The following is a letter from Andrew Mason, CEO of Groupon. It addresses potential investors to their IPO. Maybe I’m getting old and cranky, but some of these guys are incredibly flip about the social impact of their Internet ventures.
Category: Business
Remaking the Office
We had some water leakage issues a few weeks ago and have taken the opportunity to restore our office after ten years of constant use. The process has us deciding what is useful and what is not…also, what to store as historically relevant and what to recycle, trash, use as firestarter, etc.
One of the interesting discoveries was the transcript from the meeting we had on April 2, 2002 to ‘design’ a new venture…what would become EcoAsset Markets, Inc. It was a helpful and resourceful group of entrepreneurs – folks from SAIC, E2Value Real Estate Appraisal, TNC, FirstSearch Environmental Data, an investment advisor, etc. Ten of us ‘thought’ of EAM by the time we had lunch…it was exciting.
Building a new venture in a nascient economy is a bit like remaking the office…sorting through all that has come before to determine what has value to the future. As in the office, we’ve tried to respect and continue to use what is practical and productive…even if it is old. That includes ‘ancient’ software that is ten years old as well as a dictionary stand that is three hundred years old (I still prefer using the paper dictionary to spellcheck…somehow it connects me to the ‘root’ of the word).
This is the first opportunity for lengthy work at the computer since last Wednesday. I notice in the financial news that GM is running out of cash. The auto industry is ‘product bankrupt’ and looks to be approaching financial bankrupcy. They could use an office remake!
Watch Walmart Grow
The Michalenka Plan
Our CPA, Henry Michalenka, has been helping households, individuals, and small businesses for thirty years. He’s honest, smart, and…from years of dealing with every financial entity on the planet…cynically funny.
Hank has an alternative plan to the Bush Administration bailout.
The Michalenka Plan will give the $700 B to American households (he figures it would be $10,000 to $15,000 per household). He will let the market decide what to do with the banks…which most likely means bankruptcy and reorganization. Stocks will further deteriorate….people will re-evaluate which investments (and people) are investment worthy…folks will buy back in to new companies at low P/Es.
The market will recover with money being invested in better companies with more responsible management.
P.S. About the credit crunch that so worries Mr. Paulson…don’t forget that retail banks still have significant good mortgages and accounts.
Richard Pace 