9781422270431

States refer to him as Mike. He moved to the United States in 2004 to continue his education as a student at Stanford University. And that’s where he and Systrom met. THE STRENGTH OF STANFORD Stanford University has attracted so many young entrepreneurs because of its convenient location near Palo Alto, California, part of a larger area known as Silicon Valley, where many technological startups begin. Some of the brightest minds have studied and graduated from this well-known university, including Brian Acton, co-creator of WhatsApp, which he sold to Facebook to become a billionaire; Joseph Hardin Coulombe, founder of the grocery store chain Trader Joe’s; Doris Fisher, co-founder of the popular clothing chain store The Gap; and Reed Hastings, co-founder and CEO of Netflix; among others. Systrom’s management classes got him interested in starting his own company, and he gained valuable experience while at Stanford. He was selected to be a part of the Mayfield Fellows, a very selective program for students looking to get involved in growing technology companies. Only about a dozen students are accepted into the program, which helps those students find internships and future jobs in both small and large companies. One of the first companies Systrom interned at was Odeo, which eventually reformed after he left as a new company that went on to develop the massive messaging app Twitter. Working at Odeo gave Systrom the opportunity to meet Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who offered him a job

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