StarZero All shows Try the podcast clipper →

Instagram

includes Instagram Reels, Instagram Stories, Instagram Threads, Instagram Notes, Instagram DMs, Instagram Direct, Instagram Explore, Instagram Feed, Instagram Shop, Instagram Feed Ads

98 statements across 55 episodes · 40 bullish · 23 bearish · 51 people on the record · first statement Oct 12, 2015 by Matt Hartman · said 1,234 times in 512 episodes since 2015 · across every show →

Mentions by year, the whole family

brought up most by Harry Stebbings (714), Alex Schultz (42), Adam Mosseri (32), Mike Krieger (30), Kevin Weil (13), Cliff Weitzman (13), Jason Lemkin (10), Kevin Systrom (9)

tap a year for its mentions
0012550250100201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodesmentions
050100201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodes it came up in
003506100201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodesmentions per episode
2026 53 mentions in 26 episodes 2 per episode
2025 113 mentions in 36 episodes 3 per episode
2024 78 mentions in 40 episodes 2 per episode
2023 203 mentions in 39 episodes 5 per episode
2022 97 mentions in 27 episodes 4 per episode
2021 88 mentions in 38 episodes 2 per episode
2020 155 mentions in 96 episodes 2 per episode
2019 206 mentions in 93 episodes 2 per episode
2018 183 mentions in 83 episodes 2 per episode
2017 27 mentions in 14 episodes 2 per episode
2016 15 mentions in 12 episodes 1 per episode
2015 16 mentions in 8 episodes 2 per episode

every mention, scene by scene, with the transcript →

Everything said about Instagram, oldest first

Oct 12, 2015 neutral
Insight
Hartman: Ephemerality is a design pattern lowering friction to post
“On the ephemerality side, I think that that actually, think about that not as a feature, but as a design pattern. What has ended up happening is that it lowered the friction to post. So I know that it's not going to everybody, and I know that it's going to dis…”
Matt Hartman Oct 12, 2015 ▶ 8:57 20 VC 078: BETAWORKS WEEK: Matt Hartman, Director of Seed Investments @ Betaworks
Nov 2, 2015 positive
Assertion Supported
Swimwear brand Triangl generated millions in sales primarily through Instagram
“I just have in mind a brand that I've been found very fascinating in this space is for example, the baby suit brand called Triangle that has been doing most of his growth for Instagram and now been Selling millions and millions of dollars of bathing suit just …”
Antoine Nussenbaum Nov 2, 2015 ▶ 17:18 20 VC 084: Meet Felix Capital: A Venture Firm For The Creative Class with Antoine Nussenbaum
Mar 9, 2016 negative
Insight
Consumer startups cannot rely exclusively on mobile apps without a web presence
“Mobile will be a strong component of any consumer facing offering. I don't believe in mobile only. I actually think, and we saw it even at Facebook with Instagram, and we saw it with Path, we saw it with others. You do need to have a landing point on the web a…”
Christian Hernandez Mar 9, 2016 ▶ 12:18 20VC: Christian Hernandez on The Importance of Mobile and The Relationship Between Growth vs Revenue
May 27, 2016
Insight
Media Outlets Compete With All Time-Occupying Content, Including Instagram
“Anything that takes our subscribers time that they find valuable from Instagram to The Economist is in some ways competitive, right? I mean, I think that is actually the bar for anyone in the media business.”
Jessica Lessin May 27, 2016 ▶ 8:49 20VC: The Information's Jessica Lessin on The Future For Online Journalism & The Benefits Of A Subscription Based Business Model
Jul 3, 2017 positive
Assertion Supported
OfferUp Matches Instagram With 22-Minute Daily User Engagement
“The startup offer up the mobile Craigslist company up in Seattle. They get 22 minute average daily session times. 22 minutes. That's as much as A news app. That's as much as Instagram. That's as much as a media service.”
Eric Feng Jul 3, 2017 ▶ 15:46 20VC: Kleiner Perkins GP, Eric Feng on How The Best Funds Use Tech and Data To Find Companies, Why Entrepreneurs Start The Fire and VCs Add The Rocket Fuel & Why Consumer Is Harder Than Ever Today
Aug 14, 2017 positive
Opinion
Calacanis: Standalone Instagram and YouTube would be worth $150B–$200B
“Because they knew if that was an independent company right now, Instagram would be worth seventy five billion dollars. YouTube, I think, would be worth a hundred billion dollars in the open market right now. Those two companies were bought for 1000000001.6 bil…”
Jason Calacanis Aug 14, 2017 ▶ 16:11 20VC: Jason Calacanis on The 4 Questions Investors Must Ask Founders, Whether YC Have Scaled Their Process Successfully & Why Early Founder Liquidity Is Good Not Bad
Oct 13, 2017
Insight
Von Ahn: Core EdTech apps cannot rely on crowdsourced content
“If you're going to decide to teach something, there is a big problem, which is, I don't believe there's an easy way to do a really simple app where in some way kind of you crowdsource the teaching from one side to the other. Like, for example, think of Instagr…”
Luis von Ahn Oct 13, 2017 ▶ 5:09 20VC: Duolingo's Luis von Ahn on How CEO's Can Scale With The Company, How VC Herd Mentality In The Valley Really Works and How Chatbots & AI Play A Role In The Future of EdTech
May 11, 2018 negative
Opinion
Dudum: The era of building DTC brands on Instagram is over
“The days of, and I hear this a lot, the days of building brands on Instagram, I actually think are far gone.”
Andrew Dudum May 11, 2018 ▶ 7:11 20VC: Hims' Andrew Dudum on The Scaling Playbook of The Fastest Growing Mens Wellness Brand, How To Be Truly Innovative In Today's World of Online Marketing & Raising at a $200m Valuation within Year 1
Mar 15, 2019 bearish
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Traditional banks lack capability to underwrite individual DTC transactions
“With marketplaces like Amazon, social platforms like Instagram, and e-com platforms like Shopify, the buyer is now individuals, not stores. And factors and banks don't know how to underwrite that scenario, and we do.”
Adam Pritzker Mar 15, 2019 ▶ 9:21 20VC: Why The Current VC Financing Mechanism For Consumer Brands Is Broken, Why The Infrastructure To Power Emerging Brands Is Broken and What The Re-Platforming of Retail Means For The Next Decade in Consumer with Adam Pritzker, Chairman & CEO @ Assemble
Jul 12, 2019 negative
Opinion
Major Social Platforms Intimidate Everyday People From Sharing Creative Work
“Today's dominant platforms, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, they don't really offer a path for folks like that. Folks like that feel like, oh, I'm embarrassed. I'm not going to post my thing on Instagram. Like, no one's going to like it.”
