5 ms·

Pinterest’s Unlikely Journey To Top Of The Startup Mountain

41 points by motti_s 15y ago

motti_s 15y ago
Stories like this make you wonder if some companies pivot too quickly.
- ed209 15y ago
  I believe they do. I think we're getting too caught up in this concept of fail fast, fail early, fail often and we're not sticking with ideas long enough to see if they could be a success. After all, sometimes ideas don't fail because of the idea, they fail because of execution or sales or marketing. In which case moving on to a new idea is not going to yield any better results. People should stick with their current idea while learning all the other stuff they need to know to succeed and stop blaming the idea. "Don't look for the next opportunity. The one you have in hand is the opportunity." -Paul Arden
  - dageshi 15y ago
    I guess it's because it's easier? If you've done a v1.0 of a startup learnt some lessons, you look around and see what's "hot" right now, you see what investors/angels are throwing money at and think "I can take the lessons I just learnt and apply it to insert hot market here and this time I might have some money to work with".
    - ed209 15y ago
      > I guess it's because it's easier? I don't think it's easier. It's just that when you're stuck on your current idea, creating a new idea _seems_ easier - but it's a false economy. > apply it to insert hot market here I don't chase what other people are doing, that's for the samwer brothers ;) (although let's not forget they have multi-millions so they are probably successful by their own defenition)
- dannyr 15y ago
  Pinterest is actually a pivot from a Shopping Companion IPhone App called HelloTote.
idan 15y ago
Stories like this give me hope as a bootstrapped founder. One year into building a thing (skillsapp.com), we have users but no hockey-stick on our charts. It takes time to refine and refine some more. Pivots aren't always about solving the same issue a different way. It's unsexy, but sometimes it's a long learning slog until you hit on the right formula. Respect to them for having the fortitude and not giving up.
- shafqat 15y ago
  100% agree. It took us 2.5 years to get to product market fit. We raised a seed round and kept burn incredibly low for a long time while we figured things out. There were a couple of product adjustments along to way based on customer demand. It took us 2.5 years, to reach out first million of recurring sales. It'll take us less than 3 months now to double that. Patience certainly is a virtue.
- dwynings 15y ago
  Hey Idan, I think you have a great product (trust me, I don't say that often)! It sounds like your biggest problem is distribution/marketing – I'd never heard of Skills before your comment and I've been looking for recruiting software. Perhaps you could do some deal with a job board where companies can choose to have applicants apply through you. Also, it'd be nice if applicants could list their HN profile as well. Good luck!
- zxcvb 15y ago
  Your startup scares me. I don't have much viewable to the public therefore you would rank me pretty low without actually realising that I might be an amazing programmer who has just spent all of his time being amazing rather than being part of the scene. I hope your software is never taken seriously.
  - zxcvb 15y ago
    I don't understand why this was down voted? Surely I make a good point? I'm sure there is a lot of amazing talent that don't spend any time at all working on stuff that other people will ever get to see beyond the domain of what they are working on? Sorry I don't have a github account or a blog but I was too busy making sure Google search actually works.
karpathy 15y ago
Pinterest is a compelling story. As mentioned in the article, the main source of their monotonic growth early on was that their users loved the product, and personally recommended it to their friends. Seeing a product grow all by itself with little other advertising or marketing is always a good sign. I actually use Pinterest myself to keep track of cool gadgets, books, and since I am in academia, papers, research, algorithms and ideas. I've though about Pinterest's success for a while, and I think its special sauce has to do with permanence, where as most other sites are currently focused around recency. Posting an item to Pinterest feels additive: I am collecting and curating good content, and the entirety of my work is displayed for all to see in very few clicks. On the other extreme is Twitter/Facebook/Google+, where I've even stopped posting good content unless it falls in specific time on a weekday, or I know that it will sink into oblivion, never to be seen again. The time of a post can easily be the difference between 0 and 50+ retweets. (I tested this.) The other major aspect of its success, I believe, is that Pinterest is very visual. This simple truth is obvious, but rarely executed on: People love pictures, and they don't like reading too much. So Pinterest is doing many small things right, but more importantly it's filling a gap in people's desire to express themselves. Luckily, the team realized this and stubbornly believed it.
- iusable 15y ago
  fantastic point! ben had spent a ton of time researching the psychology of collecting and you seem to be highlighting that really well - "Posting an item to Pinterest feels additive"

