[marvin]

I haven't looked at Groupon's numbers in detail, but yeah, I'm inclined to believe that they are overvalued. I certainly wouldn't buy at this price, the downside seems bigger than the upside.

My original comment was a general comment about startup valuation. I've heard so many arguments on HN that seem blatantly incorrect about the valuation of companies that don't have positive profits or revenues, and I wanted to start a proper debate.

[antr]

each company/startup is a world of its own (the market, cost structure, growth drivers, capex needs, scalability, even investors play a key role). generalising on startup valuation methodologies is the wrong way to approach it. all i can say is that i've done quite a lot of number crunching on Groupon, and all valuations do not get past the $2bn market cap.