Joseph Gordon-Levitt Jul 12, 2019 ▶ 29:57 20VC: HitRecord's Joseph Gordon-Levitt on How Show Business Prepared Him For Life As An Entrepreneur, What Founders Should Look For Most In Their Investor Base & Why The Current Ad Model of Social Is Harming The World's Creative Spirit
Jul 12, 2019 negative
Opinion
Ad-Driven Social Platforms Corrupt the Creative Motivations of Young People
“So I really think that that ad model, I'm very concerned for the whole world's creative spirit, especially the Creativity of younger people who've spent their whole lives with YouTube or Instagram or other places like that, other ad-driven platforms as the des…”
Joseph Gordon-Levitt Jul 12, 2019 ▶ 22:00 20VC: HitRecord's Joseph Gordon-Levitt on How Show Business Prepared Him For Life As An Entrepreneur, What Founders Should Look For Most In Their Investor Base & Why The Current Ad Model of Social Is Harming The World's Creative Spirit
Nov 15, 2019
Insight
E-commerce spent a decade optimizing discovery but neglected transaction innovation
“Consumers have spent the last 10 years optimizing for discovery. We've put a lot of money into advertising, you know, Google and the Facebook business models and Instagram and getting people to click and go Go visit a site and look at a product, but there hasn…”
Dom Holland Nov 15, 2019 ▶ 11:57 20VC: Why Speed Is The Biggest Differentiator a Founder Can Have, How To Hire Seasoned Tier 1 Talent To An Early Stage Startup & How To Start, Scale and Manage Remote Teams with Domm Holland, Founder & CEO @ Fast
Dec 2, 2019 negative
Opinion
Tisch: Digital ad channels on Instagram and Snapchat mature instantly without arbitrage opportunities
“When you see Instagram and Snapchat open up their advertising products, they're basically mature on day one.”
David Tisch Dec 2, 2019 ▶ 24:27 20VC: BoxGroup's David Tisch on Whether Concentrated Investing At Seed Works, Do Founders Really Want Direct Feedback and Is It Good For Them & Why Consumer Social Is Interesting Again
Mar 16, 2020 negative
Disclosure
Schneider: True Ventures passed on Instagram before its pivot
“So for example, we looked at Instagram really early and it was literally a different product with a different name and we passed on it and then they later pivoted to Instagram. But by then it was too late for us to invest.”
Tony Schneider Mar 16, 2020 ▶ 20:07 20VC: True Ventures' Toni Schneider on How Being CEO @ Automattic (Wordpress) Made Him A Better Investor, The Biggest Lessons from Automattic on Running Successful Remote Teams and The Right Way For Investors To Show Founders They Have Their Support (Note
Nov 19, 2020 positive
Opinion
Ohanian: Dispo cracked what a generation wants in an anti-Instagram app
“Dispo has cracked what A generation is looking for as a kind of anti Instagram or anti photo sharing device, because there's nothing wrong with saving those memories. But like I said, they've watched what it's created in the toxicity and the bullying, and even…”
Alexis Ohanian Nov 19, 2020 ▶ 30:21 20VC: Alexis Ohanian on Why Now Was The Right Time To Start Seven Seven Six, The 2 Very Distinct Types of Deals In Venture & The Unbundling of Social in 2021
Nov 23, 2020 negative
Assertion Supported
Facebook cutting Pinterest off its newsfeed shifted growth from exponential to linear
“I remember early on at Pinterest, there was a time when Facebook acquired Instagram. We were both growing exponentially. Pinterest and Instagram were growing exponentially at the time. They acquired Instagram, and then they shut Pinterest off the newsfeed. So …”
Sarah Tavel Nov 23, 2020 ▶ 7:33 20VC: Benchmark's Sarah Tavel on Why Chasing GMV Will Lead To The Wrong Direction, The 2 Crucial Tipping Points For Marketplace Adoption, Why UGC Plays Are Like Marketplaces & How To Determine Between Existential and Non-Existential Risk
Dec 7, 2020 positive
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Greylock recruited three key engineers for Instagram within four days
“And to give you an example, when we were talking to Kevin Systrom about investing in Instagram, and they were 13 employees, and they said, well, what's their major pain point in terms of how they operated? We said, okay, great. Because we have this network of …”
Reid Hoffman Dec 7, 2020 ▶ 39:56 20VC: Reid Hoffman on Investing in Airbnb and Passing on Stripe, The Different Styles of Truly Great Leaders, How To Think Through Ownership and Price in Venture & How To Ensure Venture Partnerships Always Have Trust and a Learning Mindset
Feb 24, 2021 positive
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Snapchat Became the Third Most Popular App in Norway in 2012
“In fact, it had become the number three most, most popular app in Norway at that time, so ahead of Instagram, ahead of Facebook, and so forth.”
Jeremy Liew Feb 24, 2021 ▶ 13:22 20VC: The Snapchat Memo: Lightspeed's Jeremy Liew on The 4 Key Elements To Consider When Evaluating A Consumer Social Product, What is Good/Great/World Class For Retention, Usage and Downloads in Consumer Social Today & The Core Insight Development of Eva
Feb 24, 2021
Insight
Young Women Are the Primary Early Adopters for Social Platforms
“Whether it be Facebook or Instagram or Pinterest or Vine or Tumblr back in the day or TikTok, you know, it's always been young women who've been that first set of early adopters”
Jeremy Liew Feb 24, 2021 ▶ 11:22 20VC: The Snapchat Memo: Lightspeed's Jeremy Liew on The 4 Key Elements To Consider When Evaluating A Consumer Social Product, What is Good/Great/World Class For Retention, Usage and Downloads in Consumer Social Today & The Core Insight Development of Eva
Feb 24, 2021 negative
Opinion
Instagram Stories Is Restricted by the Platform's Highlight-Reel Culture
“Stories on Instagram, the culture of Instagram is still, look at how great my life is. You know, it's still highlight real type, you know, use case and culture, and that then propagates into stories.”
