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

My Duvet Flip by Jack Parsons

Jack Parsons

Business, Careers

4.2 • 5 Ratings

🗓️ 9 October 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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

Disclaimer:

The content provided on Duvet Flip is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered professional advice. The views expressed by hosts, guests, brands or contributors are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the show's producers, sponsors, or affiliates. The information shared is not a substitute for professional advice, including but not limited to career counseling, financial guidance, legal consultation, or mental health support.

Listeners and viewers are responsible for their own decisions and actions based on the content provided, and Duvet Flip assumes no liability for any outcomes resulting from reliance on the information shared. By engaging with the show, you acknowledge and agree to this disclaimer.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	My first job when I was 14 years old, I worked at Rico's Pizza. I was a pizza bus boy. I had to get an exception because in California you have to be 16 to work.
0:09.0	No job is too big, too small. Give it a go, right? Matt Madrigal, chief technology officer of Pinterest.
0:15.4	We have almost 5,000 employees globally, and this is my duvet for it. What did that job teach you about life? There's no job that's too big for me. How can you make sure that the chores doesn't make you depressed? You're earning your way up to the cheers. We have a number of young people that will come to us, less than the year's work experience, and they want to be CEO tomorrow. First of all, be great at the job you have today. What has been some of the life's lessons that you would die by? You miss every shot you don't take. And are you ready for my final question? Let's go. What's your duvet flip? What gets you out of bed in the morning to flip the duvet? Yeah, my duvet flip is... Matt Madrigal, Chief Technology Officer at Pinterest.
0:55.0	I'm four sitting down with Jack, feeling great.
0:57.0	I'm most excited just to talk about my career journey in a way where hopefully I can give little nuggets of good advice to the Gen Z and others who are listening.
1:05.0	I said yes to my due vaeful because Jack's the man.
1:08.0	It is an awesome podcast and I love the mission. There's one thing I'd love
1:14.1	people to take away. It's just work hard, great at your role and then get to earn your way to the next one.
1:22.6	How's going Jack? Let's do this. So Matt, welcome to my dove flip. Thanks for having me. It's great to be here with you in London.
1:28.3	I know, we're in London.
1:29.3	It's not, as you can see, I'm not even going to talk about the weather. I'll just give up. Oh, there's nice. It's not bad, is it? It's not bad, but normally it's rain. It's a lot of rain. A lot of rain. but we're good today.
1:40.3	Yeah.
1:41.3	I want to start here, Matt, because you've got a fantastic career where it started.
1:46.3	I know offset you were telling me a little bit about today. I want to start here, Matt, because you've got a fantastic career where it started.
1:46.0	I know offset you was telling me a little bit about where it all started. Where did it start for you?
1:51.0	Yeah, yeah. What was your first proper job that you actually experienced a bit of work?
1:56.0	And what did that job teach you about life?
1:58.0	Yeah, it's great. So I grew up in a small town in northern California called
2:01.9	Chico. It's about three hours north of San Francisco. And my first job, when I was 14 years old,
2:07.2	I worked at Rico's Pizza. And at Rico's Pizza, I was a pizza bus boy, meaning that I was responsible
2:13.1	for cleaning tables, cleaning the bathroom, cleaning the kitchen. And it was a great job. I had to get an
2:19.2	exception because in California you have to be 16 to work. So I was 14. I wanted to experience
	...

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