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Kevin Systrom Quotes

Powerful Kevin Systrom for Daily Growth

As a kid, creation was something that I always loved. Creating worlds for video games, creating businesses that didn't make any money, selling lemonade, etcetera. In my fourth grade classroom, I even instituted a government structure because I was really interested in people having positions and there being law.

- Kevin Systrom

Kid, Video, Worlds, Lemonade

Every photo you take communicates something about a moment in time - a brief slice of time of where you were, who you were with, and what you were doing.

- Kevin Systrom

Doing, Brief, About, Slice

I own a Canon 20D, though I don't remember the last time I used it. Ever since the iPhone 4, I've been completely absorbed in taking photos from my mobile phone.

- Kevin Systrom

Own, Used, Been, Canon

Good companies are always fundraising. Whether you're meeting people or considering firms, you're always fundraising.

- Kevin Systrom

Always, Companies, Whether, Considering

I don't foresee a future where people don't have some sort of phone that's like a computer. I don't foresee a future where those phones don't have cameras in them. That spells a future where smartphones are the status quo. You have to ask yourself how you allow people to communicate what's in their lives.

- Kevin Systrom

Communicate, Some, Allow, Status Quo

It helps to see the world through a different lens, and that's what we wanted to do with Instagram. We wanted to give everyone the same feeling of discovering the world around you through a different lens.

- Kevin Systrom

Give, Through, Discovering, Lens

In the past, people have looked at photos as a record of memory. The focus has been on the past tense. With Instagram, the focus is on the present tense.

- Kevin Systrom

Memory, In The Past, Been, Present Tense

Chobani did a really wonderful yogurt campaign on 'Instagram' to shift perceptions away from the fact that they were just yogurt. And they had a 7-point incremental lift on shifting that perception through a brand advertisement on Instagram.

- Kevin Systrom

Through, Away, Yogurt, Perceptions

I've always had a passion for technology, photography, startups, and connecting people. Bringing those aspects together made me successful.

- Kevin Systrom

Always, Made, Aspects, Startups

Traditional businesses can say, 'We're going to sell widgets to people, and it will make X amount of profit.' But new business models are hard.

- Kevin Systrom

New, Models, Amount, Profit

Back in the day, I actually studied photography in Florence for a few months, and my photography teacher took away my digital camera and said, 'No, use this - it's analog and it's square.' It was a Holga camera, a very cheap $3 or $4 plastic camera. And that's what inspired 'Instagram'.

- Kevin Systrom

Away, Very, Use, Camera

A platform is the base from which something big happens. In our case, we're an entertainment platform in the sense that there are people signing up like MTV, Burberry, folks like Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber. And why? Because it's their channel to control their entertainment to their fans.

- Kevin Systrom

Big, Entertainment, Channel, Case

It is cool to see that the fashion world has really taken to 'Instagram,' but, again, it is one of the many examples of many communities, whether you are a chef, a skateboarder, a surfer, a skier.

- Kevin Systrom

Cool, Chef, Again, Skier

When you're introducing a mobile app, you look around and say, 'We could be doing 15 different things, but how do we communicate to someone why they would want to download and even sign up for this thing?'

- Kevin Systrom

Doing, Communicate, Sign, Download

I've always been into taking my photos, cropping them square, putting them through a filter in Photoshop.

- Kevin Systrom

Through, Always, Been, Filter

You can build a filter app get people really excited, but the way to keep them is to provide long-term value. Long-term value is, in fact, being its own network.

- Kevin Systrom

Fact, Excited, App, Filter

One of the earliest requested features was to do premium filters where a brand could sponsor a filter. It's just not in our wheelhouse. It doesn't feel 'Instagram'-my in the way that the high-quality brand ads do.

- Kevin Systrom

Could, Sponsor, High-Quality, Filter

Calling 'Instagram' a photo-sharing app is like calling a newspaper a letter-sharing book, or a Mozart grand era symphony a series of notes. 'Instagram' is less about the medium and more about the network.

- Kevin Systrom

Newspaper, Notes, App, Mozart

Facebook's campus has a lot of creative spaces: an analogue print shop, a candy store. It's a dynamic place and one of the best environments I've been in, period.

- Kevin Systrom

Been, Period, Shop, Spaces

It turns out that no undergrad class prepares you to start a startup - you learn most of it as you do it.

- Kevin Systrom

Learn, Most, Startup, Prepares

There are fun parts of running a startup and not so fun parts, and Facebook handles the not so fun parts, like infrastructure, spam, sales. The real questions are, how big can 'Instagram' get? Is it 400 million, or bigger? Can it be a viable business if it is that big? These are at the top of the list for everyone in Silicon Valley.

- Kevin Systrom

Questions, Big, Instagram, Spam

Whether it's an ad or organic content, video provides a new creative dimension for storytelling on 'Instagram'. Video lets people convey the power and beauty in a moment through sight, sound, and motion.

- Kevin Systrom

Storytelling, New, Through, Organic

Working at a startup to make a lot of money was never a thing, and that's why I decided to just finish up school. That was way more important for me.

- Kevin Systrom

Why, More, Way, Startup

Every startup should address a real and demonstrated need in the world - if you build a solution to a problem lots of people have, it's so easy to sell your product to the world.

- Kevin Systrom

Product, Need, Address, Startup

There's a natural set of constraints with mobile phones that force you to be a better photographer by acknowledging and observing the world around you.

- Kevin Systrom

Natural, Mobile, Set, Acknowledging

The printing press did something really big for the world when everyone could get books in their hands and read.

- Kevin Systrom

Hands, Big, Read, Printing

I can't imagine that companies are uninteresting if they don't have a billion users. But I do believe, to have mass scale, you have to be in the many-hundreds-of-millions-of-users range, and there are not that many companies that get there.

- Kevin Systrom

Scale, Imagine, Mass, Uninteresting

All of us in social media and regular media, we're all competing for the same thing, which is this gap between something happening in the world and you knowing about it.

- Kevin Systrom

Competing, Same Thing, Which, Social Media

When people say that college isn't worthwhile and paying all this money isn't worthwhile, I really disagree. I think those experiences and those classes that may not necessarily seem applicable in the moment end up coming back to you time and time again.

- Kevin Systrom

College, I Think, Classes, Time And Time

There are a lot more companies with a lot younger people. It is just like 23-year-olds are starting companies, and they are scaling really quickly.

- Kevin Systrom

Younger, Like, Scaling, Younger People

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