# Leon Lin

> Leon Lin is the co-founder and CEO of 1stCollab, a Y Combinator-backed (W23) influencer marketing platform that automates and performance-optimizes creator campaigns end to end. Before founding the company in 2022, he spent nine years at Pinterest, rising to Head of Discovery Product where he led Home, Search, and recommendations surfaces. A Stanford computer scientist who taught the school's flagship CS courses, Leon now applies machine learning to predict which creators will actually convert for brands. He also writes 'Avoid Boring People,' a finance-and-tech newsletter read by thousands.

- **Role:** Co-Founder & CEO at 1stCollab
- **Organizations:** 1stCollab, Pinterest, Stanford University
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** BS and MS, Computer Science (machine learning & theoretical CS), Stanford University, Secondary education, The Lawrenceville School
- **Known for:** Led Discovery Product at Pinterest across Home, Search, and Related surfaces, driving engagement and video/native content growth, Co-founded and scaled 1stCollab into a YC W23 company reaching ~$2.1M revenue with a lean team, Built a machine-learning system that predicts creator performance to match brands with influencers

## Career timeline

- **2008-2009** — Co-leader of Stanford's iGEM (synthetic biology) team
- **2010** — Software engineering intern at A9.com (Amazon's search subsidiary)
- **2010-2013** — Head Teaching Assistant for CS124 and CS224N at Stanford
- **2012** — Software engineering intern at Facebook
- **2013** — Joined Pinterest as a software engineer
- **2013-2022** — Rose through Pinterest to Head of Discovery Product, leading Home, Search, and recommendation surfaces
- **2022** — Co-founded 1stCollab with Varun Bansal and Andrew Liu
- **2023** — 1stCollab joined Y Combinator's Winter 2023 batch and raised a pre-seed round
- **2024** — 1stCollab reached roughly $2.1M revenue with a ~14-person team

## Achievements

- Led Discovery Product at Pinterest across Home, Search, and Related surfaces, driving engagement and video/native content growth
- Co-founded and scaled 1stCollab into a YC W23 company reaching ~$2.1M revenue with a lean team
- Built a machine-learning system that predicts creator performance to match brands with influencers
- Helped clients save reportedly over $1M annually in influencer spend
- Head TA for Stanford's flagship CS124 and CS224N (NLP) courses
- Author of 'Avoid Boring People,' a finance-and-tech newsletter with 5,000+ subscribers

## Latest updates

- **2024** — 1stCollab reported reaching approximately $2.1M in revenue with a roughly 14-person team.
- **2023-08** — 1stCollab's most recent disclosed fundraise (seed-stage), part of total funding around $630K.

## Links

- Website: https://www.leonlinsx.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonqlin/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/nilnoel

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/leon-lin
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-27