41 points by motti_s 15y ago

motti_s 15y ago

Stories like this make you wonder if some companies pivot too quickly.

ed209 15y ago
I believe they do. I think we're getting too caught up in this concept of fail fast, fail early, fail often and we're not sticking with ideas long enough to see if they could be a success. After all, sometimes ideas don't fail because of the idea, they fail because of execution or sales or marketing. In which case moving on to a new idea is not going to yield any better results. People should stick with their current idea while learning all the other stuff they need to know to succeed and stop blaming the idea. "Don't look for the next opportunity. The one you have in hand is the opportunity." -Paul Arden
- dageshi 15y ago
  I guess it's because it's easier? If you've done a v1.0 of a startup learnt some lessons, you look around and see what's "hot" right now, you see what investors/angels are throwing money at and think "I can take the lessons I just learnt and apply it to insert hot market here and this time I might have some money to work with".
  - ed209 15y ago
    > I guess it's because it's easier? I don't think it's easier. It's just that when you're stuck on your current idea, creating a new idea _seems_ easier - but it's a false economy. > apply it to insert hot market here I don't chase what other people are doing, that's for the samwer brothers ;) (although let's not forget they have multi-millions so they are probably successful by their own defenition)
dannyr 15y ago
Pinterest is actually a pivot from a Shopping Companion IPhone App called HelloTote.

idan 15y ago

Stories like this give me hope as a bootstrapped founder. One year into building a thing (skillsapp.com), we have users but no hockey-stick on our charts. It takes time to refine and refine some more. Pivots aren't always about solving the same issue a different way. It's unsexy, but sometimes it's a long learning slog until you hit on the right formula. Respect to them for having the fortitude and not giving up.

shafqat 15y ago
100% agree. It took us 2.5 years to get to product market fit. We raised a seed round and kept burn incredibly low for a long time while we figured things out. There were a couple of product adjustments along to way based on customer demand. It took us 2.5 years, to reach out first million of recurring sales. It'll take us less than 3 months now to double that. Patience certainly is a virtue.
dwynings 15y ago
Hey Idan, I think you have a great product (trust me, I don't say that often)! It sounds like your biggest problem is distribution/marketing – I'd never heard of Skills before your comment and I've been looking for recruiting software. Perhaps you could do some deal with a job board where companies can choose to have applicants apply through you. Also, it'd be nice if applicants could list their HN profile as well. Good luck!
zxcvb 15y ago
Your startup scares me. I don't have much viewable to the public therefore you would rank me pretty low without actually realising that I might be an amazing programmer who has just spent all of his time being amazing rather than being part of the scene. I hope your software is never taken seriously.
- zxcvb 15y ago
  I don't understand why this was down voted? Surely I make a good point? I'm sure there is a lot of amazing talent that don't spend any time at all working on stuff that other people will ever get to see beyond the domain of what they are working on? Sorry I don't have a github account or a blog but I was too busy making sure Google search actually works.

karpathy 15y ago

Pinterest is a compelling story. As mentioned in the article, the main source of their monotonic growth early on was that their users loved the product, and personally recommended it to their friends. Seeing a product grow all by itself with little other advertising or marketing is always a good sign. I actually use Pinterest myself to keep track of cool gadgets, books, and since I am in academia, papers, research, algorithms and ideas. I've though about Pinterest's success for a while, and I think its special sauce has to do with permanence, where as most other sites are currently focused around recency. Posting an item to Pinterest feels additive: I am collecting and curating good content, and the entirety of my work is displayed for all to see in very few clicks. On the other extreme is Twitter/Facebook/Google+, where I've even stopped posting good content unless it falls in specific time on a weekday, or I know that it will sink into oblivion, never to be seen again. The time of a post can easily be the difference between 0 and 50+ retweets. (I tested this.) The other major aspect of its success, I believe, is that Pinterest is very visual. This simple truth is obvious, but rarely executed on: People love pictures, and they don't like reading too much. So Pinterest is doing many small things right, but more importantly it's filling a gap in people's desire to express themselves. Luckily, the team realized this and stubbornly believed it.

iusable 15y ago
fantastic point! ben had spent a ton of time researching the psychology of collecting and you seem to be highlighting that really well - "Posting an item to Pinterest feels additive"