Instagram is one of the most important and impactful social apps in history. But do you know the story behind the app and the forward-thinking founder who brought it to life? In this tech deep dive, we‘ll explore the upbringing, leadership style and future ambitions of Kevin Systrom, the programmer turned CEO who revolutionized photography and visual communication for over a billion people.
Let‘s start from the beginning – who is Kevin Systrom and where did his passions for tech and photography originate?
small town childhood leads to big dreams
Kevin Systrom grew up in the small Massachusetts town of Holliston (population around 15,000) as the son of Diane, a marketing executive at Zipcar, and Douglas, a human resources VP. He had an interest in technology from a young age. According to Diane, "ever since he was three years old, if his parents came home and couldn’t figure out how to program the VCR, he’d do it for us."
In high school, he built websites for local businesses. One was a Maybelline cosmetics fan page coded in HTML he jokingly calls "his first foray into beauty products." His early exposure to building on the web would prove formative.
But photography is what first sparked his creative spirit. On weekends, he and his dad would visit flea markets hunting for early 20th century cameras. Through the lens, he found joy in composing images of his idyllic small town life – weekend sailboat trips on the Cape Cod seashore and leafy autumn walks flanked by historic colonials.
Capturing these moments fused his love for technology with his appreciation for finding beauty in everyday experiences – two passions that would collide in the Instagram app years later.
Stanford and Silicon Valley Come Calling
Fortunately for Systrom, his talents were noticed and he was accepted into the prestigious Stanford University. As an undergrad management science and engineering major there in 2006, he was handpicked to attend the exclusive Mayfield Fellows program at Stanford‘s business school.
This internship experience placed Systrom at a podcasting startup called Odeo (eventually pivot to a little known platform called Twitter). Soon he was networking in Silicon Valley circles with future tech superstars like Jack Dorsey and Ev Williams.
Systrom had caught the entrepreneurship bug. As he told Forbes, "Ever since then I’ve been fascinated by the intersection of technology and society."
A Short Stint in Google Marketing
After graduating Stanford in 2006, Systrom was hired as an associate product marketer at Google. For two years he worked on products in what would later become Google Workspace – honing his instincts for intuitive user-friendly interfaces.
But Kevin yearned to create something from scratch. He told his bosses at Google "someday I’m gonna leave and start a company." True to his word, he would soon exit, but not before absorbing key lessons in shipping products users love.
Nextstop and the Birth of Instagram
In 2009 Kevin left Google to join Nextstop, an app co-founded by former colleagues designed to give travel recommendations. Though a commercial failure, this pivot to mobile development opened Kevin‘s mind to the potential of smartphones and apps to enable new immersive experiences.
It was around this time his girlfriend Nicole Schuetz (who he‘d later marry in 2016) snapped photos while they vacationed in Mexico. Systrom focused in on two he particularly loved – a photo of a dog juxtaposed with Mexican tiles and an artistic shot of Nicole‘s foot on a beach.
The creativity and composition of these images showed him how mobile photography could enable artful self-expression. As he told Vogue India:
"I began to realize that almost entire life experiences or stories could be told through just one of these photos."
He set out to build a platform focused solely on this concept. He coded an early prototype app for photo filters and sharing called Burbn, named whimsically after his girlfriend‘s love for the bourbon drink.
The Burbn prototype impressed investors and Systrom found a co-founder in Mike Krieger, a fellow Stanford alum. The pair honed the app, focusing entirely on photos. They renamed it Instagram, combining the terms instant camera and telegram.
And on October 6, 2010, the revolutionary Instagram app launched on iOS.
An App That Redefined Visual Culture
The response was immediate. Instagram gained 100K users in the first week. By early 2011 it hit 1 million users.
Table 1: Instagram‘s Accelerating User Growth
| Date | Users |
|---|---|
| October 2010 | 100,000 |
| March 2011 | 1,000,000 |
| April 2012 | 30,000,000 |
| September 2017 | 800,000,000 |
| April 2022 | 1,500,000,000 |
People were hooked on snapping photos made more beautiful and impactful with Systrom‘s proprietary photo filters. X-Pro II gave photos a high contrast drama. Lo-fi added artistic grain. Valencia brought golden tones. The app made ordinary camera phone photos pop as if shot by a pro.
Systrom realized they‘d tapped into a cultural zeitgeist centered on sharing life‘s moments as temporary yet glorious works of visual art. He vowed to stay focused wholly on that feeling rather than chasing typical metrics of success or allowing greed to taint the community‘s creativity.
