How Instagram Turned Failure Into $1,000,000,000

Instagram turned a side hustle into $1 billion. It was 2010. They make an app called Burbn, a location check-in app with fun games and a way to make plans, but nobody uses it. So Kevin and Mike dig in, and when they analyze user behavior, people only care about one feature: sharing photos. So they make the painful decision to throw away their code and start over. But rebuilding a photo sharing app means competing against photo giants like Flickr and Facebook while still working day jobs. So they focus on a unique intersection. Smartphone photos are terrible, but people still want to share them. So this sweet spot— they create simple filters that make amateur photos look professional, the one thing nobody else offers. But they have limited time and resources as a side project, so they ruthlessly eliminate everything that isn't essential, launching with just capture, filter, and share. Within 8 weeks, they hit 1 million users, and 18 months later, sell to Facebook for a billion dollars. Don't fall in love with your original idea.