Instagram

The founder

Kevin Systrom co-founded Instagram with Mike Krieger, launching the app in October 2010. By April 2012, with just 13 employees, Instagram had become the breakout photo-sharing app, prompting Facebook to move fast to acquire it. Systrom, who owned roughly 40% of the company, personally received about $400 million in the deal. He stayed on as Instagram CEO until departing Facebook in 2018.

How it was sold

Facebook, wary of losing ground in mobile and social photo-sharing, acquired the tiny but fast-growing Instagram for $1 billion in cash and stock just two years after its launch — at the time a stunning price for a company with no revenue and a skeleton staff. Instagram has since grown into one of the world’s largest social platforms.