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Pinterest Raises $367M at $11B valuation

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Re: Pinterest Raises $367M at $11B valuation

#111

Post by criloz2 »

codeshaman wrote: post #35

Good. In the age when the planet is faced with overpopulation, climate change, pollution and a myriad of other issues, including the shadow of ww3, the investors bet on a photo-sharing startup. Down-voters rejoice, but I couldn't care less about pinterest and what it offers. Maybe I'm getting old or maybe being a parent gives me a different perspective, but 11B for nicely arranged list of photos is idiotic. I'm sure…

This is just another bubble, years of printing money and low interest rates, there is no way that Pinterest has that value, neither Uber with all its legal issues across the world. sorry downvote me all the what you want that is the true.

Re: Pinterest Raises $367M at $11B valuation

#112

Post by lisa_henderson »

lisa_henderson wrote: post #67
ptio wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For founders, employees, and investors that will make significant financial gains from the IPO.

You should run away from any company where "founders, employees, and investors" regard an IPO as the finish line. Run away as fast as you can.

I wonder why this was downvoted? I think the point is obvious: if you suspect that founders, employees or investors regard their company's IPO as any kind of finish line, then you should run away from that company. Here on Hacker News there have been many stories about companies doing badly once founders cash out. And we have read many stories about the negative signal that it sends. I thought this was common sense, and so I didn't see a need to post any links, but it is trivially easy to find articles on this subject:

If Groupon were such a great business, why have the founders cashed out in each of the investment rounds?

http://www.quora.com/If-Groupon-were-such-a-great-business-w...

"But even beyond the lockup, a founder selling a significant chunk of equity can send a negative signal to the market and erode confidence."

http://www.rudebaguette.com/2012/05/22/going-public-its-comp...

"Zynga’s Mark Pincus is promising in an open letter to potential shareholders that his company will be a 'meritocracy'. Except that in his meritocracy, Pincus has created a class of stock just for himself. He’ll have 70 votes for every supershare of Zynga he owns."

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/12/14/zynga-s-ipo...

Do a search on Google and you'll see a thousand articles like this, all with the same theme: when insiders sell, you should run.

Re: Pinterest Raises $367M at $11B valuation

#113

Post by clarky07 »

I wish they would just hurry up and IPO so I could invest in them. Anyone who thinks Pinterest isn't worth much, or it's just a scrapbook website, clearly doesn't have a woman in their life. My wife (and really every woman I know) use Pinterest all the time WITH THE INTENT TO PURCHASE things. Planning weddings, and nurseries, and houses, and remodeling, and and and...

That is why Google is valuable. People go there with intent to buy things. Facebook has learned how to make money. Twitter has learned how to make money. Pinterest has a much much easier road than either of those did. The people investing in this round will absolutely make money.

Re: Pinterest Raises $367M at $11B valuation

#115

Post by nl »

lisa_henderson wrote: post #112
lisa_henderson wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should run away from any company where "founders, employees, and investors" regard an IPO as the finish line. Run away as fast as you can.

I wonder why this was downvoted? I think the point is obvious: if you suspect that founders, employees or investors regard their company's IPO as any kind of finish line, then you should run away from that company. Here on Hacker News there have been many stories about companies doing badly once founders cash out. And we have read many stories about the negative signal that it sends. I thought this was common sense,…

Google Inc. co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who still own nearly one-fifth of the Internet giant, disclosed Friday that they intend to significantly reduce their stake by selling roughly $5.5 billion worth of stock over five years.[1]

That's from 2010. Since then, GOOG has almost doubled in price (note that there was a stock split)[2], and they have delivered almost constant revenue and profit growth.

Diversification can be a sensible strategy for founders.

[1] http://www.marketwatch.com/story/google-co-founders-to-sell-...

[2] https://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&...

Re: Pinterest Raises $367M at $11B valuation

#116

Post by nl »

johnpowell wrote: post #36
dntrkv wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Pinterest is way more valuable than Dropbox. They have a great product, very large dedicated user base, and a very clear path to monetization.

Isn't Pinterest more like del.icio.us in the sense that if something better comes along they are screwed? I understand that Facebook is hard to replace because you need to get everyone to migrate. Does that apply to Pinterest?

They have some decent network effects. People follow each other and there are curated boards that are almost sub-brands on their own.

There have been some fairly well funded attempts to build a competitor (eg, Fab at one point tried it), but nothing really got close.

It's probably not as sticky as Facebook, but OTOH there's a lot more purchase intent.

Re: Pinterest Raises $367M at $11B valuation

#117

Post by bcg1 »

nemo44x wrote: post #99
bcg1 wrote: post #64

That's larger than the market cap of LG, Citrix, Mitsubishi, Isuzu, Nvidia, to name a few. And those are companies that produce real goods and have real assets. But is it overvalued? Only time will tell

Producing real goods leads to small margins. Materials, manufacturing and transporting are not cheap to do. Technology companies enjoy high valuations based on their generally very high margins.

Margins are irrelevant without sales.

Also http://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/bookvalue.asp

Can't really understand why I'm downvoted for this, since all I did was state a fact.

Re: Pinterest Raises $367M at $11B valuation

#118

Post by serve_yay »

monsterix wrote: post #73
callmeed wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed 100%. There's so much purchasing intent on Pinterest. I think it could be a stronger platform than Facebook for advertising non-digital goods. Every bride uses Pinterest (and now most wedding vendors and bloggers). My mother-in-law uses it every day to plan all her home remodeling projects and she's 60-something.

> Every bride uses Pinterest (and now most wedding vendors and bloggers). Any study covering all the brides situation to qualify that comment? I attended three weddings recently. Not one was on Pinterest, all were on email rather.

Sure am tired of seeing that comment everywhere!

Re: Pinterest Raises $367M at $11B valuation

#119

Post by serve_yay »

lisa_henderson wrote: post #112
lisa_henderson wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should run away from any company where "founders, employees, and investors" regard an IPO as the finish line. Run away as fast as you can.

I wonder why this was downvoted? I think the point is obvious: if you suspect that founders, employees or investors regard their company's IPO as any kind of finish line, then you should run away from that company. Here on Hacker News there have been many stories about companies doing badly once founders cash out. And we have read many stories about the negative signal that it sends. I thought this was common sense,…

Boy oh boy. This is taking a poorly chosen turn of phrase and really running with it. The IPO isn't the end, we get it.
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