The Times Tech Podcast

Groupon founder Andrew Mason: “I may not be Jeff Bezos or Jesus Christ, but I've done ok”

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Groupon founder Andrew Mason to talk about his new company Descript, launching his first startup in Chicago in the late 1990’s (4:30), turning it into Groupon (6:15), admitting he was fired (7:40), starting a guided-tour company (9:30), pivoting to podcasting (12:00), but keeping Detour alive (14:00), underestimating potential (16:00), the explosion of text-to-speech technology (17:00), raising venture capital from Andreessen Horowitz (21:30), learning from past mistakes (23:00), not wanting to be a public company chief executive (24:15), why he keeps working with a couple hundred million in the bank (26:30), his worst day of work (28:40), machine learning’s assault on the $10bn transcription industry (32:45), and the horse story (34:50). Hosted on Acast. See <a href="https://acast.com/privacy" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color:grey;" target="_blank">acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.

As The Sunday Times’ West Coast Correspondent, Danny Fortson has witnessed the technological whirlwind coming from Silicon Valley first hand. The Times' Technology Business Editor Katie Prescott has reported on how digital technology is transforming businesses and society around the world. Now, 'Danny in the Valley' meets 'Katie in the City', with a podcast presented from San Francisco and London. Each week sees a fresh interview with pioneers in tech, from the brightest start-ups to the tech giants, as Katie and Danny chronicle the AI revolution. Hosted on Acast. See <a href="https://acast.com/privacy" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color:grey;" target="_blank">acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.