Because the Dallas, Texas-based Internet retailer predates Groupon, it's not a copycat, so much as a pioneer in daily deals with its motto of "One Day, One Deal." Founded in 2004 by tech wholesaler Matt Rutledge, Woot started out by selling one product, oftentimes a gadget, each day, until it sells out. The next product doesn't go on-sale until the next day, unless there's what the site has dubbed a "Woot-Off," a period of time once or twice a month, where consecutive items are sold one after the other right after selling out. Occasionally, the item might consist of a bag of "Random Crap," a deal so popular that last January's sale sold out in eight seconds with 3.1 million requests.
The huge success of Woot has since resulted in spin-offs geared towards different products and demographics like wine.woot, shirt.woot, and kids.woot, not to mention its acquisition by Amazon last June for a reported $110 million.
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Groupon's Super Bowl lesson
