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Instagram’s CEO

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Re: Instagram’s CEO

#81

Post by justicezyx »

eldavido wrote: post #38
mooreds wrote: post #17

This is a sobering look at what it takes to build a business vs a product (vs, even smaller scale, a feature). You have to be willing to put in the long hours (err, years) and the schlepping to do all the business-y stuff: * distribution * monetization * back end systems for admin users * sales channels etc, etc Or, you can cash out and assimilate, err integrate, with a larger company that has done that hard work and…

I am a daily reader of Stratechery. It's a very "MBA" publication: the emphasis is always on strategy, distribution channels, markets, sales and marketing, etc. It's a soberingly different worldview than product-obsessed, hacker/maker/developer-centric worldview you get on HN a lot of the time. HN definitely skews toward the entrepreneurial/business end of software, but there's still a real emphasis on building great…

> there's still a real emphasis on building great products, talking to users, and faith in the idea that in the long term, the best product will win

There is a gap in "the best product will win". Where is the revenue come from?

Re: Instagram’s CEO

#82

Post by apozem »

matchagaucho wrote: post #61

It's easy to second guess... "if only they'd hung there, the $100B valuation today would be theirs" . But how many first time entrepreneurs would turn down a $1B offer after 2 years of work? Guaranteed the writers of these articles have never been in that position.

If you read more closely, the author is not arguing this. He doesn't touch what the Instagram guys should have done, just what they did, and what they did was give up control of their product.

That has an advantage, which is you can plug into Facebook's monetization model and instantly start making money, but it also has a disadvantage, which is no longer being in total control.

Re: Instagram’s CEO

#83

Post by hbosch »

kbenson wrote: post #43
billmalarky wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, they also had $700 MM in FB stock (now worth $4b according to the article), so there was incentive to help instagram succeed at FB.

I've always wondered about this. How much inventive is that? When the person thinks "if I work really hard and this, I'll increase my huge pool of money from an amount I can't easily spend given the rest of my life to an amount almost six times as much!", does that really resonate? It's not like it's the same as $700 to $4,000, or even from $7,000,000 to $40,000,000. There are things you can buy to spend most of thos…

> what does another billion buy you, besides bragging rights?

The only real way to look at wealth is through the lens of power and influence. In day-to-day life, is $250 million that much different than $1 billion? Probably not. But when it comes to power and influence, $1 billion (or more) is an incredibly better place to be.

Once you get into this kind of wealth, you can attack global problems. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is probably the crown jewel, publicly, of the kind of power this sort of multi-billion USD wealth can accomplish. We will see in the next few decades what the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative can do for education, or what the Bezos Day One Fund can do for homelessness and poverty. Of course having huge endowments doesn't necessarily mean you will be successful in your mission, and plenty of these sorts of foundations are just set up to preserve wealth and establish political bastions of influence.

Imagine also the effect that comments from other prominent billionaires have on politics in general, or the economy. Warren Buffet can swing intraday trading to the tune of billions of dollars just by commenting on individual stocks or sectors. Mere millionaires don't have this kind of influence.

So sure... you make anywhere north of, what, $100 million? and you can retire comfortably. Maybe a couple hundred million more and you can have a trust that might stay solvent for a couple generations. But a billion dollars? Two billion dollars? You can now build your own rocket and send yourself to space, build towers and monuments, influence entire nations... With a billion dollars you have exclusive access to the only worldly things that are so luxurious that they cannot even be expressed in monetary value. The differences are staggering at that scale.

Re: Instagram’s CEO

#84

Post by colmvp »

subdane wrote: post #76
eldavido wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a daily reader of Stratechery. It's a very "MBA" publication: the emphasis is always on strategy, distribution channels, markets, sales and marketing, etc. It's a soberingly different worldview than product-obsessed, hacker/maker/developer-centric worldview you get on HN a lot of the time. HN definitely skews toward the entrepreneurial/business end of software, but there's still a real emphasis on building great…

Also a daily subscriber to Stratechery. Ben (Zuck?) under-indexes on the feeling of good will associated with a good product experience. But I agree that we over-index on it here on HN. IG won on speed, usability and UX over early competitors like Hipstamiatic and Flickr. But for sure the network was the addictive glue that brought users back, new users in and made the entire product grow. FB feels like the opposite…

> FB feels like the opposite experience to me - crappy product decisions, bloated UX, bad will.

Which almost feels ironic given that they tend to hire some of the best designers around the world.

