Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger are the minds behind one of the world’s biggest social network platforms of all time, Instagram. During their time with the social media giant, they helped to create an app that is used by over 1 billion people.
The photo sharing app was designed in San Francisco and has been a leader in today’s social media landscape. According to CNN Money, “Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger founded the photo-sharing app in a co-working space in 2010. It became a runaway success, attracting tens of millions of users before the co-founders sold it to Facebook (FB) in 2012 for $1 billion.”
Instagram continues to create more ways to evolve and mold our social media landscape. In the last few years alone, they rolled out stories and created their own TV platform. So why leave something so lucrative? While the two didn’t give a specific reason for the departure, in a statement, Systrom shared “’We’re planning on taking some time off to explore our curiosity and creativity again,” Mr. Systrom said. “Building new things requires that we step back, understand what inspires us and match that with what the world needs; that’s what we plan to do.’” Even after the major payday and success of their application, the two are just getting started on the next big thing.