Only a few weeks ago I was waxing lyrical about Pinterest, the new kid on the social media block. And it was – for five minutes. Its popularity hasn't waned, far from it, but there is a new kid in town, and he’s already playing with the big boys…
The company is 551 days old, comprises 13 employees, doesn’t make a profit, and has just been snapped up by Facebook for the sum of $1billion and it's called Instagram. Even if you don’t have a head for figures, you can appreciate quite how impressive that is… The app is pretty simple as well – you take a photo with your camera phone, add a filter to it, and then post it online. It’s a sort of image based twitter which, I suppose, works on the basis that a picture is worth about a $1bn more than 140 characters.
Not surprisingly, the business and technology airwaves and blogospheres have been crackling with comment and opinion pertaining to the deal and posting their conclusions all over the web – but not everyone is being complimentary about the deal.
The simplicity of the app seems to be riling those in the app development field – the reaction is redolent of that which many people have towards modern art, “Yeah, but I could have done that”. Others have been claiming that the Instagram proprietors, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, have ‘sold-out’ too early on and that in the long run they’ll be left with nothing (a difficult argument to swallow when they’re divvying up a huge pile of Mark Zuckerberg’s cash). So why is the web community being quite so scathing about the phenomenal achievement of this young, entrepreneurial company?
The obvious answer (and one which is at least partially correct) is simple: jealousy. Times (as we are constantly reminded) are tough and, much as we would like to see the success of others as inspirational and worthy of praise, sometimes it’s a bitter pill to swallow. The Instagram gang had the bravery to sell when the price was right and be openly proud of their achievement. Two years of hard graft, developing and adjusting the app have paid off, and they are reaping the rewards. It should be inspiring to see evidence that hard work, an entrepreneurial spirit, and some good old-fashion gumption can get you somewhere these days.
If these catty bloggers aren’t jealous of the success, then perhaps they simply resent that the new kid is getting all the attention. We live in an age of start-ups and small acorns – the opportunities which modern technology, innovation and development present a young business with are numerous and varied and the path to success isn’t as long as it was previously. That said, it’s no less difficult to traverse. The public nature of the success or failure of start-ups means that certain ‘old hands’ think that they’re fair game and have a tendency to take pop-shots at them.
Whether it’s for the purposes of self-aggrandizement, or playground-bully satisfaction, the level of back-biting and sniping at which some business analysts operate is sickening. There is enough negativity eddying around at the moment, and frankly there should be far less.
Instead of listening to the nay-sayers, the declarations of “it’ll never work” and the constant hum of “oooh, you don’t want to do that…”, how about supporting each other? Business is a highly competitive world, particularly the realm of small business, but there’s no need for it to be juvenile or mean. You never know, the one you decide to ‘poo-poo’ might be of great use to you in the future – the people you trample on what you believe is your way to the top may well ignore you at a later date should you cross their path.
Aim for the sky – absolutely - but remember that a can-do, supportive attitude will get you a long way as well. It might gall you, but take the time to acknowledge your competitors’ success and, instead of being bitter, use that success to inspire and light a fire under your own projects.
Soon enough, you could be the ones worthy of applause…
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