Groupon: Collective Buying Power

Listed Alphabetically

Peter Barris
Peter joined New Enterprise Associates (NEA) in 1992 and has served as Managing General Partner since 1999. Since joining NEA, Peter has led investments in over 20 information technology companies that have completed public offerings or successful mergers. These include such industry pioneering companies as Amisys, CareerBuilder, InnerWorkings, Neutral Tandem, UUNET, and Vonage. Prior to joining NEA, Peter was President and Chief Operating Officer of Legent Corporation (LGNT) and Senior Vice President of the Systems Software Division of UCCEL Corporation (UCE). Both companies were ultimately acquired at valuations that were record breaking for their time. Earlier, Peter spent almost a decade at General Electric Company in a variety of management positions, including Vice President and General Manager at GE Information Services. Outside interests include serving on the Northwestern University Board of Trustees, the Dartmouth Tuck School Board of Overseers. Peter previously served on the Executive Committee of the Board of the National Venture Capital Association and was also a founding member of Venture Philanthropy Partners, a philanthropic organization in the Washington D.C. area. He has a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from Northwestern and an MBA from Dartmouth.

Kevin Efrusy
Kevin joined Accel in 2003. His background is primarily as an entrepreneur and operating executive. He served two stints as an Entrepreneur-In-Residence at Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers where he started Corio, an ASP/SaaS pioneer which went public on Nasdaq and was acquired by IBM in 2005. Later he built and served as the first CEO of IronPlanet, an online marketplace for heavy equipment with current annual gross sales over $500M. Prior to KPCB, Kevin worked at Zip2 and Bain & Company. Kevin focuses primarily on two areas for investment: consumer internet services and SaaS/open source software. Within consumer services, he sourced Accel’s investment in Facebook, and led Accel's investments in Groupon, Tumri, RAMP, Metacafe, Medio Systems, and Mig33. Within SaaS/open source software, he led investments or serves on the boards of Xensource (acquired by Citrix for $500M), Genius, SpringSource (acquired by VMWare for $420M), Terracotta, Aptana, and Northscale. He also served on the board of BBN Technologies (acquired by Raytheon). Kevin has an MSEE, BSEE, and BA in Economics all from Stanford University, and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business where he was an Arjay Miller scholar.

Mellody Hobson
Mellody Hobson is president of Ariel Investments, a Chicago-based money management firm serving institutional clients and individual investors; she also serves as chairman of the board of trustees for Ariel’s no-load mutual funds. Beyond her work at Ariel, Mellody has become a nationally recognized voice on financial literacy and investor education. Specifically, she is a regular financial contributor on Good Morning America, the featured consumer finance expert on Tom Joyner’s Money Mondays radio program and a regular columnist for Black Enterprise. Mellody is a director of three public companies: DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc., The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. and Starbucks Corporation. In addition, she serves on the boards of various civic organizations including The Field Museum, The Chicago Public Education Fund and the Sundance Institute. Mellody is a graduate of Princeton University where she received her AB degree from the Woodrow Wilson School of International Relations and Public Policy.

Brad Keywell
Brad is a founder of MediaBank LLC, Echo Global Logistics, Inc., Groupon Inc., Starbelly, and several other companies. He is on the Board of the Zell-Lurie Entrepreneurship Institute at the University of Michigan, Big Communications, Warrior Productions, and University of Michigan Hillel Foundation. He was formerly on the Board of Columbia College, as well as the Advisory Committee of the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business Directors' College.

Eric Lefkofsky
Eric Lefkofsky is the co-founder of and Executive Chairman of Groupon. He is also a founder and director of several firms, including InnerWorkings, Inc. (NASDAQ: INWK), a global provider of managed print and promotional solutions; Echo Global Logistics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ECHO), a technology-enabled transportation and logistics outsourcing firm; MediaBank, LLC, a leading provider of integrated media procurement technology; and LightBank, a venture fund focused on helping disruptive technology businesses. Eric serves on the board of directors of Children's Memorial Hospital, the board of trustees of the Steppenwolf Theatre, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Museum of Contemporary Art. Eric is also an adjunct professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Michigan Law School.

Ted Leonsis
Ted is vice chairman emeritus of AOL LLC with more than a decade of experience in global Internet services and media at AOL, where he also served as vice chairman and president of several business units. In addition to his work at AOL, Leonsis is the majority owner of the National Hockey League's Washington Capitals and the Women's National Basketball Association's Washington Mystics. He is also the producer of "Nanking," a documentary film that made its premiere at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.

Andrew Mason
Andrew Mason is the founder of Groupon as well as The Point, the collective action platform from which Groupon was born. Andrew's mostly unremarkable existence began in Pittsburgh, PA; he moved to Chicago in 1999 to attend Northwestern University, where he lives today with his girlfriend and over 20 cats. Andrew graduated with a degree in music, the uselessness of which served as a chief inspiration to not be useless. Out of college, Andrew became a software developer by no ambition of his own, but via a series of acquaintances offering to give him money to do incrementally harder stuff on computers. Excited by the power of technology to change the world, Andrew developed Policy Tree, a policy debate visualization tool, and won a scholarship to attend the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy in 2006. In school for only 3 months, the flighty Andrew dropped out after receiving an unexpected offer to fund the idea that would become The Point. The Point, a ground-breaking approach to online collective action and fundraising, launched in November 2007. One year later, Andrew founded Groupon, leveraging the collective buying technology of The Point to make it easier (and cheaper) to experience all the great stuff in Chicago. At various points in his life, Andrew has also started businesses to deliver bagels as if they were newspapers, and sell muffins with cranberries that he found in his backyard to people living on his street.

Howard Schultz
It all started with a cup of coffee. Howard Schultz, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Starbucks Coffee Company, first walked into Starbucks in Seattle's Pike Place Market in 1981. Howard was drawn into conversation with these connoisseurs who took great care in not only finding and roasting the highest quality coffee, but also sharing their passion with others. Drawn to Seattle and its extraordinary coffee culture, Howard moved from his native New York and joined Starbucks in 1982 as director of operations and marketing when Starbucks had four stores. In 1983, Howard traveled to Italy and was captivated by Italian coffee bars and the romance of the coffee experience. He had a vision to bring the Italian coffeehouse tradition back to Seattle, creating a third place between work and home. In order to pursue this dream, Howard left Starbucks to start his own coffee company called Il Giornale and returned in August 1987 to purchase Starbucks with the help of local investors. Howard went on to create two landmark programs for Starbucks partners (employees): comprehensive health coverage for part-time partners and equity in the company in the form of stock options. From that foundation, Starbucks has grown to more than 16,000 stores in neighborhoods around the world. What remains the same from that first cup of coffee: a connection, a conversation, and a sense of community.