Jeremy Liew Feb 24, 2021 ▶ 28:48 20VC: The Snapchat Memo: Lightspeed's Jeremy Liew on The 4 Key Elements To Consider When Evaluating A Consumer Social Product, What is Good/Great/World Class For Retention, Usage and Downloads in Consumer Social Today & The Core Insight Development of Eva
Feb 24, 2021 neutral
Assertion Partly supported
Top Social Platforms Were All Founded by People in Their Early Twenties
“If you look at Snap, if you look at Vine, if you look at Facebook, if you look at Instagram, if you look at Tumblr, they were all started by people who were, you know, in their early twenties.”
Jeremy Liew Feb 24, 2021 ▶ 21:06 20VC: The Snapchat Memo: Lightspeed's Jeremy Liew on The 4 Key Elements To Consider When Evaluating A Consumer Social Product, What is Good/Great/World Class For Retention, Usage and Downloads in Consumer Social Today & The Core Insight Development of Eva
Feb 24, 2021 positive
Assertion Supported
Snapchat Stories Became the Dominant Format Across All Social Networks
“And with that one insight, starting from first principles, thinking about how people interact with each other, he has changed the course of all social networks, because you can't find, you know, whether it's Twitter, or LinkedIn, or, you know, obviously, Whats…”
Jeremy Liew Feb 24, 2021 ▶ 27:01 20VC: The Snapchat Memo: Lightspeed's Jeremy Liew on The 4 Key Elements To Consider When Evaluating A Consumer Social Product, What is Good/Great/World Class For Retention, Usage and Downloads in Consumer Social Today & The Core Insight Development of Eva
Feb 24, 2021 negative
Assertion Not checkable as stated
The Dominant VC Narrative in 2012 Was That Consumer Social Was Dead
“And I think you also have to bear in mind that in 2012, the dominant narrative was that social was dead. Facebook and Instagram had run the table like there were no more new opportunities in social anymore.”
Jeremy Liew Feb 24, 2021 ▶ 16:55 20VC: The Snapchat Memo: Lightspeed's Jeremy Liew on The 4 Key Elements To Consider When Evaluating A Consumer Social Product, What is Good/Great/World Class For Retention, Usage and Downloads in Consumer Social Today & The Core Insight Development of Eva
Aug 2, 2021 negative
Disclosure
Lazerow passed on early angel investments in Instagram and Uber in 2011
“So, my biggest misses were really as a personal investor, you know, sitting in a hotel room in 2011 with Kevin Systrom and Travis from Uber and, you know, having the opportunity, but not raising my hand and saying like, hey, I'd love to invest, right?”
Mike Lazerow Aug 2, 2021 ▶ 38:14 20VC: Mike Lazerow on Why How You Operate As a VC Is More Important Than Who You Are and What You Have Done, Why Boards Are More Important for the Entrepreneur than Investor & How The Best Entrepreneurs Prep Their Boards & Extract Value From Them
Oct 11, 2021 neutral
Assertion Supported
Kevin Systrom sought only Sacca, Adam D'Angelo, and Jack Dorsey for Instagram
“Instagram came to me. Kevin Systrom literally said, I want three angels, you, Adam D'Angelo, and Jack Dorsey.”
Chris Sacca Oct 11, 2021 ▶ 57:08 20VC: Chris Sacca on Coming Out of Retirement To Unf**k The Planet with Lowercarbon, How Chris Evaluates His Relationship To Money Today, Why We Have Bred a Generation of Ass**** Kids, Do VCs Provide Any Real Value and The True Unfiltered Opinion on Faceb
Nov 15, 2021 positive
Assertion Supported
Thrive Capital Invested in Instagram Growth Round From $40M Fund
“The ambition of the team, which reached well beyond the forty million fund they had at the time would suggest. And even with that small fund, they were taking big swings, you know, be a big investor in a growth round in Instagram right before Facebook. Bought …”
Kareem Zaki Nov 15, 2021 ▶ 4:20 20VC: Thrive Capital's Kareem Zaki on The One Rule That Drives Investment Decision-Making and Focus at Thrive, Why Every Large Institution Will Enter Venture Capital Over the Next Decade and How To Create a Firm Culture That Attracts The Best Young Talent
Dec 16, 2021 positive
Assertion Supported
Instagram grew 50% year-over-year during Bangaly Kaba's early tenure
“We grew basically 50% year over year for the first couple years while I was there.”
Bangaly Kaba Dec 16, 2021 ▶ 19:22 20Growth: The Biggest Growth Lessons from Leading Teams at Instagram & Instacart, How To Structure The Hiring Process for Growth Teams, How To Onboard Growth Reps Efficiently and The Relationship Between Growth and The Rest of the Org with Bangaly Kaba, H
Dec 16, 2021 negative
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Hundreds of thousands of Instagram users daily lost accounts to forgotten passwords
“Hundreds of thousands of people a day who would never get back into their account because they forgot their password.”
Bangaly Kaba Dec 16, 2021 ▶ 28:11 20Growth: The Biggest Growth Lessons from Leading Teams at Instagram & Instacart, How To Structure The Hiring Process for Growth Teams, How To Onboard Growth Reps Efficiently and The Relationship Between Growth and The Rest of the Org with Bangaly Kaba, H
Dec 16, 2021 neutral
Assertion Supported
Instagram's growth team was built as a full-stack product group
“When I helped build the growth team and Instagram, we were engineers, data science, product managers, growth marketers is like full stack, basically product group, but the engineers were growth focused engineers.”
Bangaly Kaba Dec 16, 2021 ▶ 21:21 20Growth: The Biggest Growth Lessons from Leading Teams at Instagram & Instacart, How To Structure The Hiring Process for Growth Teams, How To Onboard Growth Reps Efficiently and The Relationship Between Growth and The Rest of the Org with Bangaly Kaba, H
Dec 16, 2021 negative
Assertion Supported
Instagram lacked basic registration flow data logging in 2016
“Even at the best companies, like when I joined Instagram, we literally did not have logging for all of the registration flow. It was incredible. We knew how many people started and how many people ended, but we did not know what was happening at every step of …”
Bangaly Kaba Dec 16, 2021 ▶ 19:48 20Growth: The Biggest Growth Lessons from Leading Teams at Instagram & Instacart, How To Structure The Hiring Process for Growth Teams, How To Onboard Growth Reps Efficiently and The Relationship Between Growth and The Rest of the Org with Bangaly Kaba, H
Dec 16, 2021 positive
Assertion Supported
Instagram grew from 440M to 1B MAUs in 2.5 years
“Bengali led the product growth and consumer product orgs at Instacart, and before Instacart, was head of growth at Instagram, where he built and led the product team that helped grow Instagram from four hundred and forty million to one billion monthly actives …”
Harry Stebbings Dec 16, 2021 ▶ 0:26 20Growth: The Biggest Growth Lessons from Leading Teams at Instagram & Instacart, How To Structure The Hiring Process for Growth Teams, How To Onboard Growth Reps Efficiently and The Relationship Between Growth and The Rest of the Org with Bangaly Kaba, H
Dec 16, 2021 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Instagram found retention required seeing distinct content from known contacts
“So for at Instagram, for example, you know, what we found was that people, after they join, after they see some amount of really interesting, visually distinct content in their feed from people they know, they want more.”
