Instagram

Introduction to entrepreneurship Midterm assignment Kevin Systrom, founder and CEO of Instagram Introduction Kevin Systrom is an American entrepreneur virtually known as CEO and founder of Instagram, the most popular spherewide sharing application. This program has 85 million users and 4 billion photos were sh ard. So what makes it so special? It is a combination of passion for picture taking and weal to make it easy and available for everyone by just using your mobile. Kevin says Its one affaire to share the photo but another for that photo to look gorgeous and be something you would the like to reserve forever. (Systrom,2012)The reason why I decide to report Kevin Systrom is in my opinion he gives the best lesson how great idea can be transformed into booming troupe in very limited amount of time. Second after completing my research I realized that innovation made by him would have huge influence on social net flirt in future. Last but not least his set of mind, values and personal characteristics fulfill my vision of perfect entrepreneurial set of mind. entrepreneurial path and mind-set Kevin Systrom was arouse in entrepreneurship from very young age his mother used to work for a monster. com back than and currently is an employee of Zip Car.Since that time technology was exiting for him, he as wellk decision to go to backstage school that was an hour drive away in govern to take computer science classes, as he considered them delight and usable. With the age of 12 he found the way to block his friend cursors and pat them offline. In his free time Kevin was creating websites for his friends and classmates, an example can be PhotoBox reachd in graze to post pictures from in vogue(p) keg party. He applied to Stanford with the intent to study computer science, but after taking the showtime-year course in advance programing he realized it was probably not a even offeousness thing for him.He used to spend 40 hours per week studying it and co uld barely get B. So he switched to management science. He says, It basically taught me how to be an investment banker. (Systrom,2012) What really stands appear for me is Kevin,he is really unsolved tending(p) and ready to explore advanced things. He is always feeling for opportunity to get some pose make up if it doesnt seem applicable at the moment he believes it can be useful in long-term perspective as long as you do intellectual activities. During his junior eld in Stanford he went to Florence, Italy in order to study Photography.Combing this experience with his technological background helped him to create open platform for visual media, which gained such a success. Being in Florence he also applied for a program created for young entrepreneurs, the core idea of it put students in groups of 12 people and suspendered them with successful entrepreneurs in order to share experience roughly structure of deals, fundraising and recruitment of people. The programs co-direct or, Tina Seelig, says, Systrom stood out as an obvious entrepreneur, he was always building thingsalways experimenting.It was in his nature to be looking at the world through the lens of Wheres the opportunity here? (Bertani, 2012) He completed his stolon summer internship at Odeo (that would later create Twitter), it was where he realized that he cute to become and entrepreneur and got the first real feel of it. During this internship an most-valuable contact was made, he was running(a) in a pair with Jack Dorsey, later the creator of Twitter. In future he will help Instagram to gain that popularity. erst Systrom was hired for a project manager position at Google.After about a year on the job(p) there he realized his hunger for a start up. Soon after he came up with the idea of Instagram, called Burbn back than. In winter 2010 Stanford education and his ability to communicate helped him to make right connections for the future. It is valuable to meet people, communicate a nd keep in touch, that what in the end really makes difference. Steve Anderson, whom he met during his VC meet ups, got interested in his idea and agreed to invest $250,000 needed to start the company with the only condition, he wanted Systrom to bring in cofounder.He contacted Mike Krieger, another Stanford graduate with a majored degree in symbolic system, and proposed to kernel Burbn as cofounder. Mike got interested in this offer. It was the first check in service that he real liked, so he accepted the offer. Systrom was able to identify a gap in a mart place it was decided to create photo- only, mobile-based service. He says, It was an opportunity to create a new type of service, a social network that wasnt based on a computer but computer in your hands(Systrom,2012) His creativity and ability to come up with not obvious decision were crucial for the company development.Once during his holidays in Mexico, his girlfriend told him she wanted her pictures to look as beautiful as pictures of their friend, who was a fan of picture taking and used different filters. It was a point where Kevin realized what Instagram was missing and spent the rest of the day working on this idea. Not long after first filter was added to program features and users loved. It helped to make even clean mobile picture special. On the 6th of October 2010 Instagram became available in apple app, over the night it was downloaded by 25,000 users.With a help of Adam DAngelo, whom he knew from flat party in Stanford they managed to get on Amazon com servers. In a