Pinterest, Inc.
Related Competitor Intelligence
Compare market positioning with top industry peers
Explore Pinterest
Core profile pages, founders and related research hubs for this company.
Pinterest, Inc.
Compare market positioning with top industry peers
Explore Pinterest
Core profile pages, founders and related research hubs for this company.
Company History
Founded 2009 in San Francisco, California, United States
Pinterest was founded in 2009 in San Francisco, California, United States by Ben Silbermann, Evan Sharp and Paul Sciarra, making it 17 years old.
In 2010, Ben Silbermann, a former Google employee, was obsessed with collecting things. He built a website to let people digitally 'pin' pictures of their collections to a board. The launch was a total disaster. The Silicon Valley tech bros completely ignored it. Desperate, Silbermann started personally emailing lifestyle and craft bloggers in the American Midwest, asking them to try it. He accidentally tapped into a large, completely ignored demographic of women who wanted a place to plan recipes and weddings. The Midwest bloggers completely hijacked the platform, turning a failed tech project into a multi-billion dollar lifestyle empire.
Ben Silbermann is a highly visionary American internet entrepreneur and the profoundly influential CEO and co-founder fundamentally responsible for architecting the massive Pinterest digital curation empire. Operating as an incredibly frustrated product specialist at Google, Silbermann aggressively recognized the massive, deeply psychological human desire to physically collect and visually organize beautiful objects. In 2010, he relentlessly partnered with Evan Sharp and Paul Sciarra to completely launch Pinterest. By fiercely designing a highly aesthetic, massively intuitive digital pinboard interface, he completely revolutionized global image discovery and e-commerce curation. His absolutely rigorous strategic leadership and massive focus on positivity and visual inspiration permanently established Pinterest as an absolute multi-billion dollar titan of the global social media ecosystem.
Evan Sharp is a fiercely brilliant digital designer, highly strategic product architect, and the profoundly influential co-founder fundamentally responsible for the incredibly iconic visual interface of the massive Pinterest platform. Operating as an incredibly talented architectural student who met Silbermann through mutual friends, Sharp aggressively spearheaded the incredibly complex frontend design of the nascent social network. By relentlessly inventing the massive, highly revolutionary masonry grid layout—which allowed wildly different image sizes to seamlessly cascade down the screen without pagination—he completely defined the absolute core user experience of the brand. His absolutely rigorous design execution completely guaranteed the platform's massive virality and addictive engagement, permanently cementing his legacy in modern web design.
Paul Sciarra is an absolutely astute technology entrepreneur, highly strategic venture investor, and the profoundly influential commercial co-founder fundamentally responsible for the incredibly robust early financial architecture of the massive Pinterest startup. Operating as an incredibly capable venture capitalist alongside his Yale classmate Ben Silbermann, Sciarra aggressively spearheaded the highly complex early capitalization and corporate structuring of the company, initially launching a shopping app called Tote before fiercely pivoting to Pinterest in 2010. By relentlessly navigating the incredibly brutal Silicon Valley fundraising landscape during the startup's fragile early months, his absolutely rigorous commercial execution completely ensured the company's survival. His massive financial stewardship permanently established the absolute corporate bedrock of the multi-billion dollar Pinterest empire.
Ben Silbermann, Evan Sharp, and Paul Sciarra officially found the company, developing the initial virtual pinboard prototype.
The platform launches in private beta, struggling initially but eventually finding product-market fit among designers.
Pinterest officially launches paid advertising, allowing major retail brands to sponsor content natively within the visual feed.
Pinterest acquired URX in May 2016.
Pinterest acquired Jelly Industries in March 2017.
Pinterest executes a successful public offering, raising billions to fuel global engineering expansion.
Pinterest acquired Vochi in December 2021.
CEO Bill Ready orchestrates a lucrative, landmark third-party ad partnership with Amazon to heavily monetize international traffic.
In a strategic maneuver explicitly designed to accelerate its critical transition into social commerce, Pinterest acquired THE YES, a sophisticated, AI-powered personalized fashion shopping platform.
To heavily upgrade its core article-saving and content-parsing architecture, Pinterest acquired the beloved 'read-it-later' app Instapaper, integrating its sophisticated backend text-extraction technology.
Attempting to combat the existential threat of TikTok, Pinterest acquired Vochi, an advanced video creation and editing application heavily focused on computer vision-based special effects.
Key historical milestones include: December 2009 founding by Ben Silbermann and team; March 2010 invite-only beta launch; 2012 open public registration; 2015 launch of Buyable Pins and Promoted Pins; 2017 introduction of Pinterest Lens; April 2019 IPO on the NYSE; 2022 appointment of Bill Ready as CEO; 2023 Amazon ad partnership; and 2024 crossing 520M MAUs.
On April 18, 2019, Pinterest completed its IPO on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker 'PINS', pricing at $19 per share, raising $1.4 billion, and achieving a public market valuation of over $12.7 billion.
In 2017, Pinterest unveiled Pinterest Lens, allowing smartphone users to point their camera at real-world furniture, outfits, or ingredients to find visually similar pins, recipes, and products, pioneering real-world visual search years ahead of mainstream adoption.
In 2018, Pinterest became one of the first major platforms to completely ban all political campaign advertisements, prioritizing a peaceful, positive, and non-partisan user experience free from election controversy and outrage culture.
During 2020 lockdowns, global monthly active users surged past 450 million as millions of families turned to Pinterest for home office setups, DIY home renovation projects, cooking recipes, children's homeschooling crafts, and garden planning.
In April 2023, Pinterest signed a multi-year deal with Amazon Advertising, marking the first time Pinterest opened its ad inventory to a third-party demand partner, bringing millions of high-intent Amazon retail products directly into Pinterest search feeds.
In 2024, Pinterest rolled out Pinterest Performance+, an AI-driven suite that automates campaign creation, audience targeting, and creative asset rendering for advertisers, reducing campaign setup time by 50% while lowering cost-per-acquisition by up to 10%.
Pinterest redefined the internet experience: transforming visual discovery from text-based link searches into an intuitive visual search engine, pioneering computer vision for commerce, and proving that a digital platform can thrive by fostering positivity, inspiration, and creativity.