT!
In his latest rumination on life as a digital celebrity, Mason more fully outlined what he would not comment on, including everything even remotely interesting you might want to know about the social buying company, including:
* Plans relating to capital-raising, including a possible public offering
* Pre-announcements of new products
* Our competitors or the competitive landscape
* Statements on core business metrics, including margins or profitability
* Any projections regarding revenue, growth rates or other financial metrics
*Strategic transactions or partnerships with other companies
Thank goodness any metrics we want about how many discounted stripper pole lessons Groupon has sold in Omaha is on-limits!
Mason–who appears to want to become the Midwestern version of comic Jackie Mason, except Jackie would have taken the $6 billion from Google–is now styling a very scruffy Jeremiah-Johnson beard on this blog post, which you can see above.
BoomTown’s query on that: Why, dear God, why?
Here is Mason’s full “No Comment!” post:
No Comment!
As press interest in Groupon has grown, I’ve found myself increasingly uttering two words that have always annoyed me: “no comment.” We like to be as transparent with our customers as possible, but, just as people don’t walk around naked, there are some things that we as a company don’t talk about (for obvious reasons).
The least we can do is be transparent about the things we won’t be transparent about, which are listed below:
* Plans relating to capital-raising, including a possible public offering
* Pre-announcements of new products
* Our competitors or the competitive landscape
* Statements on core business metrics, including margins or profitability
* Any projections regarding revenue, growth rates or other financial metrics
* Strategic transactions or partnerships with other companies
While we’ll clam up when asked about the above business-y stuff, we’ll always be straight forward about things that affect the experience we’re creating for customers and merchants.
