Eric Lefkofsky is the CEO and creator of Tempus, a leading provider of technology-enabled precision medicine solutions. He is a founding partner of Lightbank, a venture fund that invests in disruptive, difficult innovation firms. He is also the co-founder and Chairman of Groupon, a leading provider of integrated media procurement technology; Echo Global Logistics, a technology-enabled transportation company (NASDAQ: ECHO); and InnerWorkings, a logistics outsourcing firm (NASDAQ: INWK).
He co-chairs the Lefkofsky Family Foundation with his better half Liz, which promotes high-impact activities that improve lives in the networks covered. Lefkofsky serves as a Trustee for Lurie Children’s Hospital, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Science and Industry, and World Business Chicago. He is also the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Organization. Lefkofsky is an assistant lecturer at the University of Chicago and the author of Accelerated Disruption: Understanding the True Speed of Innovation. He left the University of Michigan and pursued his Juris specialist at the University of Michigan Law School.
Eric Lefkofsky: The Fraudulent History
Eric Lefkofsky ran a firm called Starbelly.com ten years before he assisted in the discovery of Groupon, the internet-based daily deals website that stunned some people last week when it filed for an IPO valued at $30 billion. Starbelly, situated in Chicago, was charged with becoming a “B2B” company that provided a commercial center where organizations could collaborate to deliver particular items. In 2000, the organization sold itself to the traditional physical shop Ha-Lo for $240 million.
Starbelly officers expected leading positions within. Ha-Lo, Lefkofsky was the chief working officer, and the organization failed a little more than a year later. Ha-Lo and Starbelly faced multiple class-activity misrepresentation allegations from investors, and one complaint, which was eventually settled, revealed texts Lefkofsky had made to his partners.
According to the court record, he said, “Let’s start having some fun… let’s be crazy… let’s report everything… let’s be ridiculously certain in our gauges… let’s take this thing to the edge… who cares if we get whacked on the journey down… An opportunity to become radical is currently available… we have nothing to lose… “.
A decade later, as Groupon prepares for an initial public offering, the same email continues to surface. The Monetary Times hinted at it in a piece last week, and it has since surfaced in pieces from Bloomberg television (YouTube video) and Fortune.
The email was repeated – to a lesser extent – by statements made by Lefkofsky last week that appeared to violate the SEC’s “peaceful period” guideline for initial public offerings.
“I’m going to be in technology for a long time,” Lefkofsky told Bloomberg on June 3rd, a day after Groupon filed for an IPO, before mentioning two more businesses he was looking for: InnerWorkings and Echo. I’m planning to start some businesses. These are not fraudulent companies. These are excellent businesses. InnerWorkings is good. The echo is effective. “Groupon is going to be extremely profitable.”
Because Lefkofsky used such language during the quiet era, Groupon may be required to re-document for its initial public offering. However, several have expressed concern about the similarities between the explanation and that decade-old email, as well as the lawsuit-ridden business background of Lefkofsky and his old school pal Brad Keywell, who helped to launch Starbelly.com. Groupon’s director, Lefkosky, owned over 22% of the company before its initial public offering. Keywell owns a seven percent interest.
Lefkofsky’s email is a good example of why now is the ideal time. Back then, it’s likely that many people in the tech industry were saying similar things. Furthermore, claims are an undeniable component of continuing to function in the advanced globe. However, Marc Morgenstern, managing partner of San Francisco-based venture firm Blue Plateau Accomplices – who is also a lawyer – tells The Register that potential Groupon investors should primarily consider the organization’s founders’ business history.
Details on Eric Lefkofksy of Tempus Inc
Eric Lefkofsky, Groupon’s chairman, has a long history of financial scandals.
He once sold a startup called Starbelly to a brick-and-mortar corporation that eventually went bankrupt.
In a subsequent claim, an email from Lefkofsky surfaced. In it, he stated: “Let’s start having a fantastic time… let’s become astounding… how about we report everything… how about we be astonishingly certain in our forecasts… let’s take this thing to the limit… on the off chance that we get whacked [sic] on the journey down-who cares… An option to become an extremist is currently available… “We have nothing to lose…”
Years later, Lefkofsky hired a provisional laborer called Andrew Mason.
He discovered a guileless genius in Mason and provided him with the funds to launch what everyone assumed would be a legitimate business.
However, Mason had coincidentally discovered a business with a violently developing top-line (not a primary concern or even a center line), and – so believe the conspiracy theorists – Lefkofsky saw one more chance to be “stunningly certain” for benefit, regardless of whether it implied significant bookkeeping fraud.
So Groupon marketed itself as productive when it wasn’t. It shifted advertising spending to capital expenses. It confused net and gross incomes. Furthermore, it is exactly what it was found doing.
Furthermore, Groupon’s response was: “Oh no, that was a moronic error.” Keeping in mind that the majority of us rubes embraced them, conniving scholars claim Groupon’s kin are “imbecilic like a fox.”
In this interpretation, the reason Lefkofsky requires that Artisan be President is that Bricklayer is young, guileless, and may be prone to guiltless mistakes.
These people accept Google executive Margo Georgiadis’ reason for leaving the company after only a few months: she walked in, looked around, freaked out, and left.
These questionable people would argue that while Lefkofsky and the company may have admitted to distorting principles to get Groupon to the point where it could become a legitimate firm with clean bookkeeping, this is still misrepresentation.
Furthermore, didn’t Bernie Madoff start his Ponzi scheme as a legitimate speculative store?
Conclusion
Just go through the whole article to learn more about Eric Lefkofsky. You’ll also learn more about Tempus’ scandal history.
