Have you ever heard of the online video series, Foundation? If you haven’t, it’s an interview series moderated by Kevin Rose, “angel investor and serial entrepreneur” who is probably most known for founding Digg. Kevin is a fascinating guy who interviews fascinating people – primarily other successful entrepreneurs who have made a name for themselves in the game of technology, broadly speaking.
The most recent episode features Kevin Systrom, founder of Instagram. I’d strongly recommend that you watch this (and every other) episode of Foundation in full. If nothing else, you will learn to appreciate what it takes to be an entrepreneur. But more than likely, you will learn something new, or see something differently. And that’s always very cool.
What I appreciated in a new way after watching this interview was the unique position that Instagram finds itself in. It is clearly a social network (15 million strong, two people joining every second), but one that doesn’t try to be all things to all people. It is singularly focused on the visual medium (right now photos but someday video.) That’s not the space that either Twitter or Facebook dominate. And as Kevin S. notes, it’s the first truly international network because it isn’t constrained by language – pictures are universal.
Kevin S. also voiced an oft-held opinion that a lot (most?) technology companies get caught up in a build it they will come mentality. In the case of Instagram, they actually set out to solve three problems (something that differentiates them right off the bat):
- People tend to be less than totally enamored with the pictures they take — they’re not bad, just uninspired;
- People want to share their (good) pictures across multiple networks;
- Other filtering apps take forever to upload (Instagram starts uploading the picture as soon as the user begin adding a caption so it doesn’t seem like it’s taking as long.)
Oh yea, Kevin Systrom also turned down the Zuck and left Twitter to start Instagram (more). Nice.
There’s a lot more in the interview so watch it, and let me know what you think. I’m sure you’ll find it worth your time.
Northampton Consulting 