Instagram’s ex-CEO opens up about reason behind his resignation

After leaving Instagram almost a month ago, ex-CEO Kevin Systrom came forward to speak up about his sudden departure from the company, stating that ‘no one ever leaves a job because everything is awesome’.

Appearing at the Wired 25 conference on Monday, Instagram’s former CEO Kevin Systrom spoke about his resignation from the company back on September 24.

Systrom resigned along with co-founder Mike Krieger with reports suggesting the reason due to tensions with parent company Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg and disagreements about the direction of the product, reported Business Insider.

Systrom admitted that there were indeed some tensions. He said, “Nobody leaves a job because everything is awesome. Any time you leave anything, it’s sad, even if it’s your decision ... obviously, there were tensions.”

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But at the same time you can’t evolve as an individual or a person unless you make big changes in your life. And no decision is either all good- or all bad-feeling, it’s always a mix of the two, but that’s not a reason not to do it.”

Systrom continued, “To be clear, when you leave something, sometimes it’s because it’s incompatible with what you want to do, or things change or whatever, but in this case there are no hard feelings at all. I’m excited to do something new and I think Instagram’s in a really, really good place.”

Moreover, the 34-year-old ex-CEO didn’t comment on any of his future business ventures, though he said he’s using his free time to work on being dad to his newborn and also taking flying lessons. He said, “I’m 34, I think I have a few more Instagrams, time-wise, in me. I’m not sure that we’ll ever do something nearly as impactful.”

As per CNBC, Systrom clarified that he does not have any regrets about leaving the company, “If this thing triples in size and becomes like the most important company in the world, that will be an awesome outcome for me, even if I’m not running it.”

Systrom co-founded the social media platform Instagram with Krieger back in 2010, after it was acquired by social media site Facebook in 2012 for $1 billion. Following Systrom’s and Krieger’s departure after eight years, former Facebook News Feed VP Adam Mosseri was announced as Instagram’s head.