Andrew Mason's Career Evolution
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A story about Andrew Mason, who founded Groupon, got fired as CEO, took an unexpected career turn, and then founded Descript.
"Andrew Mason starts Groupon, which becomes the hottest startup in the world at that time. It was copied by everyone, raised all this money, and went public. Then the world turns against Groupon, saying it's not a good business. It's still a billion-dollar company, but it lost its shine.
He got fired and wrote this hilarious email on his way out saying 'Today is my last day, I've been fired, you probably know why.' Then he takes a year off and creates a music album - a rap album. He wasn't good, but it was hilarious.
After that, he came back with Descript, but it actually started as this walking tour thing. The walking tours were amazing - I bought a lot of them - but it wasn't that good of a business because most people would only do one in their life, if at all. Then he pivoted to Descript, which makes video editing easier by letting you edit video by editing text. It's transformative - they recently raised money at a $200 million valuation."
Shaan Puri
Host of MFM
Shaan Puri is the Chairman and Co-Founder of The Milk Road. He previously worked at Twitch as a Senior Director of Product, Mobile Gaming, and Emerging Markets. He also attended Duke University.