Bangaly Kaba Dec 16, 2021 ▶ 6:56 20Growth: The Biggest Growth Lessons from Leading Teams at Instagram & Instacart, How To Structure The Hiring Process for Growth Teams, How To Onboard Growth Reps Efficiently and The Relationship Between Growth and The Rest of the Org with Bangaly Kaba, H
Dec 16, 2021 positive
Assertion Supported
Instagram retention rose from 20% to over 50% under Bangaly Kaba
“I think we improved our retention from about 20% to maybe over 50% while I was there.”
Bangaly Kaba Dec 16, 2021 ▶ 5:31 20Growth: The Biggest Growth Lessons from Leading Teams at Instagram & Instacart, How To Structure The Hiring Process for Growth Teams, How To Onboard Growth Reps Efficiently and The Relationship Between Growth and The Rest of the Org with Bangaly Kaba, H
Jan 14, 2022 positive
Insight
Devin Finzer: NFTs capture value for creators unlike rent-extracting Web2 social platforms
“I think long run, you know, this does open up the playing field for really anyone to like directly tap into a fan base or people who want to support them. So I think long-term you're talking about kind of brand new business models and the different model than …”
Devin Finzer Jan 14, 2022 ▶ 25:17 20VC: Opensea Founder, Devin Finzer on Scaling GMV from $150M to $3BN in 18 Months, How Brands and Celebrities Will Harness NFTs To Change Their Business, The Impact of NFTs on Gaming & What is in Devin's Metamask Wallet?!
Jan 19, 2022 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Schutz: BarkBox Hacked Instagram's Popular Page With 5:15 PM Posts
“At Bark, we found a way to hack Instagram's popular page back when that was a thing. Like, if you posted a funny dog picture at five 15 during the week, We would get every time on the popular page, and we just have explosive growth”
Rob Schutz Jan 19, 2022 ▶ 5:52 20Growth: The Biggest Lie in Startup Growth and Marketing, Why You Do Not Need To Diversify Customer Acquisition Channels in the Early Days & When and How To Build Your Growth Team with Rob Schutz, Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer @ Ro
Jan 20, 2022
Disclosure
Kevin Systrom specifically targeted Sacca, D'Angelo, and Dorsey for Instagram's angel round
“Instagram came to me, but like Kevin Systrom literally said, I want three angels, you, Adam D'Angelo and Jack Dorsey. And so he pitched me. I literally was not seeking photos. I, it sounds fucking hilarious, but I thought it was spent. I thought it was done. A…”
Chris Sacca Jan 20, 2022 ▶ 1:03:32 Chris Sacca's True Unfiltered Opinion on Facebook and Softbank | Full Interview · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 25, 2022 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Kaba: Instagram improved its user retention rate from 20% to over 50%
“I think we improved our retention from about 20% to maybe over 50% while I”
Bangaly Kaba Mar 25, 2022 ▶ 15:29 20VC The Memo: Inside the Growth Engines of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Instacart with the Growth Leaders Who Built Them; How Instagram Went from 440M to 1BN, How Twitter Changing Their Signup Flow was a Needlemover and How Removing Card Payment Requ
Mar 25, 2022
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Kaba: Hundreds of thousands of Instagram users failed to log in daily
“We had a team that was responsible for what I call access churn. Access churn was basically you, Harry, are in Instagram. You sign out for whatever reason, right? Like you just don't want background data. You want privacy. And we started seeing that just a ton…”
Bangaly Kaba Mar 25, 2022 ▶ 17:18 20VC The Memo: Inside the Growth Engines of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Instacart with the Growth Leaders Who Built Them; How Instagram Went from 440M to 1BN, How Twitter Changing Their Signup Flow was a Needlemover and How Removing Card Payment Requ
Mar 25, 2022
Insight
Kaba: North Star metrics should be derived from qualitative product magic
“Metrics are always a representation of your strategy, right? And so you shouldn't just choose a metric. I talked to founders about is like, let's talk qualitatively about what is the magic of the product? What makes this product really tick? And how do we know…”
Bangaly Kaba Mar 25, 2022 ▶ 15:55 20VC The Memo: Inside the Growth Engines of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Instacart with the Growth Leaders Who Built Them; How Instagram Went from 440M to 1BN, How Twitter Changing Their Signup Flow was a Needlemover and How Removing Card Payment Requ
Mar 25, 2022 positive
Insight
Kaba: Productizing multiple accounts boosts overall platform engagement
“The people who were getting back in and driving this incremental behavior were people who had a second or a third account who were losing access to that account. And so, that actually helped us to understand that there was actually a mindset around, I, Harry, …”
Bangaly Kaba Mar 25, 2022 ▶ 17:59 20VC The Memo: Inside the Growth Engines of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Instacart with the Growth Leaders Who Built Them; How Instagram Went from 440M to 1BN, How Twitter Changing Their Signup Flow was a Needlemover and How Removing Card Payment Requ
Jun 17, 2022 negative
Insight
Jones: Instagram hype cannot replace quality and consistency in hospitality
“Instagram might blow something up quicker, but actually the customer, if it's not good, and it's not consistent, they won't come back, and they will tell people they're not going to come back, and they will, the best way to have a successful restaurant, cafe, …”
Nick Jones Jun 17, 2022 ▶ 7:28 Nick Jones: How I Founded Soho House; Brand Marketing Tips; Hiring Advice | 20VC #898 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 24, 2022 positive
Assertion Partly supported
Stebbings: Instagram Content Performs Best on Sunday Evenings
“Instagram tends to hit best Sunday evening in particular.”
