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
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.
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.
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.
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.
In my fourth grade classroom, I even instituted a government structure, because I was really interested in people having positions and there being law.
In the past, people have looked at photos as a record of memory. The focus has been on the past tense. With Instagram, the focus is on the present tense.
I actually think some of my best moments in life have been while I was with people from Instagram - whether it's super late nights getting a release out or being able to travel to places I'd never visited and meeting some of the most interesting people I've ever met.
People always told me photos have been done. My feeling was, these people are wrong.
People interact with their phones very differently than they do with their PCs, and I think that when you design from the ground up with mobile in mind, you create a very different product than going the other way.
What people tell you and how they act is very, very different sometimes.
I really love connecting people, creating communities. As a kid, creation was something that I always loved.
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 appreciate crafts. I like cooking. I love food and drink. I love owning that through Instagram. Although that can be challenging at times because it doesn't fit people's stereotypes of a technical founder.