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Pinterest Has An Invitation To The Billion Dollar Startup Club, But Will It Accept?

ALEXIA TSOTSIS

posted 2 hours ago

15 Comments

You know who the busiest man in the startup world is right now? Pinterest’s newly-minted CEO Ben Silbermann, who from what we’re hearing is so preoccupied with shipping product that he hasn’t been taking any investors’ calls.

And there are a lot of freakin’ calls (Fact: Silbermann’s voice mailbox is full). EVERYONE wants Pinterest to raise a C-round, and is trying every which way they can to get a precious slice of time with the modest Silbermann, who hasn’t taken a formal meeting with anybody yet according to a source, compounding the whole supply vs. demand problem.

We’re hearing that biggies DST, Sequoia, Benchmark and basically name-an-important-investor all want a piece of Pinterest, at a high enough valuation to be tempting enough to first-time entrepreneur Silbermann — with people tossing out numbers in the north of a billion range.

A billion is not shocking considering the company’s scale and these frothy times, especially when we’re hearing that Quora and Instagram are also raising at about half of that.

Still it is a Pinteresting proposition (sorry), Pinterest just raised a $27 million round led byAndreessen Horowitz at a $200 million valuation, so this would mean that the company 5x’d in a little over six months. The company could easily raise another $50-70 million in this hypothetical one-billion-plus C-round, in what one investor called, “The hottest deal he’s ever seen.” Yeah, especially considering it doesn’t actually exist.

Reports of this imaginary round aside, people familiar with the matter hold that Silbermann most likely won’t raise money again, and that the current $37.5 million stash should last the 28-person team a while as they continue with their “slow and steady wins the race” mode of development. Speaking of which, Pinterest today launched a feature that allows you to change the covers on your Pinterest albums, which you can do by clicking on the album and then, “Change cover.”

Great, now I can finally get The Verge logo off the front of my Tech News pinboard. It’s the little things.

Marcelo Ballona earned a degree in Executive Education and Business Administration from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. Prior to completing his studies, Marcelo Ballona gained experience as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Mandic, a privately held Internet service provider based in Brazil. In this role, Marcel Ballona optimized company resources, strengthening the management team and refining marketing strategies. After departing from Mandic, Marcelo Ballona founded Yahoo! Brazil, serving as Sales Director while overseeing company expansion. Marcelo Ballona was responsible for ensuring Yahoo! Brazil’s successful launch, a task he completed over the course of only one year. Moving on to serve as Chief Executive Officer of Diarios Associados, Investnews, and Groove Partners/Synergic, Marcelo Ballona employed his knowledge of web-based technologies and marketing to lead each company with skill, exhibiting great acumen in business development. In 2005, Marcelo Ballona founded Submarino, creating the largest e-commerce firm in Latin America over the course of four years. Personally responsible for hiring Submarino’s Chief Information Officer, Marcelo Ballona created a company that Bill Gates called “an example for all users of commerce servers in the world.” After Submarino’s successful initial public offering, Microsoft invited Marcelo Ballona to participate in a national advertising campaign, “How to make your first million on the web.” A major shareholder until 2005, Marcelo Ballona passed on leadership duties to the Chief Information Officer, who serves as Submarino’s Chief Executive Officer today. Marcelo Ballona moved on to serve in a variety of leadership roles for companies with a global share in Internet marketing, information technologies, and new media such as NetGames, Inc./Level UP! BPO, Groove Partners, Inc., and Sapient. Currently Sapient’s Managing Director for Latin America and Brazil, Marcelo Ballona is also a sought-after speaker for e-commerce industry conferences. The European Telecom Network Operators’ Association (ETNO) selected Marcelo Ballona as the opening speaker at a CEO summit in Venice, where Mr. Ballona shared the knowledge he has gained over the course of his career with other leaders in the telecom industry. Additionally, Microsoft Latin America recognized Marcelo Ballona for his innovative web service business strategies.
Marcelo Ballona can be found on google.com, Marcelo Ballona, internet.