No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram

by Sarah Frier

The team at Odeo was launching a new status update product, called Twttr, pronounced “twitter,” with Dorsey as its CEO. Systrom had kept in touch and used the site frequently to support his friends and former colleagues, posting about whatever he was cooking or drinking or looking at, even though the site was text only. One of the guys at Odeo told him that eventually, celebrities and brands around the world were going to use it to communicate. They’re crazy, Systrom thought. Nobody is going to use this thing. He couldn’t imagine what it might be useful for. Either way, they didn’t try to recruit him back. Most people never get the chance to join an iconic company in its early days. Systrom squandered both of his, choosing instead to do something much less risky. For him, after graduating Stanford with degrees in management and engineering, going to Google was basically like going to grad school.