Hardware Podcasts

Instagram: Kevin Systrom & Mike Krieger (2017)

How I Built This · 13 Nov 2017 · 31m

What this episode covers

Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger recount the rapid evolution of their company from a location-based app called Burbn to a photo-sharing platform, highlighting the critical pivot driven by user behavior and the addition of filters. They discuss the chaotic early scaling challenges, including server crashes during launch, and the strategic decision to build an open social graph rather than a closed network. The episode also covers the viral growth fueled by early adopters like designers and celebrities, the eventual acquisition by Facebook for $1 billion, and a significant crisis involving a controversial terms of service update that led to user backlash.

Most relevant to

founders before launch and companies scaling up

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Facebook, Priority Bicycles
Products
Burbn, XPro 2
Also
Dribble.com, Snoop Dogg, Justin Bieber, Obama

Related episodes from other shows

Other shows on the same ground, closest first.

  • Oxide and Friends · 1h 42m

    Fail Whaling

    Guests Bryan Cantrill, Adam Leventhal, and Jason Hoffman recount the chaotic early history of Twitter, detailing how the platform evolved from the podcast directory Odeo and the hackathon project twttr. They discuss specific engineering failures, including a Rails exception handling bug that caused massive CPU overhead and a directory limit issue caused by millions of test files, which was eventually solved by migrating to Amazon S3. The conversation also covers the technical infrastructure of early Twitter, such as the use of BigIP load balancers, Mongrel, and the eventual shift to Java and Scala, while reflecting on the cultural shift in Silicon Valley from on-premises infrastructure to cloud-native scaling.

    Debugging & failure analysisScaling production
    10 chapters

  • Oxide and Friends · 1h 40m

    Scaling Bluesky with Paul Frazee

    Paul Frazee of Bluesky discusses the evolution of the AT Protocol from early decentralized experiments like Secure Scuttlebutt to the launch of Bluesky, explaining how the team prioritized account portability and a shared data model to avoid the centralization pitfalls of previous social networks. He details the engineering challenges of scaling the platform during its viral growth, including the decision to halt invite-only access to re-architect the backend, and describes key product features like the open firehose, customizable third-party feeds, and decentralized moderation via labelers. Frazee also highlights the unexpected success of domain-based usernames for verification and the role of 'starter packs' in migrating communities from Twitter.

    Connected products & IoTScaling production
    7 chapters

  • Oxide and Friends · 1h 02m

    Rooting for the Home Team with Paul Freedman and Bryan Carmel

    Paul Freedman and Bryan Carmel, founders of the Oakland Ballers, discuss the startup's rapid growth from building a ballpark in a month to winning a historic championship season. They detail the operational challenges of launching two teams simultaneously, the strategic pivot to focus on the Oakland franchise, and the creation of 'BallerMetrics' to quantify fan impact. The episode also highlights a new collaboration with Oxide Computer Company to host a hackathon aimed at democratizing baseball technology.

    Validation & product-market fitMarketing & brand
    8 chapters

  • The Startup CPG Podcast · 51m

    #79 First Hire Series: Behind the scenes on hiring with Sweet Nothings

    Jake Kneller, CEO and co-founder of Sweet Nothings, and Lucy King, VP of Marketing, discuss the company's hiring trajectory from a two-person garage operation to a 13-person scaling team. They detail the strategic decisions behind their first hires, including Gavin Myers for retail expertise and Lucy for marketing, emphasizing the importance of hiring for a 'no job too small' attitude over pedigree. The episode covers their remote culture, goal-setting frameworks, and the reality of managing early-stage growth with products like Spoonable Smoothie Cups and Nut Butter Bites.

    Hiring & workforceLeadership, teams & culture
    9 chapters

  • The Amp Hour · 1h 59m

    Jeri Ellsworth and the demise of CastAR

    Jeri Ellsworth, founder of Cast AR, details the company's rise and fall, explaining how a $15 million Series A from Playground Global led to rapid scaling, loss of founder control, and eventual shutdown due to misaligned leadership and poor fundraising strategy. She describes the chaotic product development, including multiple failed prototype iterations (Proto-1 through EVT) and endless rebranding exercises, before purchasing the assets for pennies on the dollar to launch a new venture. The episode highlights critical failures in board governance, investor relations, and hardware execution, offering lessons on choosing strategic investors and maintaining founder control.

    Starting a product companyFundraising & investors
    9 chapters

The summary, chapters and topics are generated from the episode’s audio by this directory, not written by How I Built This. The episode itself belongs to its publisher.