"The way Pinterest grew had little to do with Silicon Valley wisdom. It was about marketing — mostly grassroots marketing — not better algorithms."

"“Instead of changing the product, I thought maybe I could just find people like me,”"

"“A lot of people in Silicon Valley didn’t get, and I don’t know if they still get, Pinterest,” Silbermann said. “The fact that it made sense to someone is what really mattered to me.”"

"Investors did want to offer all sorts of feedback about what Pinterest should change. A few years ago, VCs wanted things to be text-oriented and real-time, while Pinterest is visual and more timeless."

"Still, Silbermann added that he himself thought for a while that the secret to Pinterest’s growth woes would be finding some undiscovered Stanford grad student to build a better algorithm."

"But ultimately, Pinterest didn’t need better engineering, said Silbermann. It needed better distribution."