Within 8 weeks, my partner and I managed to create a mobile app
that registered over one million users in just two months
Simple to use, pleasing to the eye, and praised for its influence,
what started as a knockoff to an app called Foursquare, turned into a $1 billion-dollar buyout
All of this happened before the age of 30
I was born on December 30, 1983, in Holliston, Massachusetts to a fortunate family
My father was vice president of human resources for a department store corporation
with their most recognized being TJ Maxx
and my mother was a marketing executive for many dot-com companies including Monster and Zipcar
Similar to my mother, I was attracted to technology and computers
By playing computer games like Doom, I began creating my own levels out of curiosity
Sometimes, I would create programs that acted like it hacked into my friends' AOL Messenger accounts
I always had a knack for using what was around at the time and tweak it to my needs,
but I didn’t expect this skill and creativity to get me where I am today
My first job was in high school working at a record store that sold old-school vinyl records
I love music and at the time, I really wanted to be a DJ,
so working at a record store helped me immerse myself in the music
I eventually got a few DJing jobs and with the help of friends, snuck me into clubs since I was still under 18
If there is one thing I know about myself is it's this,
if I am obsessed with something, I will completely immerse myself and try to know everything about it
It’s just who I am and how fixed I get once something is on my mind
This behavior allowed me to focus deeply on my schooling where I was accepted into Stanford University
Some will say that school is everything to your future. But for me, school was just too academic and boring
I wanted something that could be applied and used in my everyday life
So I majored in Management Science and Engineering
In my free time, I would build web programs or create games for friends.
I always saw it as a fun hobby and something to learn or toy around with
The good news was, I was studying at a school that had the world's largest techies in one area; Silicon Valley
During my studies, I interned at multiple places
with my most memorable being at a podcast sharing startup called Odeo
I learned more than I ever would from a book and from the founders who would later create Twitter
I felt alive and it never felt like work
But, I was determined to learn more and explore,
so I finished my internship and during my senior year at Stanford
I got a job working at Google
I was their associate product marketing manager
managing Google Calendar, Gmail, Docs, and other products
As a first job, I was thrilled to be there
But after 2 years, I started to feel bored and had this undeniable itch to do more
I wanted to create something cool and become an entrepreneur, not be stuck in a corporate structure
So when a few employees were leaving to start their own startup product,
I jumped at the opportunity to try something new and grow
I quit my job at Google and went to work for Nextstop as their product manager
Remember, I didn't have any formal computer training, so I couldn't be a coder
Luckily, the startup allowed me to learn from their coders and on nights and weekends
I would spend hours building my own app called Burbn
It was an app that allowed people to check-in, post photos, and earn points for hanging out with friends
Although it was only a prototype, it did lead me to create one of the world's most widely used apps
I thought my app had everything needed for social media and I wanted to develop it further
The only problem was, my time was now limited working full-time and I needed money to successfully build it
While at a startup party, I met two venture capitalists.
I showed them my prototype and they liked where I was headed
Excited, I quit my job, again, but this time to focus on my own product
Within 2 weeks, I was able to raise $500,000 from both of those men
I now had my perfect app, money to build it, and time. But I was missing a team
In 2010, I was able to find an old friend from college, Mike Krieger,
A 25-year-old who was working at Meebo at the time
He was a computer engineer working on user-experience and design.
After explaining my app idea, he left his job and joined me
Although, he wasn't completely sold on the product
So we both took a step back and really looked at the product
Mike helped me focus on what really mattered; what we wanted to be good at
At the time, Burbn was starting to get noticed
but it was too similar to another app called Foursquare; an already established social check-in app
Ours was cluttered, messy, and had too much going on
I didn't want it to look like every other app, I only wanted it to be social and cool
Taking apart each feature and discussing what we liked most
we made the very risky decision to completely start from scratch
and build an entirely new app from the ground up
We kept the comet and light capabilities and focused on only one thing
Photos
Little did we know that decisions solidified our future towards one of the
most successful social apps created
Instagram
The name came from the two words: Instant and Telegram
It had a catchy ring to it and was easy to say
Of course, we had to add other features to the app so that it would be more eye-catching and fun to use,
but it remained simple, clean, and easy to use
We studied photography for weeks trying to find out what stood out
What was popular and what was most interesting
By far, what people loved most were filters
For the next 8 weeks, we worked obsessively to perfect Instagram,
Testing it with friends and making it as easy and simple to use as possible
And on October 6, 2010, we launched for iOS Apple. The next day, we became the top free photo sharing app
We never expected it to be popular
At first, mainly photographers posted their pictures
But when celebrities began using it, we knew it was going to explode
Within 1 week, Instagram had over 100,000 downloads and in just 2 months, over 1 million users.
I would have been happy with 10,000 users
But when it hit over 1 million, I knew we had created something massive
Investors began offering us million dollar investments, which was crazy
because we had less than 10 people working at our office
The largest offer came on April 2012 when Facebook made an offer we couldn't refuse
They purchased our app that took 8 weeks to build for $1 billion dollars
And this all happened before I turned 30 years old
Today, Instagram has over 800 million active users, over 300 million daily stories,
95 million photos uploaded per day, 4.2 billion likes a day and 40 billion photos shared
When people ask me what makes Instagram so important, I tell them this,
“Anyone can build a social photo-sharing site. And in fact many people have.
Our community is our biggest asset, so we need to protect that — make sure people are happy".
My name is Kevin Systrom and together with Mike Krieger
I created the billion dollar app known as, Instagram