Andrew Mason

Mason (right) at the E-G8 Forum in Paris, 2011

Andrew Mason is the founder and CEO of Groupon, a Chicago-based website offering users deep discounts on local businesses. He graduated from Northwestern University in 2003 with a degree in music.

Life and career

Mason grew up in Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh and graduated from Mt. Lebanon High School in 1999. At age 15, he started a Saturday morning delivery service called Bagel Express. After graduating from Northwestern University in 2003, he worked in web design for Chicago entrepreneur Eric Lefkofsky. Mason stopped working with Lefkofsky to attend the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy on a scholarship. However, he dropped out of his Master degree program from University of Chicago only 3 months after it started. Mason also interned and worked at prominent Chicago recording studio Electrical Audio under recording engineer Steve Albini, whom Mason cited as being an inspiration on his work ethic.

Lefkofsky, several years later, provided Mason with one million dollars in "seed money" to bankroll The Point, a now largely inactive web platform, which was Mason's first entrepreneurial venture on the Internet.

The Point eventually led to the idea to develop Groupon. Groupon is a website that sells deals to local businesses. Groupon's website states that since its beginning in November 2008, Groupon has sold more than six million deals. With Groupon taking 50 percent of every deal, plus a small credit-card handling fee, Groupon's revenue is expected to top $350 million by the end of 2010. In late 2010 it was reported by Mashable that Groupon's annual revenue was $800 million.

Many internet sites have now sought to recreate Groupon's business example for their own niches.

On December 1, 2010, The New York Times reported that Groupon was the subject of a $6 billion dollar acquisition bid from Google, which Groupon turned down.