551 days to $US1 billion: 10 key dates that shaped Instagram before its Facebook deal

In just 18 months, Instagram founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger have turned a photo-sharing app with no revenue or profit into a social network with millions of users worth $US1 billion.

It’s an extraordinary turn around for a start-up, even in Silicon Valley where funding has been rich over the past few years. Within just two months it had one million users, had moved into new offices – and still only had a handful of employees.

The journey has been extremely quick, but there have been some milestones on the way. Here are 10 key dates that mark Instagram’s journey from start-up to part of the Facebook team:

October 6, 2010 – Launch

After weeks of testing the Instagram launched as a free app. It already had some buzz through the local trade press, managing to get a local following before a product was even on the market.

Even before launching, the Instagram team did something right – they gave themselves enough time to make sure the product was in top shape before launching, and drummed up some publicity too. There was already a user-base before the app was there.

November 17, 2010 – New offices

Just one month after launching, the team hired its third full-time employee, Shayne Sweeney – if the Wired report is true, and the $US100 million will be distributed among employees according to seniority, then Sweeney will be quite rich.

The team moved into Twitter’s old office. Funnily enough, co-founder Kevin Systrom used to work in that office when working at Odeo, founded by Twitter co-founder Biz Stone.

December 21, 2010 – One million users

In just two months, Instagram managed to gain one million followers. It’s no easy feat, but given the company rode the social wave and enabled its users to share photos however they liked – something no other app did as well – the rapid growth was really no surprise.

February 2, 2011 – Funding

The first round of funding is always an exciting time. Although the company had been courted by some private equity firms before this date, this is when the major funding came through to the tune of $US7 million, led by Benchmark Capital. A number of other investors, including Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, also took part.

March, 2011 – Most popular app at SXSW

Back at the South by Southwest Conference in 2011, Instagram was one of the hot new apps on the market – and also one of the most popular.

According to this data over at Opinionated, users were surveyed to see how much attention was being given to new apps at the conference. By far, Instagram was on top, next to Foodspotting.

December 9, 2011 – Apple App of the Year

Getting an accolade from Apple is no mean feat. Being named App of the Year is about as big as you can get.

March 11, 2012 – SXSW

Speaking again at the SXSW conference, the company confirmed it had reached 27 million users, and would shortly be releasing an Android version. Both founders understand innovation is key to remaining relevant in the mobile space – along with remaining platform agnostic.

April 5, 2012 – Android

The company releases the Android version of the app and in under a week, manages to record another one million downloads.

April 8, 2012 – Funding

One of the most interesting developments of this whole situation was that Instagram finalised a $US50 million round of funding that valued the company at $US500 million just days before it was purchased by Facebook.

Did it know that a Facebook acquisition was coming? Impossible to say, but all signs point to “yes”. Using this funding round as a way to increase its value may have been a smart play by Systrom and Krieger.

April 9, 2012 – Facebook acquisition

Facebook spends $US1 billion on the company, just 18 months after it first launched, with no profit or revenue to speak of. The company will continue to operate independently.