In 2008, Andrew Mason launched Groupon using nothing more than a WordPress blog and manual email delivery. No complex marketplace software, no payment processing automation, no fancy deal management systems. Just one simple deal per day sent via email, with orders processed manually. This radically simple MVP validated that people would buy local deals in groups before Groupon invested in building scalable infrastructure.
Ready to Build Your Marketplace MVP?
Apply Groupon's playbook: start simple with manual processes, validate locally, then scale systematically.