

Pinterest’s first investor explains the secret to the startup’s success  - bootload
http://mashable.com/2012/03/11/pinterest-first-investor/

======
joedev
Should be titled, "Pinterest's first investor explains nothing."

Not only does he make no offering of a "secret to success", but in reality
says:

'there’s no way to explain how the company that has done no PR, no marketing
and is still operating on an invite-only basis is “captivating so much of the
conversation”'

It's the old bait-and-switch article title.

~~~
bootload
_'there’s no way to explain how the company that has done no PR, no marketing
and is still operating on an invite-only basis is "captivating so much of the
conversation"'_

At first I thought of the article as a Submarine? ~
<http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html>

_"... 'As the app (Tote) was being used, he recognized that women were
grabbing, tagging specific items that they were able to view later when they
got home,' said Cohen. What Silbermann saw was that huge numbers of people
were grabbing items and sharing them with friends. 'He recognized that these
women were sharing their tastes.' ..."_

but the initial idea noticed the above phenomena & rebuilt as a service. The
idea appears to come out of nowhere but it didn't. Hence the mantra, _"connect
everyone in the world through the 'things'"_ ~ <http://pinterest.com/about/>

_"... They want to know how they did it. Aside from what Cohen sees as the
obvious simplicity and elegance of the site, Cohen said Silbermann remained
open to smart people throughout the development process. Early on he engaged
with partners, customers and even designers. “I used to see him in New York
just taking out small rooms to meet with customers ..."_

This is the schlep-work ~ <http://www.paulgraham.com/schlep.html> ...out
meeting with clients to further Pinterest as a new kind of digital version of
a high-end coffee table mag and has the potential place to profit ~
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinterest#Business>

------
elithrar
Pinterest definitely has popularity-and for good reason; it's a well designed
site/service-but "success" has a very broad definition.

Whilst it may be a black-and-white view on things, I don't think it's a
success _yet_. If I were an investor, I certainly wouldn't think so. They have
two big questions over their head:

1) How are they going to turn a profit, without degrading the quality of the
service or UX?

2) How are they going to deal with potential copyright lawsuits and/or DMCA
takedown notices?

------
kfcm
Saw the best explanation in a college newspaper:

Girl: “Do you know what Pinterest is?”

Guy: “Yeah, it’s like porn for girls.”

Girl [blank look]: “What ...?”

Guy: “Girls enjoy that as much as guys enjoy porn.”

<http://www.mndaily.com/2012/03/08/overheard-around-campus>

~~~
fourstar
I'd say it's more like a reddit for girls, but whatever.

------
pedalpete
As I was reading this article I started to wonder how long they had been
working on Pinterest. It turns out they registered the domain in November of
2009, so this is another example of an overnight success taking much more than
just we all probably realize.

------
zaphar
I remember first hearing about pinterest a few months ago then not hearing
anything else for a while. Then all of a sudden a few weeks ago every female I
knew with a few exceptions was using it. It seemed to hit some gender specific
nerve there and just took off.

~~~
rhizome
Pinterest items started showing up consistently in my facebook feed sometime
back in february (at least), so I'm guessing they got a spike in popularity
when they implemented some FB feature, made wall-posting more frictionless
(less permission-based), or some other technical development.

------
benackles
The author clearly doesn't understand the concept of a "social entrepreneur".
Just making something conducive to sharing and socializing is a gross
distortion of the term social entrepreneurship.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't social entrepreneurs creating and managing
a venture for social change, not enabling people to share pretty beads and
sexy dresses.

While the word "social" get's thrown around in every possible way, we are
losing our semantics by labeling any blowout success in "social media" as a
force for positive change. While Pinterest is a very interesting step forward
for creative expression, it is hardly a product of social entrepreneurship.

------
daeken
> “I was Pinterest’s first investor.” That’s a sentence I bet you wish you
> could say.

I don't think I wish that. By what metric is Pinterest successful? Are they
profitable? I don't get it otherwise.

Edit: From <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinterest#Business> they aren't
profitable, and don't seem to have even a remote path towards becoming
profitable as it stands. What here is a success?

~~~
billforsternz
So presumably you're also pleased you weren't the first investor in Google,
Amazon, Facebook or Twitter either. After all becoming hugely popular before
they became profitable was a clear indication they'd never be profitable. No
wait..

~~~
daeken
If I invested in, say, Twitter and you asked me right after they exploded "how
do you feel about this investment?", I'd tell you plainly: I doubt they'll
ever be profitable, but I'll make my money back in future rounds. And that's
what happened, except that they eventually, maybe became profitable (if you
look at the numbers the right way). Pinterest may end up being a brilliant
investment that makes everyone a ton of money, but I find it highly doubtful,
and right now they're hoisting the "Mission Accomplished" banner before
they've even gotten _into_ the hard part. Sorry, but the metric for success in
business isn't getting people to use your product, it's turning that utility
into money. They haven't shown they can do that.

------
Steveism
After taking a gander at Pinterest's Terms of Use I deleted my account. The
legal disaster that is Pinterest's terms is just epic. It's bad for its users
and awful for the sites that had their content pinned. It puts everybody in a
bad spot. I realize they drive a lot of traffic to sites but still they have
some legal issues to clean up.

------
andrewhillman
Honestly, these link bait or bait-and-switch articles should be down voted.
This article is without substance and is total crap. Nothing at all was
explained... rubbish!

------
crowhack
Article didn't say much. Waste of time.

