Groupon's dismissal as a "terrible business" reminds me of Kozmo. Kozmo was another "terrible business". Delivery in an hour of food, videos, electronics. Grew way too fast. Spent all their money, and couldn't profit. But if you looked at it in detail, they were making profit in some of their locations. Of course, some of their expansion made no sense. They did grow too fast. But the business? Now we have instacart, postmates, Amazon Prime Now, Peapod, and more making this model work of fast, local, delivery.

There's a bunch of comments in this thread already - and really in every conversation of Groupon - about how it's "terrible business". And Groupon does have a lot of bad things going on, no doubt. But dismissing its entire business model is a sure way to miss some of the things we can learn to apply to our own businesses.

Yes, there's a ton of business where Groupon has made no sense, and maybe even helped those small businesses go bankrupt. It's a really dangerous sword to wield when you share a massive discount. But there's some really interesting parts of the product and business that have worked. There's probably some great things to learn for the next person who wants to build a company that helps promote local small businesses. Be careful not to throw out the baby with the bathwater.