Pinterest taps former Twitter exec as first CFO amid IPO talk

By Saqib Shah October 4, 2016

pinterest check tips — Bloomua/Shutterstock

Pinterest is fueling speculation over a possible IPO based on the firm’s appointment of its first chief financial officer. Todd Morgenfeld — whose previous position was VP of finance at Twitter — has nabbed the role, the company announced on Tuesday.

Morgenfeld has a background in the tech investment sector, having served at private equity firm Silver Lake for nine years, and before that as an investment banker in the technology, media, and telecommunications group at Goldman Sachs.

Todd Morgenfeld, via LinkedIn — Todd Morgenfeld, via LinkedIn Image used with permission by copyright holder

“We are excited that Todd is joining Pinterest as CFO,” CEO Ben Silbermann said in a statement. “Todd brings to the company a wide range of experience from HP to the military to a fast-paced environment like Twitter. He believes in our mission and the strong business opportunity it presents. We are committed to building our company for the long term and thrilled that Todd will be an integral part of continuing this growth.”

Seeing as Morgenfeld is the first individual to be named CFO at Pinterest, talk regarding a possible IPO was bound to follow. For its part, Pinterest has kept quiet on any plans to go public, instead directing the conversation toward its main goal of building a sustainable revenue model.

“’Public’ has never been the goal, instead it’s how can we build a company that can forward invest, and a lot of those resources should come from revenue,” Silbermann told Business Insider earlier this year.

Therefore, Morgenfeld may have been brought on board to put Pinterest’s financial house in order. In terms of generating revenue, the social bookmarking platform recently introduced video ads on its site, thanks to the launch of a native video player in July. It is also increasingly integrating AI into its visual search tool to help users find more buyable Pins.

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