“Just build things and find out if they work.”

I think the thing that I’ve learned is that really great people, they actually want to work on hard problems.

I thought Google was the coolest place. People there were so smart and they were all doing these really interesting things. I just felt really lucky to be a part of it even in a small way.

I want Pinterest to be human. The Internet’s still so abstract… To me, boards are a very human way of looking at the world.

Don’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.

I used to wake up and look at our analytics and think, “What if yesterday was the last day anyone used Pinterest?” Like, everyone collectively decided, “We’re done!” Over time I got more confidence.

The companies that I really admire the most are the ones that have a deep visceral understanding of why people use their service, and they figure out ways of making money that are completely consistent with how people are feeling and what they are doing at the time.

I’d never managed anyone before, so I don’t have a lot of experience. But I’m lucky – I have a lot of team members who have a really honest relationship with me.

You 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

As 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.

People say doing a startup is like a marathon. It’s actually a roadtrip at night with no headlights.

I always just want to move along to the next step.

I 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.

I 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.

When Pinterest works well, it helps you find things that are meaningful to you. We want to build a system that helps you do that.

We want the average person to use it and think that it makes the experience of using Pinterest better.

I 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.

Starting a company is a cause, not a job. Once it becomes a job, that’s when you lose

I don’t want to be overdramatic about it, but I’m starting to see a lot of my bad habits get the best of me.

Young people who are just starting out somehow need to let you know they know how to sing.

Now I’m starting to think he wasn’t supposed to be my whole life, he was just this doorway to me.

When I came into the music, I was forced to be a CEO. I was forced to be an entrepreneur; I was forced to… because I was looking for a deal. I didn’t have this grand scheme of starting a record company and then morphing into a clothing empire.

I’ve got a long way to go to being the ultimate best, but I think my time is now. And I’m starting to enter my prime.

I can play with that opportunity or not. This is my right, or poetic license, as someone who is building an artefact of fantasy – this implicit pact with the reader is my starting point.

I’m really not vocal and expressive, but I’m starting to get more comfortable to open up.