Grouper
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Grouper, founded in New York in 2011 by Michael Waxman and Tom Brown, was an invite-only online social club for group dating. Using data gathered from Facebook profiles (age, career, education) plus algorithms and human curation, it matched two individuals and asked each to bring two friends, forming outings of six ("Groupers") at reserved tables across 25 cities, with a complimentary first round of drinks included in the service fee. The company was a Y Combinator Winter 2012 graduate.
02 / Grouper FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
No detailed public account of why Grouper shut down was found. Signs of decline preceded the October 2016 shutdown: in 2014 the company shuttered its international operations and laid off staff in the U.S. and abroad, and founder Michael Waxman later described the business as being in an unrecoverable tailspin.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Product or service closed
Grouper shut down international operations and fired a portion of staff overseas and in the U.S.; London listed as no longer offered.
- Operations ended
lists Defunct 1 Oct 2016 and states the company shut down in October 2016 (NYC group-dating social club founded 2011 by Michael Waxman/Tom Brown).
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
Michael Waxman and Tom Brown founded Grouper in New York in 2011 as an invite-only online social club for group dating.
- 02
The Y Combinator Winter 2012 graduate expanded to 25 cities, matching two trios of friends for outings with a complimentary first round of drinks.
- 03
In 2014 Grouper shut down its international operations and laid off staff.
- 04
In October 2016 the company shut down.