Startup Mantras Podcast – Full Time Employee To Entrepreneur – Kevin Systrom

Had read this book App Empire by Chad Mureta some 8 years back. I was bowled over by the simplicity with which he explained how easy it is to shift from a full time employee role to an Entrepreneur.

If you are an app developer (any programming language iOS, Android or whatever) or if you know one, and if you have a brilliant app idea, a laptop on which you can code this app, you are good to go. Good to go on the journey of what is stylishly called by Chad – An Appreneur.

Sounds cool doesn’t it?

Well, it’s not just cool but even makes business sense, since this is the easiest and no expense way to embark on the entrepreneur journey and still make millions if you have what it takes to succeed – A brilliant app idea and someone to develop it.

Here’s how Kevin Systrom – founder of Instagram did it.

Systrom was born in Holliston, Massachusetts, a wealthy suburb of Boston. His father worked as a human resources executive, while his mother worked in tech — first at Monster and Swapit, and later at Zipcar.

Systrom applied to Stanford University to study computer science, but once he arrived, decided to switch majors to management science and engineering.Systrom soon became interested in photography, and built a photo sharing site for his fraternity brothers in his spare time. During his junior year, he spent a semester in Florence to study photography.

After graduation, Systrom was offered a job at Google. For the first two years out of school, Systrom handled marketing for Gmail and Google Calendar. He later switched to Google’s M&A division.

After three years at Google, Systrom left to work at a social travel recommendation startup called Nextstop. The company was acquired by Facebook in July 2010.

Around the same time, Systrom began working on his own app, which he initially named Burbn after his favorite spirit. The app combined location-based social networking and photo sharing.

Venture capitalist Steve Anderson of Baseline Ventures decided to invest $250,000 in Burbn, even though it was still in its early stages. Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz contributed another $250,000 in the same round.

Soon after, Systrom brought on Mike Krieger as a cofounder. Krieger also graduated from Stanford, just two years behind Systrom. Before joining Systrom, Krieger was working on his own app called Meebo.

Soon after Krieger joined, the pair decided to pivot Burbn, eliminating most of the features to focus solely on photo sharing. But the real “a-ha moment” came while Systrom was on the beach with his now-wife, Nicole.

Here’s how Systrom explained it to the Telegraph:

We were walking along the beach and I said that we needed something to help us [the company] stand out. Nicole then said, “Well, I don’t want to take photos, because my photos don’t look good. They’re not as good as your other friend Greg’s.”

He was also using the early product [Burbn]. I told her that was because Greg used filter apps. So she just said, “Well, you should probably have filters then.”

Systrom then sat down to make a filter. The first one, called X-Pro II, it still used in the app today.

Systrom and Krieger officially changed the name to Instagram in October 2010. The name is a combination of “instant” and “telegram.” When the app went live, more than 25,000 people downloaded it in the first 24 hours, crashing Instagram’s servers.

A month after launching, Instagram had grown to 1 million users. Nine months later, that was up to 7 million.

In April 2012, Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook acquired Instagram for $1 billion. Going into the deal, Systrom owned 40% of Instagram.

These days, Systrom is worth an estimated $1.4 billion. He spends his time cycling, playing golf, and traveling, and he’s interested in fashion. He’s met and worked with several well-known designers, and he’s attended the Met Gala multiple times.

And the rest as they say is history!