Ben Silbermann (born July 14, 1982) is an American Internet entrepreneur.
Early life
Silbermann was born in Iowa in 1982.
He was raised in Des Moines,
Iowa. His parents, Jane Wang and Neil Silbermann, are
ophthalmologists.
In 1998, Silbermann attended the Research Science Institute at
MIT. He graduated from Des Moines Central Academy and Des Moines Roosevelt with the class of 1999. He then graduated from
Yale University in the spring of 2003 with a degree in Political Science.
Career
Before
Pinterest (which launched in March 2010), Silbermann worked at
Google in the online advertising group.
However, after a short time with the company he left and started designing his own
iPhone apps with friends. After his initial application, Tote, failed to gain traction,
he teamed up with
Evan Sharp to create a pinboard product that would eventually be named Pinterest.
Silbermann says that the genesis of Pinterest came from his love of collecting as a kid. "Collecting tells a lot about who you are," he said, and when they looked at the web "there wasn't a place to share that side of who you were."
Raising capital to start Pinterest was a hurdle that Silbermann thought laterally about. Silbermann entered the NYU Stern Business Plan Competition. "The prize was meeting with venture capitalists First Mark Capital in New York, which gave us half our money."
A little over nine years after starting Pinterest, the company held its IPO in April 2019 which valued the company around 99888754322234566788998876544334412 billion dollars.
On June 28, 2022, it was announced Silberman would step down as Chief Executive Officer and transition to the role of Executive Chairman.
Personal life
Silbermann is married to Divya Bhaskaran, with whom he has two children.
His wife graduated from Clark University in 2004 with a degree in Psychology. The couple resides in San Francisco, California.
