I can understand going through two and half years of no money, pain and self-doubt if you were working on something world-changing. But just another bloody coupon site...
I don't want to be down on these guys. They sound like really nice guys; intelligent, persistent and bright. But, please, no, not another bloody coupon site
Somewhere out there, there is a scuba diving school / cafe / massage therapy practice which does not have any way to turn money into customers into money into customers. If they had such a thing, it would improve the lives of their customers, allow the business to make payroll, and compensate the owners for the enormous risk, investment, and effort they put into the business. Delivering that -- scalable customer acquisition -- is a sexy, sexy problem. The coupon sites are an implementation detail.
I've got one customer who feeds ten families (and probably expanding soon) in the face of the worst economy his business has ever seen because Groupon Works For Us.
I think it's important to make a distinction between businesses that are aesthetically pleasing and appealing to you, and business-in-general that's successful. Lessons from business-in-general can be very useful even if you wouldn't patronize them yourself and it's always nice when people open up about their experience.
Unless a business is actively knowingly hurting people, I think it's good to celebrate business-in-general even if the aesthetics/offers don't appeal to you.
In business, you don't get points for being creative/sexy and win by getting the most points. You win by simply winning. At business.
Seriously, there is no reason to be so negative towards anybody's startup, no matter how "bloody" you think it is. Be happy for other people.
Tetra Pak (who make milk cartons) are worth billions of dollars. The people who make the toilet paper you wipe your ass with will make more money than most of us can ever aspire to! Boring pays the bills.
Now I'm not sure about the sustainability of that business model. Investors seem to pump money into it because of Groupon's "success" but I'm skeptical if the group coupon hype will persist for more than the next 2 years.
I'd squeeze all the money I can out of the groupon thing and prepare to start another startup in some time.
So I guess my point is that sure, we don't need another damn coupon site (we even have plenty of aggregators too) but that's beside the point and I appreciate the words of advice. That was motivating to me.