Harry Stebbings Aug 24, 2022 ▶ 14:50 20VC: 10 Lessons on Scaling 20VC to 100M+ Downloads | How To Build an Audience and a Next-Generation Media Company
Sep 7, 2022 bearish
Opinion
Mignano: BeReal's format is too easily copied by Meta's Instagram
“Yes, a hundred percent. I think it is a worry. And admittedly, I think it is a worry for B-Real. I think B-Real is a great product. The reality is I don't think their format is, is, is something that Instagram can't copy easily, right? It is a photo at a speci…”
Mike Mignano Sep 7, 2022 ▶ 20:53 Michael Mignano: How I Founded Anchor; Why TikTok could be a $2 TRILLION Company | 20VC #923 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 7, 2022
What-if
Weil: Instagram Stories would have failed with a timid, experimental rollout
“If instead we'd done the timid thing and put it like in the back of a third tab and like, well, if people find it, we'll do a one percent experiment and maybe it'll work. Like it never would have taken off.”
Kevin Weil Oct 7, 2022 ▶ 10:15 Kevin Weil: Lessons from Leading Product at Instagram & Twitter | 20VC #934 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 7, 2022
Insight
Weil: Effective organizations alternate leadership tiers between instigators and harmonizers
“You want alternating skills, just like you were saying, you want alternating skills, and he kind of classified people into, like, you know, are they kind of I'm trying to remember the word he used I don't remember, he had a provocative word for it, but basical…”
Kevin Weil Oct 7, 2022 ▶ 34:20 Kevin Weil: Lessons from Leading Product at Instagram & Twitter | 20VC #934 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 7, 2022 positive
Disclosure
Weil: Instagram explicitly credited Snapchat when launching Stories
“When we launched stories, the number one thing we made sure to say was like, kudos to Snapchat. You invented this format.”
Kevin Weil Oct 7, 2022 ▶ 6:41 Kevin Weil: Lessons from Leading Product at Instagram & Twitter | 20VC #934 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 7, 2022 neutral
What-if
Weil: Directly plopping Snapchat Stories into Instagram would have failed
“But I think if you had just taken stories and like plopped it in the middle of Instagram, it wouldn't have worked.”
Kevin Weil Oct 7, 2022 ▶ 7:36 Kevin Weil: Lessons from Leading Product at Instagram & Twitter | 20VC #934 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 26, 2022 positive
Opinion
Sahgal: Social networks are shifting from friend graphs to interest-based communities
“What you're seeing now is the broad social networks are becoming all about communities and all about interests, and they just have different take on it. Like that's where tick tock is. That's what Instagram is becoming pretty quickly. That's what Reddit obviou…”
Vaibhav Sahgal Oct 26, 2022 ▶ 49:43 Vaibhav Sahgal: How We Scaled Reddit to 55M Users; Lessons from Zynga | 20VC #942 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Feb 22, 2023
Insight
Systrom: Companies never reach stable perfection; founders must choose their suffering
“The myth that things are ever just in the stasis of good is totally BS, and what people need to realize is that, like Ray Dalio likes to say it's, like, not about avoiding suffering, and I'm paraphrasing here, it's about, like, learning to enjoy the suffering,…”
Kevin Systrom Feb 22, 2023 ▶ 11:06 Kevin Systrom & Mike Krieger: The Founders of Instagram Reveal their New Project "Artifact" | E981 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Feb 22, 2023 neutral
Assertion Supported
Krieger: Instagram's seed funding was contingent on finding a technical co-founder
“You know, with Instagram, Kevin had some basically initial like seed funding contingent on finding a technical co-founder.”
Mike Krieger Feb 22, 2023 ▶ 8:30 Kevin Systrom & Mike Krieger: The Founders of Instagram Reveal their New Project "Artifact" | E981 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Feb 22, 2023 negative
Disclosure
Systrom: Early Instagram mistakenly prioritized 'mission hipsters' over top talent
“As a small company, one of our mistakes in Instagram is hiring too many, like, mission hipsters that wore plaid and really liked drinking bourbon. Like, that was stupid. Like, we should have just been hiring the greatest people out there.”
Kevin Systrom Feb 22, 2023 ▶ 59:37 Kevin Systrom & Mike Krieger: The Founders of Instagram Reveal their New Project "Artifact" | E981 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Feb 22, 2023 positive
Assertion Supported
Krieger: Personalizing Instagram's Explore feed resulted in a 2x usage boost
“When we launched Explore and made it personalized rather than just like, most popular photos, like, that was a two X delta in usage.”
Mike Krieger Feb 22, 2023 ▶ 53:45 Kevin Systrom & Mike Krieger: The Founders of Instagram Reveal their New Project "Artifact" | E981 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Feb 22, 2023 neutral
Assertion Supported
Krieger: Instagram's UI broke at launch when posts exceeded 30 likes
“The second something got more than 30 likes on a post, it totally broke the UI on launch because we didn't summarize it.”
Mike Krieger Feb 22, 2023 ▶ 19:41 Kevin Systrom & Mike Krieger: The Founders of Instagram Reveal their New Project "Artifact" | E981 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Feb 22, 2023 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Krieger: Day-one Instagram growth relied on filters, not network effects
“In day one of Instagram, you know, there wasn't really a network there. You were there because the filters made your, you know, photos from your iPhone three G. Or three GS look a little better or a lot better”
Mike Krieger Feb 22, 2023 ▶ 28:21 Kevin Systrom & Mike Krieger: The Founders of Instagram Reveal their New Project "Artifact" | E981 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 7, 2023 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Schultz Reveals the Primary User Retention Drivers for Meta and eBay
“So for Facebook, it's friending. The whole thing's about friends. For WhatsApp, it's about sending a message to somebody. You know, for Instagram, it's still following. And for eBay, it was placing a bid or buying an item.”
Alex Schultz Mar 7, 2023 ▶ 9:38 Meta CMO Alex Schultz: Competing Against TikTok & Snap; Why Reels Failed at First | E985 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 11, 2023 neutral
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Masad: 5-to-10-person companies valued in billions will become common
“So wealth inequality will grow insanely a lot. And how so? Because like people look at Instagram or WhatsApp as these outlier companies that were able to achieve massive valuations with like very little, with very little people. And I don't think it's going to…”
Amjad Masad Mar 11, 2023 ▶ 40:51 Amjad Masad: How I Founded Replit; Zuck's Famous Saying; Will TikTok be banned? | E987 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 9, 2023
What-if
Paik: TikTok could not exist before Twitter due to bandwidth constraints
“There's a very clear reason why the order of founding went from Twitter first, to Instagram, to Snapchat, to TikTok. And it is because mobile as infrastructure and bandwidth in its earliest stages, supported the lowest packet size, text. And then next compress…”
Chris Paik May 9, 2023 ▶ 1:17:30 Chris Paik: How I Raised $400M; Substack's Broken Business Model; Music on TikTok vs IG | E1011 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 24, 2023
Insight
Market Success Drives Team Morale More Than Internal Communication
“Over the long run, the thing that's going to get people the most rallied, the most excited, the most motivated, the most effective is doing good work and being successful.”
