Pinterest

What
Social networking site where users collect photos and link to products they love, creating their own pinboards and following the pinboards of other people whom they find interesting. Now rivals Facebook in driving customers to retail purchases via social media.

Disrupting
The way people collect, share, shop and buy.

Source: pinterest.com

Headquarters: San Francisco, Calif.
CEO: Ben Silbermann
Year Founded: 2009 (site live 2010)
Number of Employees: 80
Funding: Pinterest has raised more than $300 million.
Key Investors: Andreesen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners and FirstMark Capital

Vital Stats

• Among the 50 most visited web sites in the U.S.
• Near 50 million users
• Captures 15 percent of adult U.S. internet users, 1 percent behind Twitter (Pew data)
• Women are five times as likely to use as men (Pew data)
• Recent $200 million VC round valued company at $2.5 billion
• Its users are now tracked as retail purchasing benchmark
• Made first acquisitions in 2013: Livestar and Punchfork