Groupon

It's 2:35 AM and I have three problem sets, a malloc lab and a ten page paper on Vichy France due soon. Instead of working on it, I do the general procrastinating mix of Facebook, HackerNews and various blogs. Yet, something is different than usual: Groupon's IPO is coming up this friday. Groupon's IPO made me think a lot and the conclusion I draw every time is: This is going to fuck me over.

I should probably elaborate on the last statement.

I like technology. I like making things. I like startups. This is what I want to do. This is what I feel destined to do. It's nothing I knew I always wanted to do, but it's something I ended up with and I am happy and lucky that things happened the way they did. I had the honor of meeting some great people in the recent past (Tristan Harris and Can Sar at Apture and the fellows of the Peter Thiel fellowship) that motivated and inspired me. While I am still in college figuring things out, it is actually the first time I have somewhat a plan of what I want to do with my life.

Anyone who decently keeps up with whats happening in tech is familiar with the amount of money that founders of startups are thrown at these days for just about any idea. It's ridiculous how many social, mobile, local, photo startups get funded with millions of dollars these days. I just read the following article about Aussie startups. While I don't claim any authority about this (since I am just a meaningless college student), I do think we are in a bubble. Sure many people think different and it surely depends on your definition on bubble, but in my view, the amount of money pumped into startups in hope of finding the next Facebook is just not healthy and it is getting worse. My personal favorites are LikeALittle (probably haven't heard of it unless you are college student), Shaker (how the hell did a bar that gets you neither drunk nor laid win TC Disrupt) and Color (doesn't need elaboration).

Is that a bad thing for me? Hell no, it's easy available money. However, returning to the original statement, Groupon's IPO is going to change that. I don't think it's going to be a classical burst, but I do think the implications of a failing IPO of company like Groupon will change the climate dramatically. It's probably going to affect the core tech scene less than the perception of it by the general public. The financial markets are not really in their best shapes, Occupy {insert your enemy here} is still generaloing on and generally the world looks pretty bad. The light at the end of the tunnel was always the tech sector, was always Silicon Valley: the motor of job creation in the US, the best example of how the US can out-innovate the rest of the world (but actually it's just China who we care about). The Groupon will be the same to this bubble as Pets.com to the dot-com bubble: an icon of exaggerated optimism in making the big bets. Given the volatility in the world right now, this cannot mean good things.

I have been making some really bold statements and I am usually not known for flat and generalizing statements, but I fear that if those come true, the circumstances to live my dream will be a lot different. Fuck you Groupon, why can't you just have a sustainable business strategy. Selling coupons is not a billion dollar company, but actually.