Spradley allows customers to receive discounts if they share their purchase with friends on social media, which we launched live on Carrot 6.

Initially, we thought we were on the path to success, but I later realized that we were not converting users into paying customers because we were too focused on fundraising and PR instead of creating a product that people actually needed.

We initially tried a revenue-sharing model with one customer, but it didn't work as they wanted to attribute revenue increases to other factors.

The worst mistake in marketing is assuming that a discount doesn't need promotion. How a discount is presented can significantly affect its perceived value and effectiveness.

While working at Spradley, we focused on creating a feedback loop to improve distribution for our product, which took us about a month to secure our first paying customer.

We faced existential crises, especially when we realized there was no retention in our early model, leading us to question if there was even a viable business model for grocery delivery.

We started with a freemium model, but realized it distracted us; we shifted to a paid model and consistently increased prices over time, which helped us focus on serious customers.

Many startups that tried to replicate Facebook's model failed because they didn't offer the same value or user engagement.

The biggest mistake I made at Groupon was rationalizing exceptions to our values, which ultimately led to failure in consistently putting the customer first.