Geek of the Week: Ben Silbermann, CEO of Pinterest
CEO of Pinterest Incorporations, a social media web and mobile application, Ben Silbermann is an internet entrepreneur and also a billionaire with his net worth estimated to be about $1.6 billion as at February, 2019 by Forbes.
Ben also co-founded Pinterest alongside two other people, Evan Sharp and Paul Sciarra in 2010. Pinterest is an application which enables users pin and share various image collections ranging from beauty tips to fashion and food recipes through their internet connects devices to their personalized boards. Pinterest, which initially started as a tool for mothers in managing the home, had created a massive growth to about 250 million users as at September, 2018 with the majority of its users from outside the United states.
According to an interview granted to a CNN Business reporter, Laurie Segall, Silbermann says, ‘ at the most basic level, it’s just about you. It’s not about following the news or celebrities, nor about accruing followers. It’s really about your personal interests.’ Pinterest ultimate goal is to get people to live beyond being online as ideas gotten from pins should spur people to get offline and work on them. This makes Pinterest to be regarded as an anti-social media platform.
Ben Silbermann is also on the ‘Forbes Billionaires 2018’ and the ‘Forbes America’s Richest Entrepreneurs Under 40 2016’. The 36 years old married CEO who lives in California has managed to gradually build the company by recruiting employees based on their passion and their connection to the company’s goal.
The company which has been run privately since inception with speculations of about $1 billion ad revenue and $13 billion valuation based on secondary market trading has intents however to go public this year. The corporation has a particularly very high and healthy success with mobile ads especially for fashion and beauty brands. An IPO for Pinterest would mean an increased valuation for the company and also be a source increase revenue by increasing their investor base.
Ben Silbermann is one of the few that ensure to reach out and interact with their community of users to understand what is working and what is not as this helps to work better on the product.
According to Ben Silbermann’s interview with the business insider, ‘success for me is about building products and services that are useful. People think it’s too late to pick up a new skill but the reality is if you set your mind to it, you can learn anything and improve fast.’
