Josh Stevens may win a lot of money -- if he can last a year without spending a dime.
Stevens is the "lucky" winner of an opportunity from Groupon, a popular website for coupons. He's attempting to go without his worldly possessions for a year -- and his home, job and family -- and find a way to make do on nothing but coupons and ingenuity.
Why? For a prize of $100,000.
"I've always been a deal seeker," the 27-year-old Stevens told MainStreet. When he was still in his teens, Stevens convinced each member of his family to join a group phone plan rather than pay for individual phone lines. He has also spent long nights camped outside Best Buy.
"When the Xbox 360 came out, I waited outside the store for at least a whole night and then sold one of them online for $5,000," he said. And why? "I just find it really fun, like a game."
Groupon is an online coupon site that e-mails a discount offer each day to members in more than 40 cities. Recent deals included half off the price of a Bollywood dance course in New York and rate cuts on gym classes in Los Angeles. The catch is that the deals go into effect only when enough people buy the coupon; the model encourages users to forward offers to friends.
Groupon partners with businesses whose services it's pitching and guarantees them a certain amount of cash upfront. So far, more than 1.6 million coupons have been purchased since the site was launched in late 2008.
Nearly 400 people applied for the Groupon challenge by creating YouTube videos explaining why they thought they were the best candidates. Groupon narrowed the field to six finalists who included an unemployed woman who cited her lack of financial obligations as an asset and a butcher with dreams of becoming a photojournalist. Stevens beat them all. "I was definitely surprised and very excited," Stevens said about being selected. At the time, he was waiting tables in a Chicago suburb and applying for MBA programs.
"As soon as we saw his video, we were smitten with Josh. It really stood out from the pack," Groupon CEO and founder Andrew Mason said. Stevens' video features over-the-top scenes in which he uses printed Groupon coupons to overcome challenges, including battling a bear and saving a friend's life.
Stevens' video may have won Groupon's heart, but he still had one more challenge. Each finalist had to visit Groupon's Chicago headquarters and do a trial run, living only on coupons for an afternoon. Stevens hopped on a mail truck to travel around the city, paid for a cab ride with a cookie and a $5 gift certificate, and got a Lego souvenir of the John Hancock Center by giving a "nice lady" a coupon for free admission to the landmark skyscraper. All in all, he demonstrated to the judges what he had always known about himself: He was able to make cutting corners seem fun.
"In the end, the consensus is that Josh was the man who was most likely to survive and be the most entertaining to watch try and do it," Mason said. But Stevens conceded that he's now facing some real obstacles.
He rents an apartment in Chicago, but his lease isn't up until the end of July. "It's difficult on such short notice to find someone to sublease," he said. "So I'm trying to get out of the lease earlier."
On top of that, he's only allowed "limited" visits with his close friends and girlfriend during his yearlong adventure. "It's not ideal, but the rules are the rules."
Continued: The rules are tough
