Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger reflects on the go-to-market and community-seeding strategy prior to Instagram's public launch in October 2010.
Disclosure
Krieger felt guilty leaving Instagram during the platform's public backlash
“I saw it less like, you know, the tide is changing, therefore it's time for us to leave, and in fact, it was like the other side, like, ugh, like, maybe, not to sound conceited, but like, maybe this is when we could be most needed and that was definitely like …”
Insight
Krieger: End users don't care about your startup's valuation or funding
“Your valuation and the amount you raise, it can be helpful in building your product, but it does absolutely nothing. People, end users don't care at all how much money you've raised. They care if you're providing some kind of value”
Assertion Supported
Krieger: Instagram was Facebook's first acquisition allowed to operate independently
“We were the first company that Facebook acquired and sort of kept running, and then since then you've seen Oculus and WhatsApp, and, ah, I think there were a lot of things that we figured out early on in terms of the relationship, the office space, hiring and …”
Disclosure
Krieger recommitted to Instagram annually by assessing learning and impact
“I used to tell the team very openly, like every year, you know, I would sit down and like sort of recommit to Instagram and say like, am I still learning? Is this still exciting? I still feel like I can have impact. Or is it time for the next chapter?”
Assertion Supported
Instagram launched without a block feature but built one within days
“Like, we didn't launch with a block feature, because we didn't need it at the beginning, or didn't think we needed it, and they're like, I don't want this guy on my Instagram, and we're like, oh yeah, that makes sense, and I think we had that out in like two o…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Krieger: Instagram seeded pre-launch beta invites to Dribbble designers and journalists
“So one of the things we did was we have you have a hundred sort of Invites that you can have before you launch your app to the Apple store where you can invite people to try it out. And we're like, how are we going to use these hundred people? And we use them …”