Newsmaker

Every Friday, we choose an alum who has been making headlines—for better or for worse.
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Ben Silbermann ’03: A tech CEO moves out of Silicon Valley.

When a company with some 30 employees moves its office, the decision rarely makes even local headlines. When the company is Pinterest, the tech and business world buzzes with the news.

Pinterest, an “online pinboard” that lets users organize and share things they like, launched in January 2010 and has gained phenomenal popularity, snagging a recent venture capital investment of $100 million. Cofounder and CEO Ben Silbermann ’03—an unlikely tech entrepreneur who studied political science at Yale and then went to work in Washington, DC, not Silicon Valley—shifted into the startup world because “I felt like it was a story of my time that I wasn’t a part of,” Inc. magazine reports.

This week, Silbermann pulled up roots again, moving the company out of Silicon Valley and into San Francisco. Pinterest’s growth, and a resulting need for more space, apparently prompted the move. The site boasts 20 million monthly viewers, eating into the traffic of other social networking sites, with new apps announced almost daily. And it’s not all about shopping: US News notes that a conservative political group has created a Pinterest page devoted to the “‘stunning and exclusive golf courses [President Barack] Obama has played at during his presidency,’ along with the clubs’ membership price tag.”

 

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