Executive Summary for Pinterest

Value Proposition
Unlike all the other sites at the time, Pinterest was organized around images of things that interested you, not textual based comments like Facebook and Twitter.  All of these other sites focused on connecting people and ideas, Pinterest focused on those ideas but as images.

Customer Relationships
There are really only two customers, users and advertisers of some sort.  Right now, based on the yesterdays USA Today article Pinterest isn't really charging advertisers. However, the commentary about retailers providing data about products pinned and then allowing click through to their site to even buy the items leads me to the view that they will eventually need to and start charging for advertising.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/talkingtech/2013/08/21/pinterest-building-audience-before-taking-ads/2678825/

Channels
The Channels I listed were direct and Indirect.  Direct would be direct selling or advertising, but I could see a direct model where traffic might flow Pinterest to other sites and Pinterest might make money on click through.

Customer Segments
Segments I broke down to users (free and premium).  Capping Pins or Pins per week, something like what LinkedIn would help drive a model that allows them to charge for premium users as well as still offer the site free and generate add revenue.  Add revenue was my third segment and this is relatively straightforward.  One thing I do believe that is important is not making the 46 million and growing users feel like they are being advertised too.  I like the idea of retailers putting a certain level of background data out there that then allows them to have information on costs, dimensions, sizes, etc...  This seems more like a value add than a hard sell.  Finally, I have revenue share with customers as Pinterest users click through and purchase goods.

Key Partners
This is simple, you must keep the users pinning.  If this tails off, there is no business.  Second would be the advertisers, otherwise this isn't a business.

Key Resource
46 million users and growing.  Again, this is nothing but an idea without the adoption that has been seen

Key Activities
Developing new and exciting ways for users to display their ideas.

Cost Structure
I used the Facebook model (rough) with cogs around 25%, then moved SG&A and R&D higher as they are trying to grow rapidly and don't have some of the scale benefit FB has.  SG&A I modeled at 40% and R&D at 30%.  This allows them about 5% operating margins and the ability to continue to invest to grow the business.  The great part about Internet based businesses is the business scales very well.

Revenue model I did a build up on retail spending, premium users, and advertising of retailers.  Because the model scales, you can maintain profitability at almost any level. This may be a gating factor for growth, but as of right now, the primary source of funding is raising money from venture funds.  I think it's a great model and has the potential to be interesting.  My wife has recently become an addict and is spending less time on Facebook because of it.  She is also introducing my nine year old daughter to it and she loves it too.