Most people feel that entrepreneurship is about finding solutions to problems, but Instagram founder Kevin Systrom turns that problem on its head.
Systrom, who co-founded Instagram in 2010 and sold it to Facebook for $1 billion just two years later, offers a counterintuitive perspective that challenges the conventional wisdom about startup success. His insight cuts to the heart of what separates successful entrepreneurs from those who struggle to gain traction: the ability to identify the right problem worth solving, rather than falling in love with clever solutions in search of problems.
“The hard part is actually finding the problem to solve,” Systrom explains. “Solutions actually come pretty easily for the majority of problems. When we sat down and we were deciding to work on Instagram, what we did was we wrote down the top five problems people have with mobile photos.”
This methodical approach to problem identification became the foundation of Instagram’s explosive growth. Rather than starting with a technological innovation or a complex business model, Systrom and his co-founder Mike Krieger focused on understanding user pain points in the emerging world of mobile photography. The problems they identified were deceptively simple: photos looked bad on mobile devices, sharing was cumbersome, and the process lacked the social engagement that people craved.
Systrom’s philosophy extends beyond problem identification to solution design. “Really, you should not be afraid to have simple solutions to simple problems,” he continues. “Too many people believe you have to solve things in a really complicated way, and at the end of the day, if you delight people even a little bit with a simple solution, it turns out it goes very far.”
The validation came quickly and decisively. “That first day when we had something like 20,000 new users, I was like, clearly there was a need for this that hadn’t been done before. And I’m so glad we tackled those simple problems,” Systrom recalls. This immediate user response confirmed that Instagram had successfully identified and addressed genuine user needs rather than creating a solution in search of a problem.
Perhaps most tellingly, Systrom addresses the psychological trap that many technologists fall into: “In the tech community, you always want to feel like you’re working on the hardest problem in the world. It turns out that simple problem becomes very hard at scale, and that’s what’s really exciting.”
Systrom’s insights reflect a broader trend in successful tech entrepreneurship that has only become more pronounced since Instagram’s launch. Companies like Uber identified the simple problem of hailing a taxi, Airbnb tackled the basic need for affordable accommodation, and TikTok addressed the desire for easily consumable entertainment. Each of these billion-dollar companies started with remarkably straightforward problem statements before evolving into complex technical and operational challenges.
This problem-first approach stands in stark contrast to the technology-first mindset that drives many failed startups. The graveyard of failed ventures is littered with sophisticated solutions that never found their market fit because they began with impressive technology rather than pressing human needs. Systrom’s framework offers a valuable reminder that in the age of artificial intelligence and complex algorithms, the most valuable skill for entrepreneurs remains the fundamentally human ability to identify what people actually need—and the discipline to start there.