meter of month 1 million users were using Instagram on unwavering bases. In April this year Mark Zuckenberg offered to purchase Instagram for $1 billion, with Systroms skake of 40% or $400 million. It is instead shocking as Instagram is a company with zero revenue and only 14 employees, however Facebook is extremely interested in a mobile platform with 85 millions users. This is the first thing Ive seen that feels like its truly native to mobile, says Matt Cohler, the former VP of product management at Facebook. Bertani, 2012) It was decided that even after buying out, Kevin Systrom would run Instagram independently. The company is at the beginning stage of its growth. Its currently working only with AOS, but Android and web will also be considered in future. Failure and actions As company activities are based on innovation the risk of is failure is quite high. There is a myth that successful startups based on single great idea Kevin however claims that there are only couple that entered and ended up doing exactly uniform thing.Idea is not something you can just backwash up one day with, you have to take steps, go through solutions and solve problems in order to create something valuable. In fact the idea of Instagram is based on another application created by Systrom, called Burbn. It was really unanalyzable and basic with only four different tabs, created as check in service, the innovative thing about it was like no other service Burbn gave people an option to attach their photos together with a lieu. It was observe users are not checking in that much however they love to share their pictures.Burbn didnt become successful. It was too hard to explain to people outside their friend group. Kevin and his team even joked that it didnt pass the taproom test, meaning the idea was not clear enough to be explained in a noisy bar. It is important to present your product to customer as quickly as possible it is a big slew to wait for too long. The right way to fail is to fail early and often, in this way you come int waste your recourses and you are able to identify if the direction in which you are working is right to fulfill peoples needs.Kevin believes that its totally normal to fail in the organization. Failure is needed in order for right solution to be found. When Burbn was presented to people it turned out to be most Eye opening experience and he realized the idea has to be refined. The company was continuously failing with Burbn, so based on this experience the idea was changed. The check in was demoted and photos were promoted, in a new program (Instagram) you start with a photo and then optionally you can add a location and it turn out to make a huge difference.During the process of development filters were added and it was a break through for Instagram, as they realized they want to make photos better for people. Kevin states, We were thinking how to encourage people to take more(prenominal) photos and we realized we want their photos to look better. (Systrom,2012) Motivation The main drive and motivation for Kevin Systrom is a unattackable belief in what he is doing. The company Instagram didnt want to build just a fun application, what it is aiming for is an application that solves problems and making peoples life better.The idea of Instagram in long term is a program that helps you to explore the world, your way to get news and experience events you were not able to attend. The ability to parentage in any place in the world and see what is going on. They want to become world-changing company. It is first truly International network, as you dont need to speak the same language in order to communicate through visual media. The obsession with his idea is highly beneficial for the company. As entrepreneur he works all the time, sometimes he skips birthday parties and has luck of sleep in order to solve the problem that may appear.He is exited about what he is doing and always looking for solutions and ways how to give world something it was asking for during a long period of time. Conclusion The goal of this report was to research and analyze the entrepreneurial path of Kevin Systrom. And to find an answer what is a key to his success. Through the report I have learnt hardly a(prenominal) important lessons that can be useful for my future career. The first of them is you can fail in order to find the right answer, it is completely normal to make mistakes, what is more important is to be able to find solutions and ways to improve.Usually the idea you will start with its not going to be exactly the same with your final idea. Second thing that I would like to keep in mind after destination this report is its importance to hire right people. With the example of Instagram we can see that 14 really adroit people can run a company in such a successful way. As well it is critical to find people who share passion for what you are doing.Reference Bertoni, S. (2012, August, 01). Instagrams Kevin Systrom The Stanford Billionaire Machine Strikes Again. Retrieved October,10,2012, from http//www. forbes. com/sites/stevenbertoni/2012/08/01/instagrams-kevin-systrom-the-stanford-millionaire-machine-strikes-again/4/ Kevin Systrom,Mike Krieger (2011,May 11). From Stanford to inauguration Video file Video file. Retrieved October 10,2012, from http//ecorner. stanford. edu/authorMaterialInfo. html? mid=2735 Noer, M. (n. d. ). 30 under 30 Video file Video file. Retrieved from http//video. forbes. com/fvn/30-under-30/30-under-30-kevin-systrom/