The key to success in starting a startup is committing to making a product work, trusting your instincts and users, and building something you love with like-minded people.

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  00:00

  Starting a startup takes time and uncertainty, as shown by Pinterest's slow growth despite launching in 2010.

  • In March 2010, an email was sent to advisers and investors updating them on the progress of Pinterest, which had almost 3,000 registered users and a steadily increasing daily pin count.
  • We're moving to a new building with another Y Combinator startup, getting free Amazon hosting credits, and working out of a dilapidated two-bedroom apartment on California Avenue.
  • Starting a company and building something worthwhile takes a long time, as demonstrated by the slow growth of Pinterest despite starting in 2009 and launching in 2010.
  • Starting a startup is like going on a road trip with uncertainty and dealing with a lot of choices, and making things can take a long time.
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  04:13

  Pursuing medicine to creating a program for trying on glasses online to working at Google, committing to making a product work was the important step.

  • The speaker pursued a career in medicine but had a strong interest in technology, which led to creating a program for trying on glasses online and eventually working at Google.
  • The speaker realized that the reason he never committed to building a product was because he never put himself in a situation where he had to make it work, and committing to going out and doing it turned out to be a really important step.
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  06:08

  : Left job to build Tote app, faced challenges with prototype and investor rejection.

  • He left his job in 2008 to build a shopping catalogue app called Tote with a friend, inspired by the new iPhone platform.
  • Building and getting approval for a prototype took a long time and had unsolved problems, making it difficult to ship and raise money from investors.
  • Top three painful responses to a proposal: "call me back in a few months", "who else is in", and "let me think about it".
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  08:31

  Investors can be difficult, but offering free things can influence them, and leverage in negotiations can be gained through fear or potential success.

  • Fundraising can be difficult, with occasional blunt investors and the need to capture attention without the help of free cookies.
  • Investors are just people who can be influenced by free things and may be wrong, and if you need money and they have it, they may be the only ones who can give it to you.
  • To have leverage in negotiations, you need to either create fear of losing the deal or show the potential for wild success, as demonstrated by the speaker's experience in 2008.
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  11:07

  Don't blindly follow successful people in venture capital, success comes from convincing others and having the right attitude, and Pinterest's success came from focusing on one special feature.

  • Don't blindly follow advice from successful people in the volatile industry of venture capital, as the future is unwritten and they could be wrong.
  • Success comes from convincing others that you can beat the odds, and it's important to have this attitude when recruiting, raising money, or improving your product.
  • Pinterest was created with the goal of making something simple and useful that people would actually use, focusing on having one special feature that is worthy of someone's time.
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  13:50

  Pinterest went through multiple iterations before launching, but their successful marketing strategy involved creating a pinboard campaign to find people who share common interests and show them how the service could be helpful to them.

  • Pinterest started with a basic infrastructure and went through multiple iterations to make it look cool before launching in November 2009.
  • Despite receiving no response from 3,000 accounts, the speaker found a positive response from a few users and decided to market the product through meetups.
  • Pinterest's successful marketing strategy involved creating a pinboard campaign called "Pin it Forward" to find people who share common interests and show them how the service could be helpful to them.
  • Users on the platform were having meaningful conversations about personal topics, which felt like the beginning of something special.
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  16:50

  Trust your instincts and users to succeed in your business, regardless of initial misunderstandings or challenges.

  • Pinterest was not initially understood by many in Silicon Valley due to its visual and non-real-time organization, but the fact that it made sense to someone was what mattered.
  • Google wanted real-time search, but the speaker's visual approach was initially seen as a disaster until they showed real users, including their wives, using it.
  • Blue Labs is a diverse team that solved their engineering, community, and design problems to succeed in their business.
  • Trust the data, users, and your own instincts to do what's right for your company, as there are many different successful strategies for different types of companies.
• 📌
  19:57

  Pinterest is a popular network for finding inspiration and connecting with others, while investing in talented individuals and building something you love with like-minded people is key to success.

  • Pinterest is a network that helps people find inspiration and connect with others through billions of objects, becoming the third largest source of referral traffic on the Internet.
  • Pinterest is a tool for planning various aspects of life and has a team of talented individuals.
  • Investing in people who want to work on something bigger than themselves and giving them ownership in the company is the best investment one can make.
  • Build something you love and don't give up, surrounded by like-minded people at startup school.
  • Invest time in finding and connecting with like-minded people who share your goals and aspirations.