Adam Mosseri Jul 24, 2023 ▶ 15:40 Adam Mosseri: Why Video Is Bad For Business; Does Feed Matter Anymore? | E1039 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 24, 2023 positive
Assertion Partly supported
Reels Is Approaching 50% of Total Time Spent on Instagram
“Reels is, I don't know, maybe pushing 50% of time spent in the app at this point. Not quite there.”
Adam Mosseri Jul 24, 2023 ▶ 30:58 Adam Mosseri: Why Video Is Bad For Business; Does Feed Matter Anymore? | E1039 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 24, 2023
Assertion Supported
Mosseri Rebuilt Instagram's Leadership Team Across Nine Functions in Year One
“So my first year, I had to hire a head of design, engineering, product management, data science, research, HR, communications, marketing, and a COO.”
Adam Mosseri Jul 24, 2023 ▶ 11:56 Adam Mosseri: Why Video Is Bad For Business; Does Feed Matter Anymore? | E1039 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 24, 2023 positive
Prediction Open · timeframe Jul 2028
Meta Will Build an Instagram-Threads Social Graph Sync Option
“We will build over time, I think, a graph sync option. So if you want Just to have the same graph, you can, and we can make sure that stays in sync for you.”
Adam Mosseri Jul 24, 2023 ▶ 42:23 Adam Mosseri: Why Video Is Bad For Business; Does Feed Matter Anymore? | E1039 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 24, 2023
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Less Than One Percent of Instagram Users Used the Activity Feed
“It was what, it was probably a small, it was a, it was less than one percent of the users who used it, but that's still, you know, millions of people.”
Adam Mosseri Jul 24, 2023 ▶ 29:32 Adam Mosseri: Why Video Is Bad For Business; Does Feed Matter Anymore? | E1039 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 24, 2023 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Instagram's Five-Year Growth Was Driven Entirely by Stories and DMs
“All of the growth has been in, in stories and in DMs over the last five years or so. And to the degree there is growth in feed, it's all in video, it's not in photos in a lot of ways.”
Adam Mosseri Jul 24, 2023 ▶ 21:19 Adam Mosseri: Why Video Is Bad For Business; Does Feed Matter Anymore? | E1039 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 24, 2023
Assertion Supported
Facebook's Safety Team Was Larger Than Instagram's Total Headcount
“The safety and integrity work, we were running too much of our own stuff and not leveraging the much larger teams at Facebook and in the central teams. I think there were more engineers that worked on safety and integrity at the company at the time that then w…”
Adam Mosseri Jul 24, 2023 ▶ 16:39 Adam Mosseri: Why Video Is Bad For Business; Does Feed Matter Anymore? | E1039 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 24, 2023 positive
Assertion Supported
Instagram Is the Most Popular Platform Among Creators Overall
“Instagram is the, it's the most popular in the creator community, as far as we can tell. So the most creators use it.”
Adam Mosseri Jul 24, 2023 ▶ 56:16 Adam Mosseri: Why Video Is Bad For Business; Does Feed Matter Anymore? | E1039 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 24, 2023 negative
Insight
Video Is Good for Time Spent but Bad for Revenue
“Yeah, and so the thing that I think people don't always realize is video, by its nature as a format, is actually really challenging for all the old social networks. It puts a lot of downward pressure on the ads business, because if you watch one video for 10 s…”
Adam Mosseri Jul 24, 2023 ▶ 46:36 Adam Mosseri: Why Video Is Bad For Business; Does Feed Matter Anymore? | E1039 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 24, 2023 positive
Disclosure
Prior Facebook and Instagram Video Products Hurt User Connection
“And so the fact that video, growing video has massively grown sends, which is a pure friend-to-friend interaction, even not even, even if you take out the real shares, because they start conversation, I might send you a funny, you know, football clip, and then…”
Adam Mosseri Jul 24, 2023 ▶ 47:26 Adam Mosseri: Why Video Is Bad For Business; Does Feed Matter Anymore? | E1039 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 24, 2023 neutral
Disclosure
Maintaining Platform Cultural Relevance Matters More Than Raw User Count
“I care every bit about, every bit as much about making sure that the, even, maybe even more, that the platform is culturally relevant than the, sort of, the big number of users.”
Adam Mosseri Jul 24, 2023 ▶ 58:32 Adam Mosseri: Why Video Is Bad For Business; Does Feed Matter Anymore? | E1039 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 24, 2023 positive
Disclosure
Mark Zuckerberg Pushed to Launch Threads as a Standalone App
“Like, for instance, on Threads, he was the one who was like, you guys should just try to build a separate app. And we were really trying to figure out a way to do it in the main app, because it seemed like It would be much more likely to succeed, and he was by…”
Adam Mosseri Jul 24, 2023 ▶ 1:04:37 Adam Mosseri: Why Video Is Bad For Business; Does Feed Matter Anymore? | E1039 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 24, 2023 positive
Disclosure
Instagram Prioritizes Young People and Creators Above All Other Segments
“And for us, we care about young people, and we care about creators most.”
Adam Mosseri Jul 24, 2023 ▶ 25:19 Adam Mosseri: Why Video Is Bad For Business; Does Feed Matter Anymore? | E1039 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 24, 2023 bullish
Assertion Partly supported
Adam Mosseri Claims Instagram Is Growing Faster Than Any Major Competitor
“We're growing really fast. I think we're growing the fastest of the big players.”
Adam Mosseri Jul 24, 2023 ▶ 33:50 Adam Mosseri: Why Video Is Bad For Business; Does Feed Matter Anymore? | E1039 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 24, 2023
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Instagram Users Share More Media in DMs Than Feed or Stories
“If you take out all the text, there are more photos and videos shared in DMs than there are shared in stories. And there's way more shared in stories than there is in feed.”
