Groupon is one of the fastest-growing companies of all time. Less than three years after CEO Andrew Mason launched it, it has more than 7,000 employees, operates in 43 countries, and is on pace to earn more than $2 billion in revenue this year. Its model is simple—it e-mails consumers with discount offers for goods and services in their cities—but it has taken off because previously there were few other cost-effective ways for small brick-and-mortar businesses to advertise to local customers. Mason created Groupon by repurposing technology he'd developed in 2007 to help groups of people pledge to perform some civic action as long as a critical mass of users agreed to take part.
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