Instagram: How I Built This

The Founders’ Story of Instagram

How I Built This by NPR

The Gist

NPR’s Guy Raz explores Instagram’s origin story with founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger.

The Gem

The moment when Instagram’s key insight — photo filters — was discovered. In a conversation with his girlfriend, he realizes that a filters help normal people achieve something that normally takes a lot of craft and knowledge: creating photos worth sharing.

Why I Chose this

I love origin stories. I love them because they remind me that valuable companies are built on simple, first-principles insights about human behavior and popular culture. While these insights aren’t sufficient, they are necessary to make all the sweat and tears amount to anything.