Adam Mosseri Jul 24, 2023 ▶ 0:10 Adam Mosseri: Why Video Is Bad For Business; Does Feed Matter Anymore? | E1039 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 24, 2023 bullish
What-if
Threads Would Not Have Succeeded Without Instagram Graph Bootstrapping
“And I think that's, it is no way it would have been as successful if you had to bootstrap the graph from scratch.”
Adam Mosseri Jul 24, 2023 ▶ 45:12 Adam Mosseri: Why Video Is Bad For Business; Does Feed Matter Anymore? | E1039 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 24, 2023
Disclosure
Mosseri Reallocated Instagram's Entire Stories Team to Messaging
“Actually, at one point, a couple years ago, I think I put the entire stories team on messaging.”
Adam Mosseri Jul 24, 2023 ▶ 23:16 Adam Mosseri: Why Video Is Bad For Business; Does Feed Matter Anymore? | E1039 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 24, 2023 negative
Opinion
Adam Mosseri Admits the Instagram App Is Currently Too Complicated
“The app is too complicated. I mean, let's be serious. They are, the, I think it's gotten more simple over the last 12 months or so. We consolidated some of the design patterns and primitives, removed some of the tabs, but we still have more to do.”
Adam Mosseri Jul 24, 2023 ▶ 27:38 Adam Mosseri: Why Video Is Bad For Business; Does Feed Matter Anymore? | E1039 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 13, 2023 negative
Opinion
Dash: Threads rigged the platform in favor of established Instagram creators
“And I think the challenge here with threads was, on day one, if you're completely porting over the graph, it's very hard for someone to suddenly say, hey, now I'm gonna, I wanna start from zero and become really large on threads. Because already the game is ri…”
Suchit Dash Sep 13, 2023 ▶ 32:14 Suchit Dash: Scaling Dubsmash to 43M Users, Battling TikTok & Joining Reddit | E1060 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 13, 2024
Assertion Supported
Instagram Acquisition Forced Facebook to Switch Metrics From MAU to DAU
“When Instagram came along to Facebook, we still had the MEU as our goal. And so when we had the MEU as a goal, I mean basically Kevin's system was like, what? We are now in the mobile world. People use the phones all the time. We should be doing we do DAUs. We…”
Chandra Narayanan Mar 13, 2024 ▶ 23:48 Chandra Narayanan: Top 5 Lessons from Leading Analytics at Facebook | E1126 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Apr 17, 2024 negative
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Instagram SMB ads experienced a 60% monthly customer churn rate
“For every 10 customers that tried the product, six of them the next month would go away.”
Vickie Peng Apr 17, 2024 ▶ 13:36 Vickie Peng: Why the Best Product People Actually Build Less Product? | E1141 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 17, 2024
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Index capped social platform valuations at $1B after Instagram sale
“At the time, we thought the peak amount that a social platform would be worth Was a billion dollars because Instagram sold to Facebook for a billion dollars.”
Danny Rimer Jun 17, 2024 ▶ 52:10 Danny Rimer: The Biggest Lessons from Missing Snap, Airbnb, Spotify and Facebook | E1166 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 9, 2024 neutral
Disclosure
Sean Rad: Tinder launched an Instagram Stories equivalent before Instagram did
“So we created this product called moments. Which was sort of Instagram stories before Instagram stories. You could share a moment, like something you're doing in the real world, and it was an expiring, 24 hour moment, and people could reply to it, and your mat…”
Sean Rad Sep 9, 2024 ▶ 35:55 Sean Rad: Lessons Scaling Tinder to the Fastest Growing Consumer Social App in History | E1199 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 1, 2024 positive
Assertion Supported
Tenev: Robinhood was the top App Store app during GameStop surge
“Robinhood was the number one app in the app store. And my feeling at the time was, you know, everyone was sort of like, Wow, you should be really happy. You're the number one app in the app store ahead of Instagram and TikTok. Not just financial app, but every…”
Vlad Tenev Nov 1, 2024 ▶ 14:54 Vlad Tenev, Co-Founder & CEO @Robinhood: The GameStop Saga & The Future of AI | E1222 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 15, 2024 bearish
Opinion
Malik: Apple privacy changes killed Meta ads as a core scaling channel
“I mean, I think especially with all the latest Apple changes, I don't know how anyone is going to make Instagram or Facebook ads efficiently work at scale as like a core growth channel.”
Raman Malik Nov 15, 2024 ▶ 54:25 Raman Malik: Inside Perplexity’s Growth Machine: What Worked, What Did Not Work | E1226 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 15, 2025 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Riparbelli: Most online content and Instagram photos are already partially fake
“We're already in a world where, like, most content that we consume today is in some, to some extent, fake, right? Like, most pictures on Instagram have been, like, touched up in some way, shape, or form.”
Victor Riparbelli Jan 15, 2025 ▶ 50:08 Victor Riparbelli, CEO @Synthesia: OpenAI vs Anthropic vs X.ai - Who Wins and Why | E1246 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Feb 14, 2025 positive
Insight
Stebbings: Social media feeds are like diets and users control them
“I think people demonize social in the way that diet can be demonized. If you go on my TikTok, Instagram, you name it, there's protein recipes, there's inspirational talks from Tony Robbins, and Alain de Botton, and great thinkers there's baby videos, I think b…”
Harry Stebbings Feb 14, 2025 ▶ 1:08:11 Solly Solomou, Founder & CEO @ LADbible Group: From Penniless Shop Offices to Public Company | E1259 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 3, 2025 positive
Opinion
Krieger: OpenAI effectively balances consumer product with API platform
“I think that they've balanced first party product development and an API that like people, people use at scale as well. And I think that they we had an Instagram principle that was do the simple thing first. And I think they often do the simple thing first.”
Mike Krieger Mar 3, 2025 ▶ 53:27 Mike Krieger, Instagram CoFounder & Anthropic CPO: Where Will Value Be Created in an AI World?|E1265 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 3, 2025 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Krieger: Instagram allocated roughly 95% to product and 5% to API
“On Instagram. It was easy. It was like, 95% product, five percent API, and it was, you know, that's all we really needed to do.”
Mike Krieger Mar 3, 2025 ▶ 51:17 Mike Krieger, Instagram CoFounder & Anthropic CPO: Where Will Value Be Created in an AI World?|E1265 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Apr 25, 2025 positive
Insight
Gupta: Crypto growth relies on Discord and Reddit over Meta and Search
“Crypto lives and breathes and grows on social. So the people that I will find on Discord or Reddit and Twitter are very different from the people I will find on Meta and Instagram and or Search.”
