Pinbooster, the platform that pays Pinterest users to re-pin sponsored messages from brands, is off to a running start.
Launched in late October 2012 by Dave Weinberg and Ariel Remer, the startup has "been revenue positive from Day 1,” Weinberg says. One thousand users signed up for Pinbooster within 24 hours of launch.
A self-professed serial entrepreneur (check out
giftcardrelief.org for another one of his current ventures), Weinberg credits the D.C. region’s technical community as one of the reasons he has stayed in the area. “The tech community supports each other here. This is the right place to be.”
In the 10 weeks since launching the start-up, Weinberg reports that there has been "incredible demand" for Pinbooster from brands. “We've been approached by the top 10 digital advertising agencies. We’ve had 300 campaigns — many of them [are] return campaigns. It's pretty great.”
Weinberg says Pinbooster is a way for pinners to "monetize [their] social activity." Pinners are paid to a fee — anywhere from $1 to $20,000 — to pin a sponsored image to their boards. "They can keep the original description or change it, and then we send that description back to the advertiser to make sure that it is in keeping with the brand." All the activity is tracked across Pinterest, and sponsored pins are indicated with a hashtag, like "#ad."
Weinberg also sees himself as an ambassador of sorts. “We spend a lot of time educating companies about best practices on Pinterest, about how to activate users.”
Though he won’t disclose which advertisers have signed on, as many are still in the testing phase, Weinberg does say that "they are brands you’d recognize — a publishing company, a shoe company."
Pinbooster is currently looking for two interns. They probably need to have an interest in, well, Pinterest.