Andrew Mason is a 29-year-old music major from Northwestern and appears to be an average guy, save for one discernable feature: he has single-handedly managed to establish the fastest-growing company in Internet history.

Groupon is an online e-commerce website that is racking up astronomical sales making it the one of the most profitable portals for retailers to offer their wares. Mason combined the words “group” and “coupon” to come up with the aptly named Internet company “Groupon.” The website offers online customers attractive discounts for products and services.

Not only did Mason have the foresight to set up operations in an 85,000 square foot warehouse (previously owned by a Montgomery Ward) in the heart of Chicago, but he also took advantage of human resources outsourcing and tapped into a valuable commodity by utilizing a group of talented writers, many from the Chicago Improv scene, to help him take a unique concept and turn into reality.

The witty taglines and clever campaigns have helped the company effectively capture and dominate not only the public’s attention, but also a competitive share of the e-commerce marketplace. Despite its fledging status and the fact Groupon has only been in operation just shy of 2 years, it was recently valued at 1.35 billion.

The call to action used by this young entrepreneur “Act now” is nothing new in regards to advertising strategy in and of itself. However, coupled with the ingenious idea of making purchasing items a team effort by providing the stellar deals contingent on a number of online purchasers following suit by buying the same item on the same day and then executing the concept with upbeat advertising pitches has effectively turned his site into to a retailer’s dream and consumer-driven powerhouse.

The newly made millionaire shares profits with vendors of upwards to 50% of the take which would ordinarily make retailers scoff at such ridiculous profit-sharing strategy; but   selling in bulk is the name of the game and with the site’s over 13 million subscribers Groupon is hitting homeruns with the public as well as with its participating affiliates.

Investors like Digital Sky Technologies, (the group backing Facebook and Zynga) only add to the company’s cache and investors estimate Groupon will surpass 500 million in revenue this year alone. Groupon presently has expanded into 88 US cities and 22 countries including Turkey and Chile.