Evan Sharp

Images are really powerful in making us aware of what's possible.

When we talk about Pinterest, we typically talk about use cases like cooking, or decorating your home... these are all very much project-oriented, goal-oriented behaviors.

The bread and butter of any internet service is user behavior.

I think I spent the first many years of Pinterest trying to be a really good leader, like what I thought a good leader should be.

I'm this real creative guy who was really good at design and coding stuff, but wasn't that kind of manager. I spent too much time in self-doubt and limiting my impact because I was trying to be somebody I wasn't.

The thing I'm actually the most interested in, in a way, when I think about what to build in the world, is to try and help the experts put together a clearer framework around our inner experience and how to relate to that, and how to bring that to people at scale.

When I started working in 2010 on Pinterest, I really thought of myself as like a construction worker, metaphorically, building like you build a shed. You put the brick on top of a brick, and then you're done.

If you're Japanese and you signed up for Pinterest in Japan, you see Japanese ideas, not American ideas that look Japanese - it's a very big difference.

I think a lot of what we want to do with both the product we're building and the brand is help people make better decisions in their everyday lives by giving them access to new ideas and new possibilities.

If you see an image and it's just an image, and there's a bad link or no description, and you don't know what that image is, or who took it, or what it's a picture of, it's not a very satisfying or actionable experience.

The problem with images is obvious, they are two dimensional. Our vision at Pinterest is to use what's great about images, use the users taste to make good decisions but also to make sure to give them that information to make sure they get a more holistic understanding of what they are looking for.

At its best Pinterest really does help lots of people with everyday things. Those things can seem really small. It's not like you're curing cancer, but all of those things together become really important.

Our public description, a visual bookmarking tool, tends to resonate with people. That's why we use it. When we talk to the tech press we tend to describe it as a company solving a discovery problem.

Apple's proven to be really good at taking what we're capable of with technology and making it useful and solve human problems.

The biggest product thing for international is connecting you with local people, local content.

We want employees teaching each other what they know. We're tying to build a company so each person can achieve at a very high level - we're not just the engineering company or the design company.

When I have free time, which I wish I had more of, playing frisbee is a great way to get outdoors and have a bit of fun.

Our vision for Pinterest is to be a discovery engine for people to see the possibilities for their life, to make their life more meaningfully lived.

We think of Pinterest as a visual bookmarking tool for saving and discovering creative ideas, and that discovery part is a really a core part of what we work on every day.

Like inspirational quotes, which have been huge on Pinterest. Or looking at dog photos! We didn't know how to take those uses for Pinterest seriously until we realized, sometimes even I look at Pinterest to feel better, not just do something but feel happier, to feel connection, to feel humor, to know everyone goes through difficult times.

I spent an unreasonable amount of time drawing things on the computer and trying to mess up the computer. I developed this passion for building and structuring things.

Pinterest is a positive, optimistic place online. You spend time on what you want, not what you share with others.

If we're not doing better, it's almost always our own inability to execute, not because someone else is stealing our market share or something.

If you're designing a hammer, it's clear that it should hit a nail. But when designing a home, it's much more nuanced. You have to make sure there are qualities that nurture and enrich human life.

When you're the co-founder you get to pick the people. So by definition for me it's one of the best companies to work at because I made the company and it's a reflection of me in some ways.