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Social pivot story / founded 2010

Pinterest pivot story

A shopping app became the internet's mood board.

Pinterest logo

Shopping app -> mood board empire

Before

Tote, a mobile shopping and catalog browsing app.

to

After

A visual discovery and pinboard platform.

The pivot story

Users liked saving and collecting products more than buying them. The team leaned into collection behavior and created Pinterest.

Why it worked

It tapped into aspiration, taste, planning, and visual organization better than a pure shopping cart could.

Known for

Visual discovery

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Social

Twitter

A podcast company became the world's public group chat.

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Social

Instagram

A crowded check-in app zoomed in on one magical feature.

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Flickr

A game feature became one of the web's beloved photo homes.

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Made by a human on the internet

Big companies were weird once too.

Designed and developed by Vishva Variya. Weird ideas into code, one oddly specific experiment at a time.

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