2011: The year that was

When we started out 2011, we had no idea what the year had in store for us.

A small cluster of us remember ushering the new year in this little space, to a few games of ping-pong and a couple of drinks.

Where our office used to be

We were just a mere group of 8 people then. Humble, homey startup-based organization, we headed out with nothing lesser than the sheer determination to grow the social commerce scene in Malaysia.

If you were with us since the beginning of our journey, you would’ve tuned in to the big news in January when our little homey startup, GroupsMore – joined the exciting Groupon family, the Chicago-based social commerce giant present in over 40 countries then.

What it looked like for us back in January 2010

Little did we know that we have set ourselves on the most exciting journey of our lives – yet.

Some of us were sent around the globe, to meet other world class country leaders.

A couple of us found ourselves in the United Kingdom.

Joel and Anisha in Groupon UK, battling the cold weather. And finding different ways to pose with the localized UK logo.

A few of us took a 24 hour-long flights to the opposite side of the world – Chicago, Illinois – where the Groupon HQ is.

We know the sign says ‘exit’, but this really is one of the many entrances to the Groupon HQ.

That’s Rue. She’s one of our superwomen who still manages to take a still photo of her smiling despite being at the losing end of a battle against the infamous Chicago winds.

Some of the really young, talented and amazing co-workers we have from around the globe

Our own team in Malaysia grew tremendously.

In just a couple of months, our little team of 8 people, in this little cozy home:

…grew to over 100 members.

We knew this house was not big enough to contain all of us, and our mighty adventures to come.

We moved, from that, to this:

A wide space on the 15th floor of Menara Amfirst, with a near 360-degree view of Petaling Jaya and beyond.

We redefined our workspaces, and brought life to a once dusty hall.

While we work hard, we make it compulsory that we find time to have fun.

Amongst many other things that happened in between, we hosted our first ever Graduation – where Groupon employees were confirmed.

Due to the varying sizes and shapes of our skulls, some of us had trouble trying to keep the mortarboard on throughout the entire photo.

While we celebrated many joyous occasions, there were people in other parts of the world who suffered massive losses – homes, lives, loved ones.

In response to the earthquake which happened in Japan, we jumped in to join hands with the Japanese Red Cross Society (with the Malaysian Red Crescent Society as proxy) to set up a deal to collect donations for the victims.

We were humbled, and touched by your amazing effort and generous contributions. A total of RM61,987 were collected for the victims – and we knew this wouldn’t have been possible without your great, great support.

12,330 donations of RM3. To all who contributed, you’re amazing beyond words. Thank you.

Some time in the middle of July we participated in the annually anticipated Urbanscapes.

We had the opportunity to open booths, but we decided to fly a hot air balloon instead.

By the way, have you heard? We also recently helped a young man get on his knee for the love of his life.

Yep. This was the guy who proposed to his girlfriend on Groupon. An audience of over 47k Groupon customers gave him a resounding YES on her behalf.

Hing Seong and his new bride Mei Chen, on our Grouposal.
She said yes almost immediately when she found out.

Edit: Speaking of loves.. one of our colleagues met the love of his life, all over again.

Introducing Hana, our first Groupon baby – the offspring of our fellow Groupon colleague Yacoob.

Never fails to warm our hearts to see this fatherly love.

Along the way, we made a lot of new friends – from our super sporting customers and fans on social media to our business partners.

The officiating ceremony of the Groupon-Maybank partnership.

Each and every Groupon partners – from the restaurants, hotels to the photobook and products deals – have taught us a lot in their respective businesses. Thank you for the opportunity to work with you – you have no idea, but you’ve helped us shape Groupon in many little ways to be who we are today.

Which reminds us: 2011 was a year filled with gratitude.

Apart from our weekly greatitude sessions, we built a greatitude wall.

This wall is our platform to drop little thank-you notes in our colleagues’ envelopes to thank them for helping us, or simply just to say how good they look that day.

We hosted a great deal of parties, too.

Like Halloween.

Christmas.

Our first ever Annual Dinner, where we saw glamorous sides of colleagues we never knew existed.

Some of these people here turn up to office daily in washed up shirts, flip-flops and jeans. We didn’t know how good they actually looked beneath that.

There were many, many adventures which we embarked on throughout the year. Some were big, some were small. While most of them were exciting, many left us lingering in the growing pains any healthy organization would go through – which stretched our limits and gave us great opportunities to learn, unlearn, relearn, and grow.

So to all customers, Groupon merchants, business partners, friends and families:

Thank you for being such an integral part of our exhilarating adventure that was 2011.

Here’s to a more amazing year ahead; filled with exciting deals, laughter, and unforgettable experiences to come.