A recent piece in the New York Times details all the ways Pinterest is different from your average tech company, to their detriment as well as to their success. Deep dives like this always make me wonder what it would be like to work at a company. Here are my thoughts, based purely on the Times article.
What sounds good:
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Their business model. The whole point of Pinterest is for users to save pictures of things they want to buy. Eventually, users do buy those things. Pinterest also has the advantage of being less time-constrained than Instagram, the other big visual social network. Pinterest boards allow users to come back and revisit an image or information, rather than Instagram users expecting to see the latest and greatest. Pinterest doesn’t have to worry about user uproar over non-linear timeline manipulation, which is great for advertisers.
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Their approach to growth. It drives their investors insane. But slow and steady growth means a more consistent experience for users and employees, and gives the company time and space to take a more deliberate approach to hiring at all levels.
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They’re making money. Once a company’s self-sustaining, the opinions of actual or potential investors matter a lot less. I’ve worked at a startup that failed after investors pulled funding. Since then I’ve never underestimated the importance of being able to bootstrap. Pinterest may not be there yet, but their cashflow is solid.
Causes for concern:
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Engineering leadership exit. Pinterest has had some leadership movement in the past few years, but that’s not unusual for a startup. Marketing, partnerships, engineering… wait, engineering? That’s not good. Eng is the backbone of a tech company. Remember a few years ago when Amazon got some bad press about being a hellish place to work? All those folks worked in marketing. Remember the responses that were like, “I’ve worked at Amazon for years and I’ve had a great experience”? All those folks were engineers. It’s not unusual for tech companies to struggle with departments whose success is difficult to quantify. It is unusual (and bad) to have eng shakeups.
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Leadership hiring generally. When a company is inventing its own business model, good leadership is crucial to inspire confidence in employees. Strong leadership comes from people who are able to articulate and explain the business model, what works and what doesn’t, what changes are happening and why, and how the company will succeed moving forward. It’s a lot. I wonder where Pinterest hires their senior leadership from. Other tech companies, even though their priories for growth are so different? Traditional consumer-facing companies, even though their structure is so different? High leadership turnover will continue until Pinterest figures out exactly who they need to hire.
Hypothetically speaking, would I work there?
Sadly, no. While there’s such clear potential for success, people are a company’s ultimate structure and foundation. The best business model in the world won’t work without the right stewards. I would need strong evidence that the right leadership team is in place before going to work at Pinterest.
Liz Welsh 