"We try to do right by the community first rather than fixate on getting bigger," Systrom told Mashable in 2013.
This commitment to users fuels the joy still palpable on Instagram today. While competitors like Snapchat chased gimmicks, Systrom doubled down on people‘s desire for beauty, connection and self-expression.
Instagram turned amateur phone snaps into gorgeous works of creativity, fit for an art gallery. Visually striking images of far flung vacations, mouth watering dishes, smiling kids, glowing golden hour light, and architectural symmetry now punctuate our everyday digital existence rather than just fading away unseen in camera rolls.
Systrom‘s first Instagram photo from July 16 2010 of his dog and Nicole Schuetz‘s foot while vacationing in Mexico
Selling to Facebook and Meteoric Growth
It‘s no wonder then that when Mark Zuckerberg came calling to acquire Instagram in 2012, just two years from launch, he shelled out $1 billion to make it part of Facebook‘s family. At the time, Instagram had 30 million registered users and just 13 employees. The deal shocked Silicon Valley both in its early timing and its hefty price tag for such a small startup.
But Zuckerberg was eager to acquire talent he respected in light of Facebook‘s failings in mobile tech. Many doubted if Systrom could handle the partnership, expecting him to inevitably chaff under the imposed goals Zuckerberg would pass down.
Systrom proved naysayers wrong. Post-acquisition user growth accelerated exponentially (see Table 1). Even as competing products like Snapchat vied for attention, Instagram flourished with Systrom focused squarely on two factors: understanding changing user needs and hiring the best design talent.
Instagram pioneered the "Stories" feature in response to the Snapchat craze, later even mimicking its AR filters. Under Systrom‘s watch, video made its debut to keep up with evolving user demands. Hashtags like #TBT became cultural phenomena driving engagement. In 2013, Instagram opened to teens, fueling its popularity among young people.
Systrom at Instagram‘s Early HQ Directing His Design-Focused Team, image via INC
But perhaps most monumentally, Systrom introduced advertising by mega brands while stewarding the platform‘s continued sense of creativity and authenticity. Today over 25 million businesses utilize Instagram to turn customers into brand loyalists through aspirational imagery and storytelling.
Systrom tuned the machine he‘d built to purr like a Porsche. All the while keeping true to his ideals of community, design and self-expression. By late 2018, when Systrom and Krieger left day-to-day management, Instagram had over 1 billion monthly active users and was valued at over $100 billion.
The Future According to Systrom
Even as Instagram grew into a content juggernaut, Systrom always kept an eye to what was next. At a 2014 conference he presciently revealed his anticipation for mobile evolution beyond just 2D images:
“Instagram could look more like a virtual world over time…perhaps 3D photos or ambient videos.”
This early vision for expanding digital spaces shows Kevin‘s revolutionary mindset.
True to his prediction, in just the few years since his departure, Instagram has charged into emergent technologies. Today Instagram offers AR filters turning users into characters; geolocation restaurant lenses; immersive shopping experiences via in-app stores. The app is shifting from a content platform into a lifelike digital environment spurred on by advances in augmented reality.
Many experts now expect the app‘s eventual integration with Meta‘s VR "metaverse" project once the hardware improves sufficiently in years to come. All signs point back to Systrom‘s early realization that apps would evlove to be less about screens and more about doorways to infinite virtual connection — a virtual world alive with creative potential.
The Story Continues
Since resigning in 2018 alongside Mike Krieger after reported tensions with leadership, Kevin Systrom hasn‘t announced his next act. After over a decade pushing Instagram to world-changing scale, he deserves a respite.
Today you can find him snapping photos on extended vacations abroad in exotic locales and bonding with his wife Nicole and daughter Freya born in 2018.
But at just 39 years old and newly infused with entrepreneurial insight after his 8 years helming Instagram, I doubt we‘ve heard the last or Kevin Systrom‘s industry-defining visions.
Wherever he heads next, his mantra rings clear…
"Do what you love, and do it well – that’s much more meaningful than any metric.”
Instagram stands today, still overflowing with that creative spirit, thanks to the app developer from a small town, powered by big dreams, who fell in love with the art of images and believed that‘s all we needed to share this beautifully fleeting world of ours.
Thanks for reading! Let me know your thoughts on the incredible human behind one of history‘s most impactful apps.
