The Founders Of Instagram Just Stepped Down, Fearing They Might Become As Lame As Zuckerberg
NY Times- Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, the co-founders of the photo-sharing app Instagram, have resigned and plan to leave the company in the coming weeks, adding to the challenges facing Instagram’s parent company, Facebook.
Mr. Systrom and Mr. Krieger did not give a reason for stepping down, according to the people, but said they planned to take time off after leaving Instagram. Mr. Systrom, 34, and Mr. Krieger, 32, have known each other since 2010, when they met and transformed a software project built by Mr. Systrom into what eventually became Instagram, which now has more than one billion users.
In a statement late Monday, Mr. Systrom said he and Mr. Krieger were “ready for our next chapter,” and hinted that they would create something new.
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, praised the Instagram founders in a statement and said that he wished them “all the best and I’m looking forward to seeing what they build next.”
A billion users. About 1/7th of the earth’s population. Think about that. Assuming that a lot of people on earth are either too young or too old or too poor to own a smartphone, that basically means that every single person who CAN have Instagram… has it. Science. And that’s insane.
The only thing more insane would be to walk away from that. These two guys are leaving the company they built–their gigantic, billion-pound baby–and they didn’t tell anyone why. Whenever that happens, it usually means trouble in Silicon Valley. My guess is that they grew very tired of answering to Mark Zuckerberg.
It’s no secret that Mark Zuckerberg is a scary dude. Even writing this is scary for me. Do you know how much guts it takes to even write about Facebook in the first place? To know that an army of his loyal Facebook followers will immediately send me a bunch of hateful messages, telling me that I’m ugly, even though objectively, as far as Harvard gingers go, I’m better looking than he is. I mean honestly:
Bruhhhhh what is happening with your forehead. It’s endless. That haircut? “Yes barber, I’d like the child boy, please.” Whatever. I’m not here to shame.
Point is, I would bet that Zuckerberg got a little weird with these guys. Maybe he started asking them to hang out in the Facebook cafeteria too often. Or he’d have them come to his office for a “meeting,” only to spend the entire time talking about how ludicrous it was that Sorkin cast Jesse Eisenberg to play him in The Social Network. That Eisenberg talked WAY too fast and the movie, in general, was so fucking dialogue heavy. Classic Sorkin, trying to pack as many goddamn words into 90 minutes, indulging his typewriter and eschewing the norms of human conversation in favor of a spitfire torrent of words that are SO unrealistic. That Eisenberg, at 5’7”, isn’t a believable Zuck. That he, the real Zuck, is huge. He’s a huge guy. Height has never been an issue for him.
Anyway, thanks to Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger for their service. You made my nights stressful as I’d second-guess every DM I’d sent, kicking myself when the cover model for the SI Swimsuit Edition didn’t respond. But you gave us a magical way of looking at our friends and thinking, “wow, he/she sucks so much now.” Thus, thanks, and best of luck gents!