Instagram was created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. Launched on October 6, 2010, the app started as a mobile-first project born out of a cluttered check-in application called Burbn. Systrom and Krieger stripped away extraneous features to focus exclusively on mobile photography, filters, and fast sharing, creating a platform that reached one million users in just two months.
Understanding who built Instagram requires looking beyond the popular narrative of overnight success. The platform’s rise involved technical pivots, strategic venture backing, and an acquisition by Facebook that permanently altered the social media landscape.
From Stanford to Burbn: The Roots of Instagram
Kevin Systrom graduated from Stanford University, where he participated in the Mayfield Fellows Program—an entrepreneurship initiative that led to an internship at Odeo (the company that eventually spawned Twitter). After graduating, Systrom spent two years at Google working as a product marketer on applications like Gmail and Google Calendar. Seeking a more hands-on role in building software, he left Google for Nextstop, a startup founded by former Google employees.
During his free time, Systrom began building a prototype application called Burbn. Inspired by his love for fine whiskeys and bourbon, the app allowed users to check into locations, make plans with friends, and post photos. Similar insight on this matter has been provided by BBC.
Mike Krieger, a fellow Stanford graduate who studied symbolic systems, met Systrom through mutual connections at the university. Krieger joined Systrom as a co-founder to help build and scale the product. Together, they secured seed funding from Baseline Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz while working out of a shared desk space in San Francisco.
The Pivot That Changed Everything
By early 2010, Burbn was struggling. The application was bloated, offering too many competing features that confused new users. Users rarely used the check-in features, but they frequently uploaded and shared filtered photographs.
Systrom and Krieger made a critical decision: they stripped away everything in Burbn except the photo-sharing mechanism, comments, and likes. They spent eight weeks rewriting the entire application into a clean, mobile-first product designed specifically for the Apple iPhone. They renamed the app Instagram—a portmanteau of "instant camera" and "telegram."
When Instagram launched on the iOS App Store in October 2010, it captured immediate cultural momentum. By focusing heavily on square photo formats and retro filters that made smartphone photography look artistic, the app gained 25,000 users on its very first day. Within a week, that number climbed to 100,000, and by December 2010, one million registered users were active on the platform.
Scaling Up and the Facebook Acquisition
By 2012, Instagram's small team—consisting of just 13 employees—was managing a user base scaling into the tens of millions. Despite having minimal revenue streams, the company drew intense interest from major tech giants.
In April 2012, Meta (then Facebook, Inc.) acquired Instagram for $1 billion in cash and stock. At the time, the purchase price shocked the tech industry because Instagram had no revenue and a tiny workforce. However, Mark Zuckerberg viewed mobile photography as an existential threat to Facebook's desktop-heavy ecosystem.
Under the terms of the acquisition, Instagram retained relative operational independence. Systrom remained CEO, and Krieger served as chief technology officer, steering the platform through its expansion to Android, the introduction of video sharing, and the launch of monetization tools.
Life After Instagram: The Founders' Departure
Relations between the original creators and Facebook's parent company grew strained over time. As Meta integrated Instagram more tightly into its core infrastructure, introduced stricter data controls, and influenced product roadmaps, Systrom and Krieger clashed with Zuckerberg over the app's autonomy.
In September 2018, both co-founders officially resigned from Instagram. They left behind an app with over one billion monthly active users. Following their departure, Adam Mosseri took over leadership of the platform.
In 2023, Systrom and Krieger returned to the tech scene by launching Artifact, an artificial intelligence-powered news reading application. Although Artifact gained a dedicated user base, the founders announced its shutdown in early 2024 due to market constraints, concluding another chapter in their product-building careers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger code Instagram alone?
Yes, in the earliest stages of Instagram, Systrom and Krieger wrote the core code themselves. Systrom built the initial web prototype of Burbn, while Krieger architected significant portions of the iOS app's backend and mobile interface before hiring their first engineers.
Why was Instagram originally limited to square photos?
The restriction to square-cropped photos was a deliberate design choice. Early smartphone cameras lacked the processing speed and resolution to handle varied aspect ratios smoothly without lagging. The square format also gave the platform a consistent, aesthetic grid layout reminiscent of vintage Polaroid film.
How much money did the founders make from the Facebook sale?
Because they owned a majority of the equity in their startup, Systrom and Krieger took home a substantial portion of the $1 billion acquisition price. Kevin Systrom’s net worth crossed billionaire status as Facebook's stock value surged over the subsequent years.
What happened to Burbn after Instagram launched?
Burbn was officially retired shortly after Instagram's launch. The founders realized that maintaining a failing check-in app would dilute their focus, choosing instead to redirect all infrastructure resources toward the photo-sharing app.
