Kevin Systrom was born 1983 in Holliston, Massachusetts. He attended Standford University where he majored in Management Science & Engineering.
Systrom was later offered by Mark Zuckerberg a position in his Facebook start-up, which he turned down for school – Systrom would later come to regret this decision. He would then work at Google for 3 years in the marketing division, followed by work at a start-up called NextStop — which was later acquired by Facebook.
At this point there wasn’t too much entrepreneurship showing in his actions. This all changed when Systrom wanted to create his own business and product – Burbn. Burbn was a photo-sharing and social networking app that recieved support from Steve Anderson of Baseline Ventures. There two men each invested $250,000. Systrom later pivoted from Burbn into Instagram after he came up with a way for Instagram to standout from other social media platforms at the time – filters. Instagram blew up right from the start resulting in over a billion current monthly users. It was aquired by Facebook
Almost a decade later, Systrom stepped down as CEO from Instagram after conflict with Mark Zuckerberg and in hopes of re-igniting his entrepreneur side again.
Systrom reflects many attributes of what it means to be an entrepreneur. His passion for photography led him to want to create a product that can appeal, on a global scale, to people who want to share photos. To add to that, pivoted from his original business idea after realizing that a major change could prove to be the key to success. I personally think many people should strive to be like Systrom in his pursuit of creating a way to make “dreams”/goals possible. As the current status of Instagram shows, a pursuit of one’s own passion could result in a priceless product.
Even though Systrom stepped down from CEO, at the age of 37, he’s far from done with his career.
Kevin Systrom’s story is an amazing one of pivoting and determination. His turning down of joining the Facebook project was surely a regret but he showed great pivoting in his creating of Instagram and showing that he learned from his mistake. The use of filters on Instagram to make it unique was a show of true vision and innovation.
This is a really cool story – it’s inspiring to see how he wasn’t exactly a successful entrepreneur from the beginning – he had to pivot and find his niche just like anyone else. It’s also neat to read about an entrepreneur who made mistakes, because a lot of the time it seems that we only ever highlight the successes – when really entrepreneurship involves a lot of “failures” too.
Woah, imagine passing up on Facebook! Regardless, I think Systrom’s story is a great example of being able to adapt and think creatively, regardless of the circumstances. It will be interesting to see what future ideas Systrom comes up with.