When Pinterest
went public in 2019, Christine
Martinez’s friends sent
congratulations. She had worked
closely with the founders of the digital
pinboard in its earliest days, and her
friends thought she would get rich
alongside them.
But as Pinterest’s stock price rose,
turning its founders into billionaires,
Ms. Martinez realized she would not
be compensated or credited for her
contributions, she said.


On Monday, she sued.
In a lawsuit filed in Alameda County
Superior Court, Ms. Martinez accused
Ben Silbermann and Paul Sciarra, two
of Pinterest’s three co-founders, of
breach of implied contract, idea theft,
unjust enrichment and unfair business
practices. Ms. Martinez created
Pinterest alongside Mr. Silbermann
and Mr. Sciarra, the lawsuit said,
contributing ideas that were “core
organizing concepts,” such as
organizing images on boards and
enabling e-commerce.
Ms. Martinez, 40, was never formally
employed by Pinterest, nor did she
ask for a contract. She was not given
stock, though she said Pinterest’s
founders had verbally agreed to
compensate her many times.
Ms. Martinez argued that she and the
founders had an implied contract,
based on their discussions. Pinterest
even named a section of its source
code after her, according to the
complaint. And she was such close
friends with the co-founders that she
brought them both home for
Christmas and was a bridesmaid in
Mr. Silbermann’s wedding.
“I always expected that when they
could compensate me, they would,”
she said, adding that she had been
naïve. “There was never a doubt in
my mind.”


A Pinterest spokeswoman said in a
statement that Ms. Martinez’s
allegations were without merit and
that the company would defend its
position in court. “ We are proud of
what we built at Pinterest and
appreciate all the Pinners who have
helped shape the platform over the
years,” she said.
The lawsuit renews questions about
whether Pinterest, which caters
primarily to female users, is hostile to
women and minorities in its
workplace.


Last summer, Ifeoma Ozoma and
Aerica Shimizu Banks , two former
Pinterest employees, wrote on Twitter
about the pay disparities, retaliation
and sexist, racist comments they had
experienced at the company. Shortly
after, Francoise Brougher, Pinterest’s
former chief operating officer, sued
the company, claiming gender
discrimination and retaliation.
In response, Pinterest employees
staged a virtual walkout in August last
year, demanding that the company
increase the number of women and
minorities in its top ranks and provide
more transparency around promotion
levels, retention and pay.


In December, the company agreed to a
$22.5 million settlement with Ms.
Brougher, including a $2.5 million
donation toward charities for women
and underrepresented minorities in
tech. Pinterest shareholders then sued
the company and its board over its
workplace culture.


Ms. Ozoma has helped sponsor the
Silenced No More Act in California,
which will broaden protection of
employees who speak out about
discrimination or harassment at work.
It was recently passed by the State
Legislature.
Ms. Martinez said that she was not
surprised to see the headlines about
Pinterest’s culture and that she had
been frustrated by the disconnect
between the company’s male founders
and its female users.
“I’ve spent a lot of years being really
confused about how it is that people
believe that these three men created a
product like this for women — that
they understood women well
enough,” she said.


Starting in 2008, the year before
Pinterest was founded, Mr.
Silbermann and Mr. Sciarra sought
Ms. Martinez’s advice on a wide range
of concepts, from its name and
features to its marketing strategy and
product road map, according to the
lawsuit.
Ms. Martinez had studied interior
design, created a lifestyle blog and
founded LAMA Designs, an e-
commerce start-up. Even though
LAMA’s business model worked and
was showing promise, venture
capitalists didn’t take her seriously,
and she said she had struggled to raise
money.
Yet funding for Pinterest, based on
little more than an idea and Mr.
Silbermann’s and Mr. Sciarra’s
credentials, came easier. Ms. Martinez
said she was eager to help her friends.
“They had no marketing background
or expertise in creating a product for
women,” she said. “My role was
always to educate them.”


According to the lawsuit, Ms.
Martinez gave the co-founders the
idea of organizing images on
“boards,” a core feature of the site;
created its call-to-action phrase, “Pin
it”; and established its main categories
including home décor, fashion and
D.I.Y. She also helped Mr. Silbermann
persuade top design and lifestyle
bloggers to use Pinterest and promote
it. She took him to conferences,
gathered feedback from the
community and honed the pitch to
them, she said.
Ms. Martinez said she realized she
would not be compensated only after
Pinterest went public in 2019.
Soon after, she said, a death in the
family caused her to reflect on her
life. That emboldened her to speak up
about Pinterest.
“I couldn’t take this to my grave,” she
said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/13/technology/pinterest-lawsuit.html

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