Key Facts
Career & Education
About
Ben Silbermann (born July 14, 1982, in Iowa City, Iowa) is an American internet entrepreneur renowned for co-founding Pinterest, a visual discovery platform that enables users to curate and share images, ideas, recipes, and links through virtual pinboards. He served as CEO of Pinterest from 2010 to 2022 and currently serves as Executive Chairman. Raised in Des Moines, Iowa, Silbermann developed an early passion for collecting and organizing information, influenced by his childhood hobby of insect collecting. He attended Yale University, graduating in 2004 with a bachelor's degree in political science. Following graduation, Silbermann worked in product development at Google and consulting at Accenture, before joining Slide, a Facebook game developer, where he honed his skills in user experience design.
In 2009, Silbermann co-founded Pinterest with Evan Sharp and Paul Sciarra, initially launching it as a mobile app called Tote before pivoting to the pinboard concept in 2010. As CEO from 2010 to 2022, he led the company's explosive growth, transforming it into a global platform with over 450 million monthly active users by 2023. Pinterest went public in 2019, and under his stewardship, it became a key player in e-commerce and visual search. In June 2022, Silbermann stepped down as CEO to become executive chairman, allowing him to focus on long-term strategy while Bill Ready assumed the CEO role. His leadership has emphasized user privacy, diversity, and innovative features like visual search powered by AI.
Silbermann's success has made him one of the wealthiest entrepreneurs in tech, with a net worth estimated at around $3 billion as of 2023, primarily from his Pinterest equity. He is known for his low-profile personal life, residing in the San Francisco Bay Area, and has been involved in philanthropy, including support for education and environmental causes. Critics have occasionally pointed to Pinterest's challenges with misinformation and content moderation, but Silbermann has advocated for responsible platform governance.