I work for a magazine corporation that does 86 million visitors a view a month. From the publication and media industry, this makes total sense. Within content circulation, Pinterest is often in the top tier of traffic referrers. They are often right after Facebook and in some cases even higher.
Pinterest Raises $367M at $11B valuation
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Re: Pinterest Raises $367M at $11B valuation
#22> Since launching in 2009, Pinterest has raised $764M dollars; once this round closes (whether or not they raise the full $578M), they’ll have surpassed the billion dollar mark. For the sake of this comment let's assume that Pinterest has never had any income at all... can someone please explain what they have spent, or plan on spending, over $1B on? If there isn't a plan to spend this money, what other motivations c…
500+ employees.
Re: Pinterest Raises $367M at $11B valuation
#23Does anyone else think 11B is insane? Higher valued than Dropbox and Airbnb? They must have pitched hell of a monetisation plan.
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.
Re: Pinterest Raises $367M at $11B valuation
#24> Since launching in 2009, Pinterest has raised $764M dollars; once this round closes (whether or not they raise the full $578M), they’ll have surpassed the billion dollar mark. For the sake of this comment let's assume that Pinterest has never had any income at all... can someone please explain what they have spent, or plan on spending, over $1B on? If there isn't a plan to spend this money, what other motivations c…
500+ employees.
Then they are in excess of $2,000,000 per. That don't seem like the reason.
Re: Pinterest Raises $367M at $11B valuation
#25> Since launching in 2009, Pinterest has raised $764M dollars; once this round closes (whether or not they raise the full $578M), they’ll have surpassed the billion dollar mark. For the sake of this comment let's assume that Pinterest has never had any income at all... can someone please explain what they have spent, or plan on spending, over $1B on? If there isn't a plan to spend this money, what other motivations c…
If the stock market melts down - which it's prone to do once or twice per decade - the ability for Pinterest to IPO and take advantage of favorable market conditions will close, perhaps for years. Simply put, raising money in this environment is extraordinarily favorable, a company may only get this window once every seven to ten years.
The Fed has yet to raise interest rates, but may choose to this year. The end of QE has already removed some liquidity from the markets and set the dollar on a massive run which will put pressure on almost anything priced in dollars. If the Fed raises interest rates, it will sap at least some liquidity from the venture funding market (which is red hot right now).
If Pinterest can't IPO for five years because the stock market crashes in nine months and the economy turns south (almost six years since the last recession already), then ideally they'll want a cash war chest to keep up with the other giants they compete with (directly or indirectly) that are already public or are well funded.
Saying it's prudent for Pinterest to have a billion+ in cash is probably understating things.
Re: Pinterest Raises $367M at $11B valuation
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, assuming all founders started out with 33%, they'd probably have 5-10% right now, probably closer to 5%. Best case scenario would be: 33% * (75% angel) * (75% series A) * (75% series B) * (85% series C) * (95%^4 Series D-G) = ~10% It could probably go down as far as 4 or 5% depending on how big option pools were and just how much dilution was in the earlier rounds.
> Best case scenario would be: 33% * (75% angel) * (75% series A) * (75% series B) * (85% series C) * (95%^4 Series D-G) = ~10% Doesn't this assume that the earlier investors either didn't get pro rata rights (unlikely) or didn't choose to exercise them (conceivable for later rounds)?
When funding is announced the amount put in via pro rata rights would be included in whatever the total that is announced.
If a startup said they raised $10 million led by XYZ VC, that means that XYZ VC probably put in $5-7.5 million, and the rest would be filled with other investors and previous investors.
Re: Pinterest Raises $367M at $11B valuation
#27For anyone who thinks this is high: when my wife (and lots of other women in her social group) is in the market for clothes, or wedding ideas, or baby/nursery ideas, she goes to Pinterest first. That is huge potential for monetization from advertising and affiliate sales.
Pinterest is where shopping starts for tons of young women (primarily) with money.
Re: Pinterest Raises $367M at $11B valuation
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it's less then that. Pinterest's early days were rough, and I heard that their B or C round was on unfavorable terms just to keep the lights on before they blew up.
Well a worst case scenario might be something like: 33% * (66% seed funding) * (66% angel round) * (60% series A) * (60% series B) * (70% series C) * (85% series D) * (90%^2 series E/F) * (95% series G) ~= 2.4% Still > 2% of an 11B company isn't bad.
I would not cry if I got, say, 1% of an $11B company (that is to say: $110 million).
Re: Pinterest Raises $367M at $11B valuation
#29> Since launching in 2009, Pinterest has raised $764M dollars; once this round closes (whether or not they raise the full $578M), they’ll have surpassed the billion dollar mark. For the sake of this comment let's assume that Pinterest has never had any income at all... can someone please explain what they have spent, or plan on spending, over $1B on? If there isn't a plan to spend this money, what other motivations c…
500+ employees.
500 employees * lets say $150,000 per employee * 6 years is only $450,000,000.
That leaves ~$150m from previous rounds to spend on infrastructure etc before they need to raise more in the latest round.
Re: Pinterest Raises $367M at $11B valuation
#30Does anyone else think 11B is insane? Higher valued than Dropbox and Airbnb? They must have pitched hell of a monetisation plan.
Well Airbnb is at 20B now, if that helps....