Kevin Systrom was a marketer at Google who taught himself to code at night. He built a location-based app called Burbn that tried to do everything—check-ins, photo sharing, plans, and more. It was cluttered and confusing. Users barely engaged with it. Meanwhile, dozens of photo apps like Hipstamatic were gaining traction, and tech giants like Facebook and Twitter dominated social networking. Systrom had no clear differentiator, limited funding, and a product that wasn’t working. He was on the verge of shutting down when his girlfriend made an offhand comment that changed everything.
The Turning Point
Systrom’s girlfriend told him she wouldn’t use Burbn because her photos didn’t look as good as others. That comment unlocked the insight: people wanted filters that made their photos beautiful instantly. Systrom and co-founder Mike Krieger spent a weekend stripping Burbn down to its essence—photo sharing with gorgeous filters. They renamed it Instagram. They launched on October 6, 2010. Within two hours, the servers crashed from traffic. Within one day, they had 25,000 users. Within two months, they hit 1 million. The simplicity and beauty of Instagram struck a nerve that overly complex apps had missed.
The Strategy
Systrom’s strategy was radical simplicity: one feed, square photos, stunning filters, and nothing else. He made Instagram mobile-only when everyone else was building for desktop. He focused on speed—photos uploaded and posted instantly. He leveraged existing social networks, making it easy to share to Twitter and Facebook, creating viral growth. He added hashtags and the explore page to help users discover content. Most importantly, he created a culture of visual storytelling that made everyone feel like an artist. Instagram wasn’t just a photo app—it was a creative canvas.
The Results
In April 2012, just 18 months after launch, Facebook acquired Instagram for $1 billion—at the time, the company had 13 employees and zero revenue. Mark Zuckerberg called it ‘one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.’ Today, Instagram has over 2 billion monthly active users and generates over $50 billion in annual revenue. It spawned influencer culture, launched millions of creator careers, and fundamentally changed how brands market products. Kevin Systrom became one of the youngest self-made billionaires in tech history.
