The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 10 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Systrom: Product complexity is acceptable only without orthogonal use cases
“So, adding complexity is okay as long as you don't add orthogonal use cases that feel totally unrelated.”
Systrom: Network apps need a 'single-player mode' to solve cold starts
“The problem is that you have this app that's a network, but no one's on the network, and it only becomes useful once people are on the network. So you have to have what we called single player mode feel awesome. And it turns out single player mode as a app whe…”
Systrom: The best products are built from personal past experiences
“I think the best products are usually built Based on personal experience from your past, and you never know exactly what parts of your past will come together to, like, form that puzzle and be a product that you want to build for the world, but inevitably some…”
Systrom: The top growth lesson is hiring experts for your current problems
“So lesson number one is like, find great people that know their stuff, because there are a lot of them in the world, and they would be happy to deal with the problems that you are currently facing. That is the lesson number one of growing a company.”
Systrom: Adding complexity works only if new use cases remain related
“So, adding complexity is okay as long as you don't add orthogonal use cases that feel totally unrelated.”
Systrom: Entrepreneurs too often mistake two-way doors for irreversible decisions
“Far too many times entrepreneurs assume that things aren't reversible. Jeff Bezos talks about one-way doors. He likes employees to make decisions quickly when there are, I don't know, two-way doors or revolving doors. But when there are one-way doors, think lo…”
Systrom: Instagram seeded launch with 100 designer influencers cross-posting
“So we went out and we got all these influencers who were photographers and designers to sign up, and I think we had a hundred people sign up. And the day we launched, they started posting all their photos to Twitter and to Facebook, and we figured out the vira…”
Systrom: Only fight with co-founder was over buying an extra server
“It's the only true, I think, fight Mike and I have ever had, which was we were scaling, and He was like, we're gonna need another server. And I was like, no, we don't. And it was cause I don't know, I was really cost conscious and like, it was going to be expe…”
Systrom: Instagram only had 5 to 6 employees for its first year
“I mean, we were like, on average, like six people for that first year. We only hired up to 13 right before we got acquired. So whenever people are like, ah, 13, I'm like, actually, it was more like five or six.”
Systrom: Founders naturally gravitate toward central roles like goalie or DJ
“When I did sports as a kid, I was the goalie. When I played baseball, I was the pitcher. Like I always wanted to be in the center of it and not controlling it, but I wanted to be in the center of it. And the DJ is kind of the same thing, right? So the early gl…”