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SAN FRANCISCO — When is Pinterest Opened to the public In 2018, friends of Christine Martinez sent congratulations. In its early days, he had worked closely with the founders of the digital board, and his friends thought he would prosper with them.
But as Pinterest’s stock price soared, making its founders billionaires, Ms. Martinez said she realized she wouldn’t be compensated or credited for her contributions.
He filed a lawsuit on Monday.
In a lawsuit filed in Alameda County Supreme Court, Ms. Martinez accused Ben Silbermann and Paul Sciarra, two of Pinterest’s three co-founders, of implied breach of contract, plagiarism, unjust enrichment and unfair business practices. The lawsuit said Mr. Martinez created Pinterest with Mr. Silbermann and Mr. Sciarra and contributed ideas that were “essential editing concepts” such as organizing images on boards and enabling e-commerce.
Ms. Martinez, 40, was never officially employed by Pinterest, nor did she seek a contract. No shares were issued despite Pinterest’s founders verbally saying that they agreed to compensate him multiple times.
Based on her arguments, Ms. Martinez argued that she and the founders had an implied contract. According to the complaint, Pinterest even named a portion of its source code after him. And she was so close friends with the co-founders that she brought them both home for Christmas and was a bridesmaid at Mr. Silbermann’s wedding.
“I always hoped they could make up for me,” he said, adding that he was naive. “There was no doubt in my mind.”
Pinterest did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit renews questions about whether it happened. PinterestAppealing primarily to female users, it is hostile to women and minorities in the workplace.
Last summer, Ifeoma Ozoma and Aeroca Shimizu Banks, two former Pinterest employees tweeted about pay gaps, retaliation, and sexist, racist comments they experienced at the company. Not long after, Pinterest’s former COO Francoise Brougher sued the company for gender discrimination and retaliation.
In response, Pinterest employees virtual walk last August, she asked the company to increase the number of women and minorities in its top ranks and to provide more transparency on promotion levels, retention and pay.
company in December reached a $22.5 million deal Brougher, including $2.5 million donations to charities for women and underrepresented minorities in technology. Pinterest shareholders later sued the company and the board over workplace culture.
Ms. Ozoma helped sponsor the Silenced No More Act In California, it will expand the protection of employees who speak out about discrimination or harassment in the workplace. It recently passed the state legislature.
Martinez said she wasn’t surprised to see headlines about Pinterest’s culture and was disappointed by the disconnect between the company’s male founders and female users.
“I spent many years really confused about how people believe these three men have created such a product for women, that they understand women well enough,” he said.
Beginning in 2008, a year before Pinterest was founded, Mr. Silbermann and Mr. Sciarra sought advice from Ms. Martinez on a wide variety of concepts, from its name and features to its marketing strategy and product roadmap, according to the lawsuit.
Ms. Martinez studied interior design, created a lifestyle blog, and founded LAMA Designs, an e-commerce startup. While LAMA’s business model worked and was promising, venture capitalists did not take it seriously and said it was struggling to raise money.
Still, it was easier to fund Pinterest based on little more than an idea and testimonials from Mr. Silbermann and Mr. Sciarra. Ms. Martinez said she was willing to help her friends.
“He 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 founders the idea of arranging images on “boards”, a key feature of the site; created the call-to-action “Pin it”; created its main categories such as home decoration, fashion and do it yourself. He also helped Mr. Silbermann convince top design and lifestyle bloggers to use Pinterest and promote it. He took him to conferences, gathered feedback from the community, and said he directed the field to them.
Ms. Martinez said she would not receive compensation but only realized it after Pinterest went public in 2018.
Shortly after, she said that a death in the family made her think about her life. This encouraged him to talk about Pinterest.
“I couldn’t take this to my grave,” she said.
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