Mike Krieger: Co-Founder of Instagram

Michel "Mike" Krieger (born March 4, 1986) is a Brazilian-American entrepreneur and software engineer who co-founded Instagram along with Kevin Systrom. Krieger served as the CTO of Instagram from the time of its launch in 2010 until 2018.

Early Life and Education

Krieger was born in São Paulo, Brazil. He moved to California in 2004 to attend Stanford University. At Stanford, where he met Kevin Systrom, he studied symbolic systems. He graduated in 2008.

Career

Early Work

After graduation, Krieger worked at Meebo as a user experience designer and engineer.

Instagram

In 2010, Krieger teamed up with Kevin Systrom to develop Instagram. While Systrom focused on the business and product design, Krieger led the engineering efforts. He was instrumental in building the initial version of the app and scaling it to support millions of users.

Specifically, Krieger built the first version of the iOS app. He is often credited with ensuring the app remained fast and responsive even as its user base exploded.

Acquisition by Facebook

When Instagram was acquired by Facebook in 2012 for $1 billion, Krieger netted approximately $100 million. He continued to lead the engineering team at Instagram, overseeing the development of major features like Direct messaging, Stories, and the algorithmic feed.

Departure

On September 24, 2018, Krieger announced he was resigning from Instagram along with Systrom.

Philanthropy and Other Ventures

In April 2015, Krieger announced a partnership with charity evaluator GiveWell, committing US$750,000 over the next two years. The funds were for operations, with 90% allocated to grants identified and recommended by the Open Philanthropy Project.

In 2023, he and Systrom launched Artifact, a news aggregation app.