CTO at Pinterest: From Pizza Shop to Leading 580 Million Users

*Episode Guest:*
Matt Madrigal is the Chief Technology Officer at Pinterest, where he leads product management, engineering, and infrastructure for the platform. With a career spanning eBay, Google, and Fanatics, Matt is a seasoned e-commerce and tech leader passionate about building positive, high-impact user experiences.

*Episode Timestamps:*
0:00 Introduction
1:23 From Chico to Pizza Shop: Matt’s First Job
3:45 Lessons in Work Ethic from Immigrant Parents
5:32 What Hard Work Really Means
8:01 The Cheers and Chores Philosophy
10:46 Breaking into Tech & Early Career Moves
13:30 Surviving the Dot-Com Boom
15:58 Joining eBay and Learning at Scale
19:15 Why Shopping & E-Commerce Hooked Matt
21:40 Choosing Managers vs. Missions
24:01 The Truth About AI & Early Career Jobs
27:18 What Makes a Great Software Engineer
30:12 The Red Flags in Tech Talent
32:14 Key Lessons from Google
35:17 Undoing Old Habits to Grow
37:20 Why Matt Said Yes to Pinterest
39:34 What Sets Pinterest Apart
42:01 Using Pinterest to Inspire Youth Spaces
44:00 Why Pinterest Is a Great Place to Work
46:19 Matt’s Biggest Life Lessons
48:35 Matt’s Duvet Flip: Solving Hard Problems with Great People

*Episode Partners*
Hg Foundation
Together with The Hg Foundation, we’re on a mission to motivate and inspire young people like you to explore, or even start a career in technology through inspirational talks from industry.
https://bit.ly/4mwzRGs

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