Thread by @JoshConstine

Here are the funny highlights & serious takeaways from my #SXSW keynote with Instagram's Kevin Systrom & Mike Krieger techcrunch.com/2019/03/11/ins… 1/

The super hero origin stories of Instagram's founders? Kevin messing with booter programs to kick people off AOL Instant Messenger while Mikey hit "View Source" on everything. 2/

Instagram's ex-CTO recalls the "Incredi-bad" days of melting servers as the app got popular. He once revived Insta while drunk in the middle of the night and didn't remember the next day. 3/

The big surprise was Systrom saying "there being less autonomy [at Facebook] is a function of Instagram winning. It got to a size where it was meaningfully important to this company. Do you want to be unsuccessful and small and have all the autonomy in the world, or no?”

Instagram co-founder Krieger backed up 'less autonomy = winning" because companies that "succeed internally eventually have become so important to the acquiring company that it's almost irresponsible to not be thinking about what are the right models for integration." 5/

So what does Instagram's ex-CEO think of the Fb/IG/WA messaging unification? "The more people that are available to talk with, the more useful the platform becomes." But has he ever wanted to cross-message? "Personally, no." 🙄 6/

Should big tech be regulated? "There are a long list of reasons people are angry at tech right now and some of them I think are well-founded" says Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom. 7/

Systrom stops short of calling for regulation. "That doesn't mean that companies shouldn't be broken up if they get too big and they're monopolies and they cause problems, but being big in and of itself is not a crime." 8/

"The policy is 'all tech should be broken up', and that feels to me not nuanced enough and it shows me that the understanding of the problem isn't there. My fear is that a proposal to break up all tech is playing on everyone's current feeling of anti-tech." -Systrom 9/

Strangely, Systrom argued internal "competition" between Fb & Insta benefited consumers, and Krieger said Insta's acquisition spurred a goldrush of competitors. Yet none of that forced Fb to treat users better. 10/

Regulation does need nuance, but claiming Fb buying Instagram improved competition is not gonna fly with Congress. 11/

What are the Instagram founders doing next? Still searching for the next megatrend like cameras on phones. 12/

Thanks to everyone who came out to our #SXSW panel, stood in line, and hissed when I asked the room who still hates the algorithm. 🐍 🐍 🐍 13/

Here are all the 🔑 insights from the Instagram founders at #SXSW techcrunch.com/2019/03/11/ins… 14/