As far as I’m concerned Chicago is just a place that your flights get delayed overnight because of the horrendous weather eight months out of the year (that picture isn’t Chicago, but it’s how I imagine it). But one of our star writers here at TechCrunch, Leena Rao, has actually made a voluntary decision to move there.
Why the move? No, Facebook didn’t poach her, although that’s happened to us before. And she isn’t going off to do her own thing, which we’ve had to bear as well.
No, what happened is, Groupon made her husband, Suneel Gupta, an offer he couldn’t refuse. He’s moving from his current job as Director of Mozilla Labs to VP Product Development at Groupon.
I tried everything to get Leena to stay here in Silicon Valley. Pointing out the horrendous weather in Chicago was one tactic that didn’t work. I also suggested she continue to live here and see Suneel on alternate weekends. Which also didn’t work. Outright divorce is apparently out of the question as well.
Luckily though we’ve talked her into staying on and working remotely. We lose a sense of camaraderie with our remote team members, and I’m not happy we won’t have her around at the office. But she’s promised to come visit regularly, so that’s something.
But I’m still hoping Groupon does a faceplant and goes out of business or something, opening the door for Leena to move back here. But sadly their business is exploding (in a good way), and that’s not likely any time soon.
So for now I’ll just say congratulations to Suneel and Groupon, and try not to be too passive aggressive towards Leena.
