This was an insane story.
A lot of anti-FOMO in this story, where all of Systrom’s experiences seem to come into play in building Instagram. Things have worked out even though he never worked at Facebook, stuck around at Google, or worked at Twttr.
I got the sense his experiences gave Instagram a vast pool of data to draw on, especially on the confidence to pivot.
Systrom’s experiences also gave Instagram the seemingly key focus on their users and users’ problems to solve.
Also – they were super practical! Systrom raised money however he could, and also delayed a pivot based on his co-founder’s needs – super tough decisions to make in a high-stress environment.