Instagram Pictures Itself Making Money
When Emily White joined Instagram from parent company Facebook Inc. in March, her first order of business was to push Chief Executive Kevin Systrom into a room.
“For the first two weeks, I locked him into a conference room and I said, ‘This is all about getting the mission on paper,'” Ms. White recalled.
Two weeks later, Mr. Systrom had boiled down the app’s mission to one lofty, if perhaps hokey, phrase: “to capture and share the world’s moments.” It was a rallying principle that Instagram could now sell to its staff, its users and, just as important, future advertisers.
As director of business operations, the 35-year-old Ms. White effectively is the new chief operating officer of Instagram, the point person charged with turning a billion-dollar acquisition that has never made a cent into a real business. Mr. Systrom, co-founder of Instagram, still makes the ultimate decisions, but it is Ms. White who is responsible for courting brand marketers and laying the foundation for advertising.