Re: Instagram’s CEO

#85

Post by sutterbomb »

subdane wrote: post #76
eldavido wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a daily reader of Stratechery. It's a very "MBA" publication: the emphasis is always on strategy, distribution channels, markets, sales and marketing, etc. It's a soberingly different worldview than product-obsessed, hacker/maker/developer-centric worldview you get on HN a lot of the time. HN definitely skews toward the entrepreneurial/business end of software, but there's still a real emphasis on building great…

Also a daily subscriber to Stratechery. Ben (Zuck?) under-indexes on the feeling of good will associated with a good product experience. But I agree that we over-index on it here on HN. IG won on speed, usability and UX over early competitors like Hipstamiatic and Flickr. But for sure the network was the addictive glue that brought users back, new users in and made the entire product grow. FB feels like the opposite…

I'm not sure he totally underindexes on experience. He was long Apple at a time it was very common to think that Android + OEMs would soon be "good enough" and thus price would be only factor and Apple would suffer. He recognized the importance of user experience and that "feeling of good will" more than most industry analysts.

Re: Instagram’s CEO

#86

Post by _audakel »

kbenson wrote: post #43
billmalarky wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, they also had $700 MM in FB stock (now worth $4b according to the article), so there was incentive to help instagram succeed at FB.

I've always wondered about this. How much inventive is that? When the person thinks "if I work really hard and this, I'll increase my huge pool of money from an amount I can't easily spend given the rest of my life to an amount almost six times as much!", does that really resonate? It's not like it's the same as $700 to $4,000, or even from $7,000,000 to $40,000,000. There are things you can buy to spend most of thos…

"PERSPECTIVE. The wealthiest person I have spent time with makes about $400mm/year. i couldn't get my mind around that until I did this: OK--let's compare it with someone who makes $40,000/year. It is 10,000x more. Now let's look at prices the way he might. A new Lambo--$235,000 becaome $23.50. First class ticket internationally? $10,000 becomes $1. A full time executive level helper? $8,000/month becomes $0.80/month. A $10mm piece of art you love? $1000. Expensive, so you have to plan a bit. A suite at the best hotel in NYC $10,000/night is $1/night. A $50million home in the Hamptons? $5,000. There is literally nothing you can't buy except."

Re: Instagram’s CEO

#87

Post by cpeterso »

subdane wrote: post #76
eldavido wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a daily reader of Stratechery. It's a very "MBA" publication: the emphasis is always on strategy, distribution channels, markets, sales and marketing, etc. It's a soberingly different worldview than product-obsessed, hacker/maker/developer-centric worldview you get on HN a lot of the time. HN definitely skews toward the entrepreneurial/business end of software, but there's still a real emphasis on building great…

Also a daily subscriber to Stratechery. Ben (Zuck?) under-indexes on the feeling of good will associated with a good product experience. But I agree that we over-index on it here on HN. IG won on speed, usability and UX over early competitors like Hipstamiatic and Flickr. But for sure the network was the addictive glue that brought users back, new users in and made the entire product grow. FB feels like the opposite…

An example of how little UX can matter:

Facebook ran an experiment where they intentionally crashed their Android app to discover the threshold at which users would give up and go away. But someone familiar with the experiment said: “The company wasn’t able to reach the threshold. People never stopped coming back”.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/05/facebook-...

Re: Instagram’s CEO

#88

Post by overcast »

enitihas wrote: post #67
matchagaucho wrote: post #61

It's easy to second guess... "if only they'd hung there, the $100B valuation today would be theirs" . But how many first time entrepreneurs would turn down a $1B offer after 2 years of work? Guaranteed the writers of these articles have never been in that position.

I think Zuckerberg refused a 1B $ offer from yahoo.

Zuckerberg wanted power, not money, that's the difference. Only a fool turns down a billion dollars. That's live the rest of your life doing whatever the hell you want money. Holding out for more billions won't change that.

Re: Instagram’s CEO

#89

Post by rajacombinator »

What a silly article with a preposterous attempt to define “CEO.” IG would have had access to unlimited funding if they wanted. I’m sure they were under a lot of pressure from FB to sell when they did, but it was a clear blunder. And one of Zuck’s best moves as CEO. The train had already left the station at that point and IG could have been sold for $20 billion a year or two later.

Re: Instagram’s CEO

#90

Post by charlesism »

eldavido wrote: post #38
mooreds wrote: post #17

This is a sobering look at what it takes to build a business vs a product (vs, even smaller scale, a feature). You have to be willing to put in the long hours (err, years) and the schlepping to do all the business-y stuff: * distribution * monetization * back end systems for admin users * sales channels etc, etc Or, you can cash out and assimilate, err integrate, with a larger company that has done that hard work and…

I am a daily reader of Stratechery. It's a very "MBA" publication: the emphasis is always on strategy, distribution channels, markets, sales and marketing, etc. It's a soberingly different worldview than product-obsessed, hacker/maker/developer-centric worldview you get on HN a lot of the time. HN definitely skews toward the entrepreneurial/business end of software, but there's still a real emphasis on building great…

    > "It's not the technology that matters, 
    > it's the strategy"
Gross. That's the kind of meaningless ass-covering thing consultants like to say. It's a great claim because nobody can falsify it: "See, you don't get it! The increased clock-speed was part of their over-all strategy!"
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