Living Social Chief Executive Tim O'Shaughnessy faces a big question: is he preparing to bring his daily deals company public? I sat down with him at Fortune's Brainstorm:Tech conference.
Though he wouldn't give any clarity on timing of an IPO, he did shed some light on how he plans to distinguish himself from Groupon, to both investors and consumers. And that's an increasingly important task, considering the fact that Groupon's stock has been pummeled, down over 60 percent year-to-date. Did Facebook's disappointing stock movement since its IPO impact his perspective on going public? He says no.
O'Shaughnessy stressed that LivingSocial is more than just a daily deals service. Today it launched "LivingSocial Shop," offering product sales. It comes with Groupon Goods, as well as flash sale sites like Gilt Group and One King's Lane. But LivingSocial will curate its offers for consumers based on all the information it knows about them, based in turn on their purchase history.