BACK IN THE BLOGOSPHERE . . . BITCHES!!

I know, I know -- what kind of a person abandons their blog for so long?! Me - that's who. I won't try to defend my excuses as good ones, but they'll have to do. Actually all of my excuses roll up into one fat one - LIFE!

Right around the time of my last post, my first kid was turning 1 and I was coming off my self-imposed hiatus and into a new gig leading the digital practice for GameStop.   From there it was a proverbial roller coaster of sorrow (losing my dad & best friend in August ’11 after almost a year of health issues), change (moving the family to Northern California in September ’11) and pure joy (the birth of our second kid in December ’11).

As amazing of a job as that has been for the last 3 ½ years, one of the unfortunate by-products of the gig was a “no public commentary without prior approval” mandate that made the act of blogging one of process and permission rather than harmless rants and observations.  Aren’t public companies fun?! 

Besides this small bump in the road, the GameStop gig was an amazing opportunity to yet again help a large incumbent leverage its place in the ecosystem (this time in gaming) to evolve its business to one that not only continues its market dominance in its core business but also boldly strikes out into new and adjacent businesses as a path to helping ensure future viability.  In my time there we accomplished quite a bit in a relatively short period of time, taking the companies revenues from sub-$100MM in ’09 to over $600MM in ’12.  I’m extremely proud of what we accomplished there and I look forward to the next chapter in my career, which will continue to include advising and mentoring early stage companies.

So now back to my blog.  The cool thing about reading through your old posts is that you can reflect back on how right on or full of s**t you were about stuff - and I gotta say the shovel is pretty light. One service that I blogged about (Groupon) has had quite an epic ride these last few years, two others (Tunezee and Timebridge) were acquired, another (Rixty) is still chugging along in the games sector and another (The Peek) is pretty much off the grid as predicted.

While this walk down memory lane was fun, I gotta say that the best part of getting this blog post up was surfing through all the stuff that came up when I went onto Google Images looking for an "I'm Back" image. This was the best (and safest) one I could come up with - thanks to whoever created it.

So now that I'm back on the grid I'll do my best post a bit more regularly. Looking forward to seeing what the future brings!

GROUPON - ONE PART DAILYCANDY, ONE PART URBANDADDY, TWO PARTS HAUTELOOK AND A DASH OF THE TIPPING POINT

I don't know about you, but it takes a lot these days for me to really be impressed by a new idea on the Web. So when I came across Groupon (via an ad on Facebook if you can believe it!) and saw what it was all about, I immediately became a fan -- and I'm pretty sure most of you who end up checking it out will feel the same way.

So why the corny title to explain what Groupon you ask? Good question for sure - - - it's partly because I'm cranking this blog post out at 3:3o in the f***in' morning (don't ask!), but really more so because it's the only way I could think of to capture the essence of what Groupon is all about in one sentence.

In a nutshell, Groupon is an online service that offers users a daily deal on the best stuff to do, see, eat, and (most importantly for their business) buy in a handful (14 to be exact) of major U.S. of cities. The geo-specific aspect of their site reminds me of products like DailyCandy or UrbanDaddy - hip and relevant insight into the cool stuff in your city. But unlike these informational-based businesses, Groupon goes a step further by offering users the ability to take advantage of limited time deals (called "flash sales" by the likes of HauteLook and others) being offered by various local vendors. And here's the interesting twist -- users can buy into these limited time offers but their order will only go through once enough other users have also bought the same offer within a certain pre-determined time period (usually 24 hours) -- hence the "Tipping Point" reference.

Take me for example -- in the last week I've already pulled the trigger on two Groupon offers - two one-hour massages at a local holistic spa for my wife for $54 (a 50% savings); and four 90 minute sessions -- which includes a 30-minute golf lesson and 1 hour use of the indoor golf course simulator -- at a place called Players Club Golf in Santa Monica for $30 each (a $320 value). In fact I'm looking at an offer now from Reeder's Barbershop - $20 for a $50 MVP haircut, which includes a haircut, head massage, hand massage, hot towel, nape shave, free beer or soda, your own private flat screen with DirecTV access and, oh yeah, your "barber" is actually an young, attractive woman. The only downside to this offer is that it's limited to 1 per customer - but technically you can buy 4 more as gifts for friends. SEE BELOW to find out how you can win a free haircut!!

I encourage all of you to give Groupon a try - and I'd be surprised if you weren't hooked on it within days like I am! If you do check it out, definitely post comments below letting us know what you think.

P.S. -- I have 2 Groupons for the barbershop offer to give away -- first two L.A. based guys (sorry ladies!) to correctly list the current CEO's of HauteLook and UrbanDaddy in the comments section below will win - good luck!