Prompt Cast
The Rise and Success of Pinterest: From Failed Startup to IPO
TLDR Pinterest, a pivot from an early failed mobile shopping app, found success by targeting women through collaborations with bloggers, leading to sustained growth and attracting angel investors. Despite challenges with user growth and expanding outside of its core market, Pinterest's IPO strategy and strong flywheel have positioned the company for potential international monetization and continued success.
Timestamped Summary
00:00
Pinterest is a company that has more users than Snap and is used by 80% of moms in America, and it is a pivot of an early failed mobile shopping app.
06:26
Ben Silverman, the founder of Pinterest, grew up in a family of doctors but decided to pursue a career in technology after falling in love with the internet during college and building various websites and projects, including a virtual eyeglasses try-on website similar to Warby Parker.
12:34
Ben Silverman and Divya move to Silicon Valley in 2006, with Ben working at Google and Divya becoming the first HR person at Facebook, and in 2008, Ben leaves Google to launch his own startup, which initially fails to raise money.
18:50
Ben and Paul decide to start a company called Cold Brew Labs, with Paul as the CEO, and they come up with the idea for an app called Tote that allows users to view catalogs on their smartphones, but struggle to raise money and gain traction.
25:03
Ben and Paul meet Evan Sharp, an architecture grad student with a passion for design and organizing things online, and they decide to work together to build out the feature of saving items for later and organizing everything on the internet, using a grid layout that adapts to different image sizes and prioritizes vertical photos.
31:09
Pinterest launches their new product in January 2010, but initially struggles to gain traction until they find success by targeting women through collaborations with bloggers.
37:41
Pinterest gains traction by targeting women through collaborations with bloggers, providing them with a better platform to showcase their ideas and products than traditional blogs, leading to sustained growth and attracting the attention of angel investors.
43:40
Pinterest's early success can be attributed to the efforts of women like Sarah, Victoria, and Shauna, who played key roles in naming the company, finding product-market fit, and securing investments.
50:14
Pinterest diverged from typical Silicon Valley companies by pausing to build a foundation for hypergrowth, hiring executives from Facebook, investing in women engineers, and experiencing a traumatic monetization experiment with affiliate links.
56:27
Pinterest launched its advertising platform, Promoted Pins, in 2014 and experienced significant user growth and monetization success, leading to a valuation of $11 billion in 2015, but they faced challenges with user growth and targeting a specific market.
01:03:47
Pinterest's IPO strategy of pricing modestly and below the last round, and allowing for a pop in the market, seems to have worked well so far, unlike Lyft's IPO which experienced a lot of initial excitement but has since faced challenges.
01:10:45
Pinterest's consumer product is niche and primarily appeals to women, making it difficult for the company to expand outside of its core market.
01:17:33
Pinterest could have done a direct listing instead of an IPO because they have enough cash in the bank and are trending towards profitability, but they may have raised money to prepare for international expansion or other future spending.
01:24:13
Pinterest has a strong flywheel that drives user engagement and content creation, even though it may not have traditional network effects like other social media platforms.
01:30:45
An A plus for Pinterest would be cracking international monetization and becoming a 20-30 billion dollar market cap company, while an F would be if they can't monetize internationally or if they get their legs cut out by Facebook.
01:37:47
The host concludes the podcast episode by promoting other podcasts, recommending a Bill Gurley talk, and discussing interviews with Alex Rodriguez, before ending with advertisements for Cruso and becoming a limited partner.
Categories:
Technology
Business
