Inside Pinterest: From 2009 to Now Into a $1.5 billion business
Startup Type:
Headquarter: San Francisco, USA
Current Status: Active (public since 2019)
Founders: Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra, Evan Sharp
Founded Year: 2009
Investors: Bessemer Venture Partners, FirstMark Capital, Andreessen Horowitz
Funding Raised: $1.5 billion
What Is the business model of Pinterest?
Visual discovery social network where users “pin” images to themed boards; revenue comes from advertising (promoted pins and shopping ads)
How Pinterest got started?
Silbermann, a former Googler, started Pinterest initially as a mobile scrapbook app from a small apartment—an online pinboard idea that slowly gained a devoted niche of craft and DIY enthusiasts
what growth strategy has Pinterest followed?
Focused on user engagement and community, allowing the product to evolve with its core users, relied on word-of-mouth and email invites, eventually reaching critical mass and adding advertising and shopping features to fuel business growth
what are the top products/features of Pinterest
Pinterest platform, Pinterest Ads, shopping integration features
what was the biggest challenge faced by Pinterest?
Delayed monetization for years as the user base grew, which later made it challenging to generate revenue quickly; also had to broaden appeal beyond a predominantly female user demographic to continue growing