Silbermann Quotes & Sayings

I always read about these stories of entrepreneurs - it's like they're in the desert with no water, and they're the ones that survive. But I've been really fortunate to have people on my team who are optimistic about the future and who know that if you work through hard times that there's usually something good at the end. — Ben Silbermann

I use Pinterest for everything. Book collections, trips, hobbies. It's all there. I planned my wedding on it. When I had a kid, I planned all his stuff on it. So it was nice to discover that I wasn't the only one. — Ben Silbermann

As a kid, I always idolized entrepreneurs. I thought they were cool people in the way that I thought basketball players were cool people. It's cool that some people get paid to dunk basketballs, but I'm not one of those people. — Ben Silbermann

People say doing a startup is like a marathon. It's actually a roadtrip at night with no headlights. You think you're going to Toledo but you're actually going to Miami and you might not have enough gas so you might need to buy gas from someone who might take you out if you aren't driving well — Ben Silbermann

I look around my neighborhood, and I see people hailing a cab or ordering their food and then paying for it all with their phone. I've read about that stuff for a really long time, and now it's starting to become commonplace. — Ben Silbermann

I think anyone who makes products has this simultaneous joy and, almost, shame looking at it. You look at it all day and all you can see is all these things you want to make better. — Ben Silbermann

If Google teaches you anything, it's that small ideas can be big. — Ben Silbermann

Just build things and find out if they work. — Ben Silbermann

I always just want to move along to the next step. — Ben Silbermann

I used to wake up and look at our analytics and think, 'What if yesterday was the last day anyone used Pinterest?' Like, everyone collectively decided, 'We're done!' Over time I got more confidence. — Ben Silbermann

I kind of think of engineering like the chefs at a restaurant. Nobody's going to deny chefs are integrally important, but there's also so many other people who contribute to a great meal. — Ben Silbermann

Applying scientific principles and validated learning to identify and eliminate sources of waste Adapting company vision to reflect customer insight Emphasizing fast iterations to stay ahead of uncertainty Effectively evaluating progress using a new set of benchmarks designed for startups — Vocreo Publishing

What you collect says so much about who you are. — Ben Silbermann

It was a peculiar odor, the smell of sexual violation, a mixture of rotting flesh and underarm stench. They shivered even though the heat belowdecks would've suffocated the weak. Our desecrated brothers survived because, as best we could, we reminded them of who they were. — Daniel Black

I think the thing that I've learned is that really great people, they actually want to work on hard problems, — Ben Silbermann

whatever you become be good at it — Benjamin Franklin

One of the things I've learned is to be receptive of feedback. — Ben Silbermann

We want the average person to use it and think that it makes the experience of using Pinterest better. — Ben Silbermann

Most people generalize whatever they did, and say that was the strategy that made it work. — Ben Silbermann

We're trying to do something so that when the average person uses Pinterest, it has to make the service better. — Ben Silbermann

It is well to look around at whom, and not just what, surrounds us. Population structure will change everything. Our health, wealth, and peace depend on it. — Nicholas A. Christakis

I thought Google was the coolest place. People there were so smart and they were all doing these really interesting things. I just felt really lucky to be a part of it even in a small way. — Ben Silbermann

Don't take too much advice. — Ben Silbermann

I'd never managed anyone before, so I don't have a lot of experience. But I'm lucky - I have a lot of team members who have a really honest relationship with me. — Ben Silbermann

The companies that I really admire the most are the ones that have a deep visceral understanding of why people use their service, and they figure out ways of making money that are completely consistent with how people are feeling and what they are doing at the time. — Ben Silbermann

There's a lot of pressure to look like the last company that was successful. — Ben Silbermann

When Pinterest works well, it helps you find things that are meaningful to you. We want to build a system that helps you do that. — Ben Silbermann

I was obsessed with this idea that these things that you collect, they just say so much about who you are. I can't say it came from hard-nosed business analysis ... It was just something I really want to see built. — Ben Silbermann

I've been so focused on what's horrible and unfair and terrifying about my condition that I hadn't acknowledged what is positive about my condition, as if the positive had been sitting quietly by itself on the far edge of the left side of my condition, there but completely ignored. I can't copy a whole cat. But I can recognize it, name it, know what one sounds and feels like, and I can copy most of it, enough for anyone who looks at it to know what I've drawn. I am lucky. — Lisa Genova

I want Pinterest to be human. The Internet's still so abstract ... To me, boards are a very human way of looking at the world. — Ben Silbermann