Dec 6, 2012

Brian Cohen, Pinterest’s initial investor, speaking at today’s Social Media Association meeting

Posted by Wendy Weber

I attended a meeting of today’s Social Media Association today, and Brian Cohen, Pinterest’s initial investor, was the speaker.

Pinterest actually started as an app called Tote. The idea was to be the first woman’s fashion catalog on the iPhone. Watching user behavior on Tote, the developer noticed that women were grabbing, tagging specific items that they were able to view later when they got home.  Thus, an idea was born…

Cohen is first and foremost an Angel Investor, and much of his talk centered around that.  In fact, I really didn’t learn very much about using Pinterest.

Cohen didn’t beat around the bush when articulating his thoughts on the key to success…in his words, “Suck less than everyone else.”

He said that most angel investors invest as part entertainment, part investment.  Since the average holding period for an angel investment in the U.S. is 9 years, patience is important.  Cohen says “no” to projects almost 98% of the time!

Brian has completed a book for McGraw Hill due out this spring, entitled “What Every Angel Investor Wants You To Know. In Insider Reveals How To Raise Money For Your Billion-dollar Idea“.

Though the meeting was promoted as about Pinterest, and was really about Brian’s thoughts on Angel investing, it was interesting nonetheless.

In