When we released Pinterest, it didn't grow quickly at first, but we kept going because we thought it was a really cool product that we enjoyed using.

While waiting for the app approval, I collaborated with a friend to create a tool for collecting things online, which eventually evolved into Pinterest. In the early days of Pinterest, we thought it would be cool to create a tool for ourselves to collect things, which we believed could also help others see the world differently.

We organized a marketing event with bloggers who seemed like the kind of people that would enjoy Pinterest, and they introduced the service to their audiences.

We initially acquired customers through out-of-home advertising in New York City before shifting to digital channels like Facebook and Instagram.

We quickly realized that building it and expecting users to come didn't work; we had to actively engage potential users to grow our platform.

In the early days, we launched multiple times to gain press attention, even if it meant rebranding and changing our approach frequently.

In March 2010, just a few months after launching Pinterest, we had almost 3,000 registered users and our daily pin count was steadily increasing.

When raising money, we had to articulate how big we thought Pinterest could be, which helped us attract ambitious and creative people to the team.

Press coverage and engaging with makers on Twitter were key tactics for growing Product Hunt's user base in the early days.