Pinterest a unicorn, doesn’t act like it

But its slow, steady tactics frustrate some investors, employees.

SAN FRANCISCO — Ben Silbermann does not enjoy being interviewed. He is not a fan of speaking at tech industry conferences. Nor does he like sitting for glossy magazine portraits. He does not think he should have to explain Pinterest, the web service that allows people to save images to virtual pinboards, to anyone other than those who want to use it.

That is the case even in the past couple of years, when Pinterest and Silbermann, its co-founder and chief executive, could have been shouting the company’s virtues from the rooftops.

Its peers — Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter — have been drowning in toxic harassment, fake news and Russian disinformation campaigns.

Pinterest, by Silbermann’s design, is the opposite: the web’s last bastion of quaint innocence. Having de-emphasized its social media elements years ago, Pinterest aims to be a safe and happy place for inspiration, self-improvement and salted caramel cookie recipes. It also rejects Silicon Valley’s typical unicorn formula of moving fast, breaking things, chasing growth at all costs and bragging about every victory.

But the reserved, slow and steady approach has frustrated some investors and employees, who say that it has neutered growth, according to interviews with more than a dozen people who have worked with or for the company. Many of those people spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the company’s private affairs.

Matt Novak, a partner at All Blue Capital, said his firm was trying to sell its stake in Pinterest, which the firm acquired on the secondary market, because it had not lived up to its potential.

“If they don’t keep up, they very quickly become prehistoric,” said Novak, who would not disclose the size of his firm’s stake in Pinterest.

And yet despite Silbermann’s approach — or maybe because of it — the company is worth $12.3 billion, and growth is accelerating. This month, the company has crossed a new milestone: 250 million monthly active users. Those users have pinned 175 billion items on 3 billion virtual pinboards. The company is on track to top $700 million in revenue this year, a 50 percent increase over last year, according to a person familiar with the company. There is wide speculation that it will go public next year.

If Pinterest continues its trajectory, it could change the narrative of what it takes to build a successful company in Silicon Valley, a meaningful feat at a time that the startup world is seeking new templates for leaders. If it does not, it will serve as another example of wasted potential, or worse, a cautionary tale.

“I tell them, ‘You have to tell your story, especially now,’” said Scott Belsky, an entrepreneur who was an early investor in Pinterest.