Kevin Systrom's Instagram story: from a failing check-in app to a $715 million Facebook acquisition in just two years, with zero revenue.
Kevin Systrom founded Instagram in 2010 by stripping down a failing check-in app to its core feature, photos, then adding filters after his girlfriend suggested it. The app grew to 30 million users in two years before Facebook acquired it for $715 million without ever generating revenue.
Twitter founder Jack Dorsey invested early in Instagram and tweeted it to a million followers when the app launched on the App Store. This exposure led to 25,000 sign-ups on the first day, though the servers crashed within 2 hours from the traffic.
Nicole said she wouldn't use the app because her photos weren't as good as their friend Greg's, and noted that Greg filters all his photos. Kevin built his first filter that night on hotel dial-up internet in Mexico.
Facebook saw Instagram as an opportunity to take the lead on mobile, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg completed the acquisition himself in a weekend to beat out Twitter, who was also bidding for the company.
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