Kevin Systrom
Kevin Systrom
Kevin Systrom is an American entrepreneur and programmer, best known as the co‑founder and CEO of Instagram, an online mobile photo, video sharing application. This social networking service for iPhone, Android and Windows Phone that allow users to apply a filter to a photo and share it on the service or on other social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Flickr. In 2013, Systrom was listed in the Forbes 30 under 30 list under the Social/Mobile category. Together with Mike...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEntrepreneur
Date of Birth30 December 1983
CityHolliston, NY
CountryUnited States of America
I've always been into taking my photos, cropping them square, putting them through a filter in Photoshop.
I think not focusing on money makes you sane because in the long run it can probably drive you crazy.
Every startup should address a real and demonstrated need in the world - if you build a solution to a problem lots of people have, it's so easy to sell your product to the world.
I really value passion for the product above experience.
Instagram is a media company. I think we're about visual media. I explain ourselves as a disruptive entertainment platform that enables communication through visual media. I don't think it's just photos. There's a reason we don't allow you to upload photos on the Web as albums. It's not about taking all these photos off your DSLR putting them into an album and sharing them with your family. It's not about that. It's about what are you up to right now out in the real world, how can you share that with everyone.
We're just taking people and shifting them from taking photos anyway to taking them on Instagram.
People have presences, both online and in real life. You can choose to show everything, meaning all sides of you, or you can choose to be selective.
Obviously, being the CEO, there are a lot of eyes on what you do and what you post and how you post, and I think one of the challenges of Instagram in general is that, as we get bigger, there are just more voices in the room, more eyes on everyone's accounts.
Having a company that's successful is a wonderful platform to do new things. You don't have to raise money for it; you can take profits from the company and pump them into new business.
There's real beauty in pushing yourself to expose the real you in more ways.
What's awesome about social media is you curate your own experience. That leads to the rise of niche celebrities, who are actually just as popular as mass celebrities, but because there's no incentive for traditional media to invest in them as celebrities, they find a home where people can follow them on Instagram.
A lot of the earliest Instagram celebrities took really beautiful photos. But you're starting to see a change where it's not about beauty; it's about the story that you tell.
I always look toward teens on Instagram to really understand what's going on. For some reason, when you're a teen, you just understand the world better than anyone else.
I have a pretty random life. I run a business and go all over the world doing things for that business, things that are fairly orthogonal. But my job is to run my company, not to be the best Instagrammer. I'll let other people be awesome at it.