The archive · Consumer Apps · Financial decision · 2010–2017
Pinterest raises $150M at 2015 share price, a flat-round bet on purchase intent
In June 2017 Pinterest raised $150M at the same share price as 2015; the flat ~$12B round bet purchase intent, not social features, would pay.
What the business is
Pinterest is a visual bookmarking service where people save images (pins) to boards to plan things like recipes, fashion, weddings and interior design; it made money from advertising (promoted pins and sponsored video) and, since 2015, buyable pins, with affiliate-commission links an earlier revenue stream noted in the thread.
Starting capital：$150M reported raised on 2017-06-06 at the same share price as Pinterest's 2015 round, which commenters read as a flat round worth about $12B.
How it started
Pinterest grew out of visual bookmarking, users collecting images onto boards for recipes, weddings, fashion and interior design, and by 2017 commenters described it as about seven years old with close to 200M monthly users. The thread's users said the company had deliberately moved away from social features toward a neutral bookmarking product driven by algorithmic recommendations.
What happened
Monetization attempts, per the thread, included affiliate-commission links, promoted pins, sponsored video and buyable pins, which one commenter said had existed since 2015. On 2017-06-06 Bloomberg reported that Pinterest raised $150M at the same share price as its 2015 round, which commenters read as a flat round at roughly $12B. Skeptics called the flat terms a warning sign and attacked ad quality, retailer ROI and the login wall; supporters pointed to purchase intent, commerce-heavy categories and close to 200M users.
No ending yet — it is still running.
Background
Pinterest is a visual bookmarking service where people save images to boards to plan recipes, weddings, fashion and interior design. By 2017 commenters described it as about seven years old with close to 200M monthly users, and its revenue streams included advertising, affiliate-commission links and buyable pins.
On 2017-06-06 Bloomberg reported that Pinterest raised $150M at the same share price as its 2015 round, which the HN thread read as a flat round worth about $12B. Skeptics called the flat terms a warning sign, pointed at low-quality ads, weak retailer ROI and a login wall, and predicted decline; supporters argued that Pinterest users arrive with purchase intent, which makes the ad business structurally strong.
The thread's core disagreement was whether Pinterest's move away from social features toward neutral, algorithm-driven bookmarking helps or hurts monetization. Buyable pins since 2015 were part of the same bet that intent, not the social graph, is the asset. The discussion records no later milestones, so the entry stops at the announcement.
What has to be true
- Pinterest's audience arrives planning purchases, which commenters called the ad inventory marketers actually want; retail-minded demographics were its advantage over general social feeds.
- The company deliberately de-emphasized social features for algorithmic recommendations, making the feed monetizable like search rather than like a social graph.
- Buyable pins and earlier affiliate links gave Pinterest an e-commerce path without holding inventory or building logistics, keeping the model asset-light.
- Skeptics had a concrete case: ad quality was poor, retail marketers reported no ROI and open hostility, and the registration wall was cutting off organic discovery.
What can be applied
A flat round at a giant valuation is a signal, not a verdict; the whole debate turned on whether browsing intent can be monetized without destroying it.
Aftermath
As of 2017-06-06 Pinterest had just been reported raising $150M at its 2015 share price, with commenters putting the flat valuation near $12B and the service live with close to 200M monthly users. The thread ends at the announcement and records no later milestones, so this entry stops there; whether purchase intent could pay for the valuation was still the open question.
Sources
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