Entrepreneurs: Kevin Systrom, 27; Mike Krieger, 25
Funding: $7.5 million from Benchmark Capital, Baseline Ventures, and angels that include Chris Sacca and Jack Dorsey
iPhone photos don't always look great. So Kevin Systrom, a former Google (GOOG) product marketing manager, and Mike Krieger, who interned at Microsoft (MSFT), founded Instagram to build an app that imbues the photos with a vintage luster that can make them more enticing and satisfying to share. The word Instagram is an amalgam of Instamatic camera and telegram and so far, 4 million users have snapped up the app.
Wisest funding decision: "To optimize for the people we wanted to work with," Systrom says. Instagram sought out Matt Cohler, a Benchmark general partner and Facebook veteran, "because of his experience helping build a social networking company," he says. "His expertise was perfect for what we were trying to accomplish."
Funding: $7.5 million from Benchmark Capital, Baseline Ventures, and angels that include Chris Sacca and Jack Dorsey
iPhone photos don't always look great. So Kevin Systrom, a former Google (GOOG) product marketing manager, and Mike Krieger, who interned at Microsoft (MSFT), founded Instagram to build an app that imbues the photos with a vintage luster that can make them more enticing and satisfying to share. The word Instagram is an amalgam of Instamatic camera and telegram and so far, 4 million users have snapped up the app.
Wisest funding decision: "To optimize for the people we wanted to work with," Systrom says. Instagram sought out Matt Cohler, a Benchmark general partner and Facebook veteran, "because of his experience helping build a social networking company," he says. "His expertise was perfect for what we were trying to accomplish."
