In 2010, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger released a photo-sharing app called Instagram, with one simple but irresistible feature; it would make anything you captured look more beautiful. The co-founders cultivated a community of photographers and artisans around the app and it quickly went mainstream. In less than two years, it caught Facebook’s attention: Mark Zuckerberg bought the company for a historic $1 billion when Instagram had only thirteen employees.
In No Filter: The Inside story of Instagram by Sarah Frier, the author draws on unprecedented access — from the founders of Instagram, as well as employees, executives and competitors; Anna Wintour of Vogue; Kris Jenner of the Kardashian-Jenner empire; and a plethora of influencers worldwide — to show how Instagram has fundamentally changed the way we show, eat, travel and communicate, all while fighting to preserve the values that contributed to the company’s success.