Silicon Prairie News

Last week, Chicago-based Groupon officially launched its Omaha site with a bang! Already featuring deals from Sam & Louie's, Beyourself Boutique, Turning Heads Salon & Spa and more, the city is embracing the site as a way to save on local retailers of interest.

I had a great talk with Andrew Mason, Groupon's founder and CEO, about the history of the local offers service as well as his take on the Midwest's startup culture. Launched in 2008, Groupon is now in 36 U.S. cities and it recently received $30 million in funding from Accel Partners. On top of that, it has a solid board of directors, which includes Jason Fried of 37Signals.

Here's more on Groupon from CrunchBase:

Groupon features a daily deal on the best stuff to do, see, eat, and buy in cities across the United States. By promising businesses a minimum number of customers, Groupon can offer deals that aren’t available elsewhere.

Groupon brings buyers and sellers together in a fun and collaborative way that offers the consumer an unbeatable deal, and businesses a large number of new customers. To date, it has saved consumers more than $93 million* and claims it has generated millions in revenue for the businesses it features.

Groupon originated the concept of using collective buying to get a daily deal on local goods and services, and is an outgrowth of ThePoint.com, an online community launched in 2007 for organizing all forms of group action and fund-raising around a “tipping point” of required participants.

*The latest figure on Crunchbase.com was $17 million while Groupon.com's wesbite currently states $93 million.

Here's an example of one of their deals:

Andrew and his team are producing some amazing results, look for more to come from Groupon as things progress.