Pinterest is blazing hot among the social sharing networks and Instagram is the hottest photo sharing app doing the rounds of the internet nowadays. Pek Pongpaet(35) and Brandon Leonardo(28), a design team based in San Francisco, did some brainstorming to just figure out what services could be paired up together and jokingly came up with the idea of integrating Pinterest and Instagram and thus Pinstagram was born.

The initial proof of concept was developed by Pek overnight on a weekend and then the two of them worked together to refine the working of the integration.











 In Pek's own words - “I’m sort of a shoot first, ask questions later kind of guy, I think Pinstagram fills an important void because Instagram never focused on the desktop experience,” , kudos to that!

Pinstagram works seamlessly with your Instagram account and the best part is that it is free to use and allows you to use Instagram on the web. Pinstagram uses Pinterest's sleek waterfall interface to display all your default feeds, popular pictures, their own photos and favorites. Users can also interact with any of the photos by liking, commenting or pinning them to Pinterest.  Pek was good enough to take some time out of his busy schedule and talk to us about the creation of Pinstagram. Read on to find out more about it.


Pek, could you please introduce yourself to our readers.

I'm an entrepreneur based in Silicon Valley. Prior to making Pinstagram, I was in the Human Computer Interaction Group at Accenture Technology Labs, VP of Product at SpotOn, and was doing Tapisto.com, a site that provides mobile friendly websites for small business.


What is the concept behind Pinstagram and what was the inspiration to create it? Why do you and Brandon refer to it as your 'Weekend Project'?

The concept behind Pinstagram is simple - to mash up two of the currently hottest startups - Pinterest and Instagram. At the time, Instagram was just bought by Facebook for $1 Billion and Pinterest was valued well over $500 million. We call it the weekend project because it was literally made over the weekend.

We joked about the idea in the afternoon on a Friday and I started working on it that evening. The next day, I showed Brandon what I had and he joined me in working on it moving forward. My part was actually done by then and I remember not working on it at all on Sunday.


What common features of Instagram and Pinterest, does Pinstagram share?

Pinstagram pulls photos from your Instagram and shares some UI 'feel' with Instagram. However it also borrows the waterfall layout made famous by Pinterest. Pinstagram also makes it easy to 'Pin' your Instagram photos to Pinterest, thus promoting your content. The three also share similar features in that they allow you to easily like and comment on content.












Apart from Pinstagram, you and Brandon are also the co-founders of Tapisto.com. How the two of you meet? How do you manage to separate your professional and personal relationships?

We originally met at SXSW, a music, film, and interactive festival in Austin Texas over 3 years ago. We've kept in touch since and last year, I moved from Chicago to California to join him at his latest venture at the time.

I don't have much of a separation between my professional life and personal life. Some people keep their professional friends on LinkedIn and their Friend friends on Facebook. I take a very different approach in that I friend everyone I know on every social network. I try to spend as much time as I can with my wife and dog and see my family, but my free time mostly revolves around work and making things. I also try to set aside time for exercise.


I read somewhere on the internet that "Pinstagram is one of the most awesome mash-ups ever". How does this make you feel?

It feels great to make something that people appreciate. I am a heavy Instagram user and I made this for myself as much as those people who've been waiting for the right tool. In the end, a product is only as good as the utility it provides or the value it creates for the end user. As Tron says, "I fight for the user".


What is the fondest memory that the two of you have of the process from when the two of you conceived Pinstagram to having it fully functional and running?

So we only talked about the concept on Friday, but when I have a bug or an idea that sticks, I like to make it real in some way. The best memory I have of the weekend is when I showed Brandon what I had - the early beginnings of Pinstagram, and he immediately jumped on it and saw its value. You can not judge an idea by talking about it, you have to show it.


What are the future plans for Pinstagram? Are you looking to add any new features? 

We'll be constantly improving the product. We've already made several improvements since we launched. We've added Twitter and Facebook sharing. You can easily invite your Instagram friends to Pinstagram. Many of the bugs that were there at launch have been fixed.

One of the coolest features is the Popular feed scrolls infinitely. Unlike the Instagram app, where the Popular feed needed to be constantly refreshed with the press of a button, with Pinstagram, you just keep scrolling down endlessly. We also have an upcoming iPad app.

















Keeping your experience in evolving 2 start-ups of different kind, in perspective, what is the one most valuable piece of advice  that you would like to give to aspiring start-ups?

Launch. Don't wait. We actually sat on Pinstagram for a week. We didn't launch it the week after because I felt it was buggy and not ready. I showed it to a friend and he told me he really liked it. That was when we finally decided to just launch and see what happens.

Thank you Pek for taking the time for this interview, we wish you and Pinstagram the very best for the future. :)