Pin it! Pinterest co-founder added to Thinc Iowa lineup
Ben Silbermann, middle, is the co-founder of Pinterest, a company Kara Swisher of the Wall Street Journal recently called the "hottest start-up of late in Silicon Valley." Photo from Pinterest on Facebook.
How about one more?
As we've been talking about Thinc Iowa for a nearly a year now we've been promising an event that will bring eight dynamic "doers" from around the country to Des Moines to spearhead a conversation on how startups and corporations can work together and learn from each other.
Today, we're very excited to increase that number by one and announce a ninth speaker: Ben Silbermann, co-founder of Pinterest.
Whether you're big into technology startups or not, I'm guessing you've heard of Pinterest in the last few months. They've been tearing up the social space with their idea of creating a virtual pinboard so that you can collect and share the wonderful things you find online. I first heard of it early this summer from my sister-in-law who uses it as an online way to scrapbook. Lately, I haven't gone a day without hearing about it from someone. They've caught the attention of some heavy-hitters in Silicon Valley, too, as AllThingsD.com first reported on Friday that Andreessen Horowitz, the venture fund behind other popular startups like Groupon, foursquare, Twitter and Zynga, had led an investment round of $27 million (putting Pinterest valuation at over $200 million).
Oh yeah, did you know that Ben is a Des Moines native? He's a Roosevelt High School graduate who now operates the company from Palo Alto in California after stops at Yale and Google. As he told me in an email today, "I'm excited to come home."
Next week's event is going to something special! Tickets are still available, but won't last long, so purchase yours today at thinciowa2011.eventbrite.com.
Learn more about Thinc Iowa at thinciowa.com.
We've been pinning Thinc Iowa, too! Check out our Thinc Iowa Pinterest at pinterest.com/siliconprairie.