In Test of On-Demand Economy’s Durability, Postmates Files to Go Public
There’s nothing more hyperlocal than the on-demand class of startups, which feed off the everyday use cases spurred by a mobile-first world: whipping one’s phone out to order food from a local restaurant (Postmates, GrubHub, DoorDash), hail a ride (Uber and Lyft), or cut out a trip to the grocery store (Instacart, Shipt). Postmates’ founding ingenuity was to apply the convenience of ride-sharing to product delivery. Eight years later, it’s a food-delivery powerhouse, and its value may strike nearly $2 billion.
Which Hyperlocal Startup Will Be Next to IPO?
“[The markets] are probably as, or in many cases, more open to [hyperlocal companies] today, largely because they’re seeing some early success in other models,” said First Analysis’ Todd Van Fleet. “They know it can be done; it’s just a question of having the right model. Whereas Groupon may have created a disconcerting tone across the space, you have had the success of Angie’s List, Yelp and even mobile payments players like Square prove that a portion of the [local business marketplace] can be won.”
Street Fight Daily: Living Social Flush, AOL at Juncture
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.…
LivingSocial Steers Clear of IPO (WSJ)…SOURCE: AOL Faces Brutal Choice On Patch — Close It Or Double Down (SAI)…TripAdvisor Relaunches Local Picks Facebook App, for Restaurant Tips from Friends and Locals (The Next Web)
Groupon Backs Off Offering
The best or biggest deal, assertion, investment or other strategy this week.
Who: Facebook
What: Pulling back on the IPO throttle
This week Groupon said it would cancel the roadshow for its long-touted IPO, which was set to take place this fall and will now be postponed indefinitely.
Groupon to Go Public — And Then Where?
The point of the company that eventually became Groupon was initially to inspire group action around a political or social cause. It was called ThePoint.
The point of Groupon… well, that may yet to be determined. The company, which filed an S-1 today with the Securities & Exchange Commission for a $750 million initial public offering, is known as a group-buying firm offering deep discounts on everything from hair removal to horse rides, complete with clever copy in each offer. It has seen a meteoric rise in revenue, earning $644 million in the first quarter of 2011 alone, up from $713.3 million in all of 2010. It has 83 million subscribers across 43 countries. And, as CEO Andrew Mason revealed this week at AllThingsD’s D9 conference, about half of its 8,000 workforce is in sales. Groupon has some serious feet on the streets…
Square Deal: Payments Startup Passes First Test as Publicly Traded Company
Square made its debut on the public markets yesterday. After its much-commented-on offering price of $9 per share, which some took as a shot across the bow for unicorn startups, the Jack Dorsey-helmed payments firm surged more than 45 percent in its first day of trading. The pressure may be off Square momentarily, but it won’t stay that way for long.