Snippet: Instagram’s CEO ☇

Ben Thompson:

Controlling one’s own destiny, though, takes more than product or popularity. It takes money, which is to say it takes building a company, working business model and all. That is why I mark April 9, 2012, as the day yesterday became inevitable. Letting Facebook build the business may have made Systrom and Krieger rich and freed them to focus on product, but it made Zuckerberg the true CEO, and always, inevitably, CEOs call the shots.

When I heard the news last night, I wasn’t surprised that the co-founders of Instagram, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger have stepped down. It sounds like this is a fairly common occurrence in Facebook-purchased properties, the original folks eventually leaving after some clashes and/or more Facebook people infiltrating the ranks. There have bits and pieces of Facebook’s influence creeping into Instagram already, but I worry how they’ll inevitably ruin it.