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Meet The 13 Lucky Employees And 9 Investors


Behind $1 Billion Instagram
Alyson Shontell Apr 10, 2012, 12:08 AM

Instagram was acquired by


Facebook today for $1 billion in
cash and stock.
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2/23/2021 Instagram employees and investors

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It only has 13 employees and a
handful of investors.

Meet 11 of the lucky employees and 9 investors behind Instagram.

Two other employees were hired during South by Southwest last month
and their information wasn't available for this story.

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Kevin Systrom is Instagram's CEO and co-founder

Date joined: June 2010

Role and career history: Kevin Systrom was a product manager at


NextStop before co-founding Instagram with Mike Krieger.  Prior to that
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he was a corporate development associate at Google.


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Systrom owned 40% of Instagram when it was acquired.

Mike Krieger is co-founder of Instagram

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Date joined: June 2010

Role and career history: "Kevin Systrom and I started Instagram in mid-
2010 and both designed and developed the application," he writes on
LinkedIn.  Prior to Instagram, Krieger was a user experience designer and
engineer at Meebo and a graduate of Stanford University.

Krieger owned 10% of Instagram when it was acquired by Facebook.

https://www.businessinsider.com/instagram-employees-and-investors-2012-4?IR=T#chris-sacca-was-an-early-google-employee-who-made-an-angel-investment-in-instagram-14 5/29
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Dan Toffey works on Community for Instagram

Date joined: March 2012

Role and career history: Toffey may be Instagram's only non-San


Francisco-based employee. Based in Washington D.C., he works on
community for Instagram Prior to joining Instagram he was web
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community for Instagram.  Prior to joining Instagram he was web
communications manager at Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Log in Subscribe

Josh Riedel handles community and partnerships at


Instagram

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Date joined: October 2010

Role and career history: Riedel works on community and partnerships at


Instagram. Prior to Instagram he was a community manager at NextStop.
He graduated from Reed College in 2007.

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Philip McAllister is one of Instagram's engineers


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Date joined: January 2012

Role and career history: McAllister can't escape Facebook. He joined


Instagram from Gowalla, a Foursquare-like startup that was acquired by
Facebook in December.

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Ryan Gomba is a developer at Instagram

https://www.businessinsider.com/instagram-employees-and-investors-2012-4?IR=T#chris-sacca-was-an-early-google-employee-who-made-an-angel-investment-in-instagram-14 10/29
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Date joined: March 2012

Role and career history: Ryan is a new hire at Instagram and is a


developer for the company. Prior to joining Instagram he was the founder

of AppThat and an engineer at SimpleGeo.

Bailey Richardson joined Instagram last month. She


works on community at Instagram

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Date joined: March 2012

Role and career history: Richardson was hired by Instagram last month. 
Prior to Instagram she was a community and marketing manager at
UGallery. She graduated from Stanford in 2009.

Amy Cole handles business operations

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Date joined: October 2011

Role and career history: Cole handles business operations for Instagram.
Prior to joining Instagram she ran business development at Sephora.

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ead t e sto y

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Gregor Hochmuth is an engineer

Date joined: December 2011

Role and career history: Hochmuth has been an engineer at Instagram


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2/23/2021 Instagram employees and investors

for five months.  Prior to joining Instagram he was co-founder and CEO of
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Modi and a product manager at Google.

Jessica Zollman is a community evangelist at Instagram

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Date joined: August 2011

Role and career history: Zollman writes on LinkedIn: "As Community


Evangelist at Instagram I am tasked with advocating on behalf of the
Instagram user base. I teach the community about our company and the

product through Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter, and Facebook. I provide


timely customer support, as well as communicate issues and potential
product changes or improvements voiced by our users to the entire team.
It is my goal to place a human face to the company both online through
Instagram's Weekend Hashtag Projects, and offline through events such
as the Worldwide Instameets. "

Prior to joining Instagram, Zollman was a user support specialist at


Formspring and a Customer Relations Specialist at Linden Lab.

Shayne Sweeney joined Instagram in 2010


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Date joined: November 2010

Role and career history: Shayne Sweeney is a self-proclaimed


"entrepreneurial hacker and developer passionate about consumer
Internet and high-tech software startups." Prior to Instagram, Sweeney
was the founder of Credentify and a principal engineer at Build.com

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Quora co-founder Adam D'Angelo is one of Instagram's


angel investors

Quora

Date invested: February 2011 ($7 million Series A round)

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Role and career history: D'Angelo was Facebook's first CTO and he co- Log in Subscribe

founded Quora with Charlie Cheever.

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Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter and Square, is


another Instagram angel investor

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Twitter / @jack

Date invested: February 2011 ($7 million Series A round)

Role and career history: Jack Dorsey founded Square and co-founded
Twitter. He's an angel investor in Instagram.

Chris Sacca was an early Google employee who made an


angel investment in Instagram
https://www.businessinsider.com/instagram-employees-and-investors-2012-4?IR=T#chris-sacca-was-an-early-google-employee-who-made-an-angel-investment-in-instagram-14 20/29
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Chris Sacca

Date invested: February 2011 ($7 million Series A round)

Role and career history: Chris Sacca was an early Google employee and
he's since made a number of angel investments, including Twitter.

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Baseline Ventures was a seed investor and Series A


investor in Instagram

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Steve Anderson founded Baseline Ventures Baseline Ventures

Date invested: March 2010 and February 2011 ($500,000 seed round and
$7 million Series A round)

About: Baseline Ventures was founded by Steve Anderson. It's other


investments include Aardvark, which was acquired by Google, Twitter and
Trialpay.

Andreessen Horowitz was a seed investor in Instagram


but dumped it when it became a competitor to another
portfolio company, PicPlz

https://www.businessinsider.com/instagram-employees-and-investors-2012-4?IR=T#chris-sacca-was-an-early-google-employee-who-made-an-angel-investment-in-instagram-14 23/29
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Bloomberg Television

Date invested: March 2010 ($500,000 seed round)

About: Andreessen Horowitz was a seed investor in Instagram but when


the company pivoted to become a PicPlz competitor, the firm removed it
from its portfolio. AH still owned 10% of Instagram, though.

https://www.businessinsider.com/instagram-employees-and-investors-2012-4?IR=T#chris-sacca-was-an-early-google-employee-who-made-an-angel-investment-in-instagram-14 24/29
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Instagram raised $50 million at a $500 million valuation


last week from Thrive, Sequoia and Greylock

Business Insider

Sequoia, Thrive and Greylock reportedly led a new, massive round in


I l k
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Instagram last week.
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Benchmark Capital was also an Instagram investor, and led the company's
Series A round last year.

For more lucky startup employees, check out:

Harco Rutgers via Flickr

Facebook's Fi st 20 Emplo ees Whe e A e The No ?


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Facebook's First 20 Employees: Where Are They Now?
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