Creating the Right Environment

In October 2010, Instagram was officially launched to the world.

In April 2012, sixteen months after launch, Instagram was sold to Facebook for approximately $1 billion in cash and stock.

As a Bay Area native myself, San Francisco is seen all over the world as the technological and innovation hub for our planet.

But San Francisco was not always this way. Believe it or not there was a time of uncertainty in the Bay Area as the United States started to scale back from its Cold War production in the early 90s there was a lot of uncertainty as local bases closed and military contracts started to dry up. Apple Computer had lost much of its luster by this time. The boom caused by the Internet was still several years away. My own hometown of San Mateo had a downtown area that, except for a few restaurants and Mills Hospital, was pretty much closed for business by 5PM.

However, in all these struggles in the early 90s, the Bay Area still had an environment and culture that allowed for new, sometimes weird, ideas. Great universities like Stanford and UC Berkeley did not go away. A strong community college system did not go away. Conditions were right for a quick turn around. Curiosity and innovation has never left the Bay Area even in uncertain times. And when the Internet finally became part of mass media, people were quick to jump on it and capitalize.

That brings me back to Instagram. In sixteen months, Instagram went from a launched idea to being sold for $1 billion. The conditions were right in the Bay Area to bring that talent and innovation together.

In your own communities, what is being done to bring this talent and these types of innovative thought together? Is there focus, not just in your schools, but in the whole community around shared values that would create an environment that allows these ideas to be born and flourish? This goes beyond a “Genius Hour” or “Wonder Wall” or whatever you want to call a set time you try to devote to curiosity and innovation. The next great idea might be sitting on a cocktail napkin, or in the mind of someone. It is so very important that we create a climate and culture to allow these ideas to come forward.