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Top 100: 11. Groupon

August 30, 2011

Groupon delivers everything the dot-com boom once promised: huge sales and easy profits at minimal startup cost generating monster buzz. The company was founded in 2008 by 20-something music major Andrew Mason and was into the black a scant seven months after launch. According to Forbes, Groupon is on pace to reach the $1 billion in sales mark faster than any company in history, and has even drawn the attention of search engine giant Google. Groupon (a portmanteau of "group" and "coupon") connects bricks-and-mortar retailers with online shoppers by offering unbeatable discounts on products or services for a limited time. Limited as in hours, that is. The come-on is familiar enough. Here's where the novelty comes in: customers get the deal only if a certain number of others shoppers also buy. Oh, and the company offers but one "Groupon" per day in each of the markets it serves. It's deep-discount coupons meets Black Friday shopping frenzy every day of the year.

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