There’s a lot of pressure to look like the last company that was successful.
BEN SILBERMANNThere’s a lot of pressure to look like the last company that was successful.
BEN SILBERMANNYou think you’re going to Toledo but you’re actually going to Miami and you might not have enough gas so you might need to buy gas from someone who might take you out if you aren’t driving well
BEN SILBERMANNJust build things and find out if they work.
BEN SILBERMANNI was obsessed with this idea that these things that you collect, they just say so much about who you are. I can’t say it came from hard-nosed business analysis… It was just something I really want to see built.
BEN SILBERMANNDon’t take too much advice.
BEN SILBERMANNI always just want to move along to the next step.
BEN SILBERMANNI use Pinterest for everything. Book collections, trips, hobbies. It’s all there. I planned my wedding on it. When I had a kid, I planned all his stuff on it. So it was nice to discover that I wasn’t the only one.
BEN SILBERMANNIf Google teaches you anything, it’s that small ideas can be big.
BEN SILBERMANNI kind of think of engineering like the chefs at a restaurant. Nobody’s going to deny chefs are integrally important, but there’s also so many other people who contribute to a great meal.
BEN SILBERMANNWhen Pinterest works well, it helps you find things that are meaningful to you. We want to build a system that helps you do that.
BEN SILBERMANNPeople say doing a startup is like a marathon. It’s actually a roadtrip at night with no headlights.
BEN SILBERMANNWe’re trying to do something so that when the average person uses Pinterest, it has to make the service better.
BEN SILBERMANNAs a kid, I always idolized entrepreneurs. I thought they were cool people in the way that I thought basketball players were cool people. It’s cool that some people get paid to dunk basketballs, but I’m not one of those people.
BEN SILBERMANNI want Pinterest to be human. The Internet’s still so abstract… To me, boards are a very human way of looking at the world.
BEN SILBERMANNWe want the average person to use it and think that it makes the experience of using Pinterest better.
BEN SILBERMANNDon’t take too much advice. Most people who have a lot of advice to give ~ with a few exceptions ~ generalize whatever they did. Don’t over-analyze everything. I myself have been guilty of over-thinking problems. Just build things and find out if they work.
BEN SILBERMANN