Homeschooling Heroes: Kevin Systrom

by Christina Yeager

Kevin Systrom is the co-founder of one of the most used social media platforms: Instagram. Kevin was just an ordinary kid interested in gaming and that lead him to develop several levels of the game “Doom 2”. He developed his interests in technology at an early age and started programming as a student. 

Kevin was born in Holliston, Massachusetts. He started studying at the Middlesex School in Concord and learned the basics of several programming languages. His parents Douglas Systrom and Diane supported his interests and let him pursue his dream of a tech enthusiast. His homeschooling would begin.

Christopher Michel [ CC BY 2.0 ] via Flicker

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Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom was homeschooled!

Kevin obtained a Bachelor of Science Degree in Management and Engineering from Stanford University. Following his passion, he was one of the best in his field and was selected to take part in the Mayfield Fellows Program where students get training and knowledge about high-tech entrepreneurship.
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Homeschooling 
The homeschooling journey of Kevin is not an ordinary one. Though Kevin went to school and university, he is still a self-taught programmer who pursued his dream of high-tech entrepreneurship and became the CEO of Instagram. In simple words, he gained most of his programming knowledge during childhood.
After graduating from Stanford University, he started an internship at Odeo and got to be friends with the well-known co-founder of Twitter “Jack Dorsey” who was also a self-taught programmer.  

Systrom started making prank programs as a teenager which could hack the AOL instant messengers. While working as a marketer, Systrom made his first prototype. However, Instagram was sold to Facebook after 2 years. The good news is Systrom still manages the Instagram app today – taking every possible step to make it a simple platform for its users.

Accomplishments
Though Kevin Systrom had a vast experience working for different international firms, some of his accomplishments as a high-tech entrepreneur are:

• Kevin worked for Google and helped in developing Google Calendar, Gmail, Docs, Spreadsheets and more. He remained there as a product marketer for 2 years.
• After leaving Google, Kevin joined Nextstop and he made the prototype called Burbn which was the combination of location check-ins and popular social games.
• Finally, in 2010, Systrom co-founded one of the most used photo-sharing, and then video-sharing social media platform called Instagram. Instagram had a huge success and hit 1 million users within a month.
• Moreover, Kevin was awarded “CFDA Social Media Award” in 2015.
• He was also awarded the “6th Annual Crunchies Award” and “Founder of the Year Award.  

Media 
Some media appearances of Kevin Systrom are as follows:

• Systrom was listed in the Forbes 30 in the Social/Mobile category in 2014.
• In 2016, Kevin Systrom was ranked as a billionaire with a net worth of about $1.1 billion by a magazine. This was due to his high-end accomplishments working with Facebook and Instagram.   

Currently
Kevin remained as the CEO of Instagram after selling sold to Facebook in 2012. Recently, there has been word that CTO Mike Krieger and CEO Kevin are leaving Instagram for good. Only time will tell.

Besides his professional life, Kevin loves golf, fine food, skiing, and holidays in California’s Lake Tahoe.  ​

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