Former Groupon CEO Recording Album Of 'Motivational Business Music'
By Chuck Sudo in News on May 17, 2013 5:40PM
Now-former Groupon CEO Andrew Mason (Photo credit: Johannes Simon/Getty images)
Mason wrote on his blog he’s been going through the “backlog of ideas over the last several years” he’s accumulated and is planning a move to San Francisco to start a new company. (Although he did note he and his wife aren’t selling their Chicago home and will visit often, which could be implied by some that Mason’s hedging his bets.)
Mason also wrote that he’s heading to Los Angeles this month to record a seven song album of “motivational business music” for people newly entering the workforce called Hardly Workin’, although that could simply be Mason pranking us.
Mason explained why he wants to become the Dale Carnegie of the tech sector.
I managed over 12,000 people at Groupon, most under the age of 25. One thing that surprised me was that many would arrive at orientation with minimal understanding of basic business wisdom. "Haven't you read any business books? Good to Great? Winning? The One Minute Manager?" I'd ask. "Business books? Not really our thing," was the typical response. I came to realize that there was a real need to present business wisdom in a format that is more accessible to the younger generation.
Given Mason’s stewardship of Groupon from startup darling to a publicly traded company whose stock was worth $4.46 a share at the time he was fired, one has to wonder if he read those books. Groupon stock is now trading at $7 a share and saw an increase in trading after JANA Partners, an activist hedge fund firm, disclosed an investment in 21.9 million shares of the company’s stock.
But it’s Mason’s album of motivational music that intrigues us the most. What score would Pitchfork give it? Would it be leaked online or be an iTunes or Spotify exclusive? Will it be released in a special 180-gram vinyl edition?