Ben Silbermann screws up his face as he considers what he could buy now he has been officially declared a billionaire by Forbes.
As Pinterest co-founder and chief executive, he helped create the clean, white online scrapbook where more than 100m users catalogue their desires. The 33-year-old has some 750,000 followers of his pins on subjects including art, recipes and a travel bucket list. But he does not have a “billionaire” pinboard for the life stage that crept up on him as Pinterest became one of the world’s most valuable technology start-ups.
Sitting in a small meeting room below a poster that reads “Say the hard thing”, he hesitates. “I want to buy a new camera but I haven’t gotten around to it,” he says. “I really love photography . . . I can’t think of anything that’s journalist-worthy or exciting.”