Mayur Gupta Apr 25, 2025 ▶ 27:50 20Growth: Inside Kraken's $1.5BN Growth Playbook: What Works, What Doesn't and What No Founders Understand About Growth That Will Change Their Company with Mayur Gupta
May 8, 2025
Assertion Supported
O'Driscoll: Thrive Capital doubled its Instagram investment in just days
“Thrive invested in Instagram, and like, literally four or five days later, it sold for a two X, right?”
Rory O'Driscoll May 8, 2025 ▶ 6:36 Benchmark vs a16z: Why Stage Specific Firms Win · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 26, 2025 bullish
Assertion Supported
Lemkin: ChatGPT mobile downloads rival TikTok, Meta, and X combined
“It was ChatGPT over the last 28 days, 29.5 million downloads. ChatGPT, 29.5 million. Just mobile. That's just its mobile app. TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and X, thirty two million. So ChatGPT mobile downloads just about equal to all the social media guys combi…”
Jason Lemkin Jun 26, 2025 ▶ 5:55 Navan Files to Go Public and Canva Pulls the Brakes: Why and What Happens? · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 5, 2025 bullish
Prediction Open · timeframe Sep 2030
Alex Schultz: A one-person startup reaching tens of millions is inevitable
“Instagram was seven people and got to tens of millions of active users. I don't see why there won't be the next Instagram that's one person and gets to tens of millions of active users. In fact, I think it's inevitable.”
Alex Schultz Sep 5, 2025 ▶ 22:54 20Growth: Meta CMO Alex Schultz on How All Founders Have to Change Their Marketing Playbook in a World of AI | Is AI Plateauing, What it Means if China Wins the AI Race and Why Zuck is a Generational Leader
Sep 26, 2025 bullish
Opinion
Gibson: Vinted achieves higher user engagement than Instagram
“I am very impressed with what the team at Vinted have been able to do. It's a bit of a weird one, but the level of engagement I see from people who use the app is apps, the unreal, and people, it's like an addiction. I mean, they're using it more than they wou…”
James Gibson Sep 26, 2025 ▶ 50:04 20Product: Revolut Business $1BN Revenue: Five of the Biggest Product Lessons | How Revolut Structures Product and Design Teams | How Revolut Experiments and Invests in New Product Bets | How Revolut Ships Product So Fast with James Gibson
Oct 3, 2025 bearish
Opinion
Slonimski: Meta Is Overhyped Due to Worsening Ad Economics
“At the level of the channel, we don't really distinguish if it's Facebook, Instagram, or whatever, and I think it's overhyped as it's getting really tough to get to good user economics there.”
Ketty Slonimski Oct 3, 2025 ▶ 52:04 20Growth: How to Use Influencers to Scale Growth Insanely Fast | How to Optimise User Onboaring for Growth | How the Best Growth Teams Create Organic Growth and Community | Why LTV/CAC Models are BS with Ketty Slonimsky
Oct 20, 2025 bullish
Opinion
Bouaziz calls PaySpace acquisition Deel's equivalent of Facebook buying Instagram
“Long-term strategy of the company, the quality of the founders, of the people, of the product, and how much it helps from an infrastructure perspective, from a gross margin perspective, from an experience perspective, is probably, it's probably the Instagram t…”
Alex Bouaziz Oct 20, 2025 ▶ 55:29 Deel CEO, Alex Bouaziz on Raising $300M+ at a $17BN Valuation · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 24, 2025 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Diao: Answers AI co-founder drove massive growth by becoming a TikTok persona
“One of the co-founders in the company became essentially a TikTok Instagram persona, right? Who can create these videos kind of on demand for the company as well and drive very, very similar amounts of views and traction and growth for the company.”
Sandy Diao Oct 24, 2025 ▶ 35:36 20Growth: How to Build a Paid Marketing Machine: ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) 101 | The Rise of User Generated Content and How to Use It | TikTok Ads: Expectations vs. Reality | Hiring for Growth: When and Who with Sandy Diao
Oct 24, 2025 bearish
Disclosure
Diao: TikTok ads underperformed compared to Instagram for hardware startup Limitless
“In some of the early experiments that we did, we just found that TikTok actually wasn't as performant as channels like Instagram.”
Sandy Diao Oct 24, 2025 ▶ 47:07 20Growth: How to Build a Paid Marketing Machine: ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) 101 | The Rise of User Generated Content and How to Use It | TikTok Ads: Expectations vs. Reality | Hiring for Growth: When and Who with Sandy Diao
Jan 16, 2026 positive
Insight
Lovinsky: Instagram's core product insight was tapping into latent consumer vanity
“The product insight is that, you know, vanity is Much bigger market than we realized it was as a, you know, latent demand that kind of tapped into.”
Noam Lovinsky Jan 16, 2026 ▶ 7:16 20Product: Is the Design Phase Dead in a World of AI | Has Claude Code Crushed Anthropic Already | What Roles of a PM Are Less and More Important with AI | How the Best Product Leaders Tell Stories with Noam Lovinsky, CPO @ Superhuman
Apr 16, 2026 bullish
Assertion Supported
Lemkin: Google Search, Facebook, and Instagram are stronger than ever
“Fast forward today. These are record growth businesses now, right? Google search. We started the show talking about AI overviews and other things. Google search is a better business than it has ever been as is Facebook and Instagram.”
Jason Lemkin Apr 16, 2026 ▶ 46:28 SpaceX's Financials Leaked: Is it Worth $2TN | Meta Debuts Muse Spark: Are They Back in the AI Race? · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Apr 16, 2026
Assertion Supported
O'Driscoll: Meta lost $70B on VR after making $100B+ on Instagram
“Yeah, I mean, if you look at the, if you look at the big play scoreboard for that, it's like, bet a billion on Instagram, win a hundred billion plus, maybe four hundred billion. Bet seventy billion on Meta and VRAR, lose it all.”
Rory O’Driscoll Apr 16, 2026 ▶ 45:50 SpaceX's Financials Leaked: Is it Worth $2TN | Meta Debuts Muse Spark: Are They Back in the AI Race? · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Made with StarZero

Turn any episode into a week of clips.

This entire site, over 1,200 episodes transcribed, diarized, checked and made playable, runs on the StarZero media pipeline. Drop in your own episode and the podcast clipper finds the moments worth sharing, cuts them, captions them, and reframes them for every feed.

Try the podcast clipper Learn more